The 'Disparate Impact' Racket
Editorial Cartoon by Gary McCoy (via orig article) |
It says in plain English what facts have been established by an autopsy on Michael Brown's body — by three different pathologists, including one representing the family of Michael Brown — by DNA examination of officer Darren Wilson's gun and police vehicle, by examination of the pattern of blood stains on the street where Brown died and by a medical report on officer Wilson, from the hospital where he went for treatment.
The bottom line is that all this hard evidence, and more, show what a complete lie was behind all the stories of Michael Brown being shot in the back or being shot while raising his hands in surrender. Yet that lie was repeated, and dramatized in demonstrations and riots from coast to coast, as well as in the media and even in the halls of Congress.
The other Justice Department report, issued the same day — "Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department" — was a complete contrast. Sweeping assumptions take the place of facts, and misleading statistics are thrown around recklessly. This second report is worth reading, just to get a sense of the contrast with the first.
According to the second report, law enforcement in Ferguson has a "disparate impact" on blacks and is "motivated" by "discriminatory intent."
"Disparate impact" statistics have for decades been used, in many different contexts, to claim that discrimination was the reason why different groups are not equally represented as employees or in desirable positions or — as in this case — in undesirable positions as people arrested or fined.
Like many other uses of "disparate impact" statistics, the Justice Department's evidence against the Ferguson police department consists of numbers showing that the percentage of people stopped by police or fined in court is larger than the percentage of blacks in the local population.
The implicit assumption is that such statistics about particular outcomes would normally reflect the percentage of people in the population. But, no matter how plausible this might seem on the surface, it is seldom found in real life, and those who use that standard are seldom, if ever, asked to produce hard evidence that it is factually correct, as distinct from politically correct.
Blacks are far more statistically "over-represented" among basketball stars in the NBA than among people stopped by police in Ferguson. Hispanics are similarly far more "over-represented" among baseball stars than in the general population. Asian Americans are likewise far more "over-represented" among students at leading engineering schools like M.I.T. and Cal Tech than in the population as a whole.
None of this is peculiar to the United States. You can find innumerable examples of such group disparities in countries around the world and throughout recorded history.
In 1802, for example, czarist Russia established a university in Estonia. For most of the 19th century, members of one ethnic group provided more of the students — and a majority of the professors — than any other. This was neither the local majority (Estonians) nor the national majority (Russians), but Germans.
An international study of the ethnic makeup of military forces around the world found that "militaries fall far short of mirroring, even roughly, the multi-ethnic societies" from which they come.
Even with things whose outcomes are not in human hands, "disparate impact" is common. Men are struck by lightning several times as often as women. Most of the tornadoes in the entire world occur in the middle of the United States.
Since the population of Ferguson is 67 percent black, the greatest possible "over-representation" of blacks among those stopped by police or fined by courts is 50 percent. That would not make the top 100 disparities in the United States or the top 1,000 in the world.
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Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social commentator, and author of dozens of books. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago and degrees from Columbia University and Harvard University. He is a retired professor of Economic and presently is a Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Visit his website and view list of other articles.
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8 Comments:
Excellent Cartoon Gary McCoy.
Thanks, Margot.
Check out sowells writings/lectures. I've been reading his race & culture book lately It's very clear/introspective libertarian viewpoints.
Gee, if there was only some other indicator to show that blacks in Ferguson were targeted. It's not like racist images and "humor" were shared on official email to show underlying prejudice. Yeah, there was nothing like that going on in Ferguson.
While there were some racist emails, that in and of itself does not make the case that there was an over all problem of racial prejudice in Ferguson. Even despite the "flawless" ruling of our infallible "Fast and Furious" Justice Dept.. I live thirty minutes from Ferguson. It lies in the midst of MANY surrounding municipalities whose citizens travel through Ferguson everyday, and bring certain potential offenders through its borders. This fact alone discredits the Justice Department's findings. It's more nuanced that the mere racial make-up of those ticketed, or some racist emails.
Jim Beran, You are right about Dr. Sowell's articles. He is one of my favorite writers. I share his articles regularly on this site, the ARRA News Service, which also run on the identified FB page.
For everyone, Appreciate the comments.
Gary, with precious little proof,you and many others have no problem believing that there was a plot directed by the Whitehouse to target right wing groups seeking tax exemptions. But even though there's both evidence of systemic targeting and individual prejudice among police personnel, you claim that there's "nuance." Sorry Gary, those emails are proof that blatant racism was tolerated in Ferguson's police dept.
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