I'm not sure why I found that so frustrating, I think it was the police saying how they were trying really hard not to discriminate. When so obviously they are when they stop 20x the number of...
I'm not sure why I found that so frustrating, I think it was the police saying how they were trying really hard not to discriminate. When so obviously they are when they stop 20x the number of black men as white men.
I'd be curious at the rate they actually find knives divided by race, which I didn't see listed. Because the whole thing makes me think of officers pulling over black men in the US far more frequently (looking for drugs under whatever pretense) but finding illegal drugs at the same rate among black and white men. Thus providing their "instincts" come with implicit bias.
The government publishes extensive data (credit where it’s due for transparency, although not for the underlying reality the data appears to show). From a relatively brief glance, it looks like...
The government publishes extensive data (credit where it’s due for transparency, although not for the underlying reality the data appears to show).
From a relatively brief glance, it looks like the situation is very similar to what you suggest. Rates of arrest after a search are fairly similar across demographic groups (somewhere in the 12-14% range across the board) but the rate of searches being conducted is very, very significantly higher for black people - somewhere in the region of 4x-5x that of white people.
There are notes in the document about the data being heavily skewed by search hotspots, making it difficult to meaningfully apply population-level statistics, but I’d be very surprised if that were able to explain such a large disparity. Apart from anything else, it just loops back to the question: how much did police bias play a part in those specific areas becoming search hotspots in the first place?
Yeah I don't feel qualified to expertly parse it. But it's so consistent that police use their "judgement" to decide who looks suspicious and then human perception being what it is, they're...
Yeah I don't feel qualified to expertly parse it. But it's so consistent that police use their "judgement" to decide who looks suspicious and then human perception being what it is, they're validated just enough to keep going.
And no one seems to actually want to deal with that.
Gut feelings can effectively camouflage bias. For this reason people making hiring decisions should try to articulate why they want to reject someone, especially if it's based on the idea that...
Gut feelings can effectively camouflage bias. For this reason people making hiring decisions should try to articulate why they want to reject someone, especially if it's based on the idea that they won't fit in
I have had to argue with folks about "fit" and what exactly they mean, especially when staff are hiring student employees. But I've been trying to make sure I'm thinking about it in hiring my...
I have had to argue with folks about "fit" and what exactly they mean, especially when staff are hiring student employees. But I've been trying to make sure I'm thinking about it in hiring my staff as well. We're never gonna be perfect but we can be intentionally trying to be better.
The article (archive) is by David Woode, a crime correspondent for The Times (of London), which I thought was interesting for a UK perspective. The police often looking for knives:
The article (archive) is by David Woode, a crime correspondent for The Times (of London), which I thought was interesting for a UK perspective.
There are more stories like this.
Twenty-nine at least. Walking home, waiting for a train, buying clothes. They’ve all been moments that have led police to suspect me of burglary, knife possession and shoplifting. It’s worth stating that I’ve never been arrested and I don’t have a criminal record, but since the age of 16 I’ve been body-searched by police a dozen times — each incident as uncomfortable and humiliating as the last.
For a long time I was embarrassed by these encounters. I never understood what purpose they served. From where I was standing, it felt as though officers just enjoyed wielding their powers and talking down to me. I was clueless about stop and search. My parents came to Britain from Ghana in the Sixties and Seventies and settled in Hampshire, so I never felt the “transgenerational trauma” many describe when talking about their families’ experiences with the police. We were more or less oblivious to them and the four of us existed in our unit. Looking back, I am extremely grateful for that.
The police often looking for knives:
Street crime, youth violence and access to firearms and “zombie knives” have been connecting themes in many of the stories I’ve covered. I’ve stood at police cordons and watched forensic investigators comb a crime scene for clues on how a teenager met a brutal death. I’ve listened to mothers describe their young sons in the past tense. I’ve sat in Court No 1 at the Old Bailey and watched baby-faced teenagers peer around the raised glass-fronted dock after being arraigned on murder charges. And the thing is, stop and search underpins many of these stories.
ZOMBIE KNIVES TYPICALLY HAVE ONE SMOOTH BLADE AND ONE SERRATED EDGE, some with multiple sharp points. Typically they feature an image or text, such as “Predator” or “Head Splitter”, designed to make it look menacing. A Times investigation conducted this year found these weapons being marketed to teenagers on social media with QR codes linking prospective buyers to encrypted chat groups where they sold for as little as £30. (The videos were quickly removed after inquiries were made.)
I know the article is focused on the US, but for the US, I found Amber Ruffin's stories compelling, as well as What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker by Damon Young and Shouting' in the Fire by...
I know the article is focused on the US, but for the US, I found Amber Ruffin's stories compelling, as well as What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker by Damon Young and Shouting' in the Fire by Dante Stewart. In all these stories, as well as my conversations with my Black friends, the overarching theme is "Every time we get in the car, we know today might be the day we get stopped and shot by the police." This was something I (as a white male) was pretty oblivious to until a few years ago. But it's awful, it seems to be pervasive, and I wish here were a way to stop it.
His perspective on stop and search is really level-headed, especially when contrasted by the racist uses of it he experienced all his life. But he doesn't showcase any of the solutions the UK is...
His perspective on stop and search is really level-headed, especially when contrasted by the racist uses of it he experienced all his life. But he doesn't showcase any of the solutions the UK is working on... are there any or is the knives vs. cops problem a political impasse like guns vs. cops in the US?
Disclaimer: from the US so not sure if my comments are super relevant but I'd love to be corrected if they aren't. I'd be really surprised if knives are as big of a problem as guns are in the US....
Disclaimer: from the US so not sure if my comments are super relevant but I'd love to be corrected if they aren't.
I'd be really surprised if knives are as big of a problem as guns are in the US. One thing I learned from other travellers recently is that travel insurance goes up significantly when your destination is the US, and it's not like many of the people I meet while travelling want to go to the US anyways. Mostly anecdotal evidence of course, but as one of my travelling buddies put it, "you can get away from a knife much easier than a gun"
Does that have anything to do with guns? I would imagine insurance rates going up has much more to do with healthcare prices going up. Especially given that the number of foreigners who get shot...
Does that have anything to do with guns? I would imagine insurance rates going up has much more to do with healthcare prices going up. Especially given that the number of foreigners who get shot each year is a rounding error compared to the number of visitors.
Diagnostic tests and surgical procedures are expensive in US and Canada, even compared to European countries. Therefore, buying a travel insurance plan from India to such places will cost a lot more. In addition, unlike many European countries where the government regulates drug prices, the US sees little regulation.
That makes sense! Yeah mostly just a thought I must have mixed in with the other commentary I've heard from other travellers (that being that people I talk to are still definitely afraid of...
That makes sense! Yeah mostly just a thought I must have mixed in with the other commentary I've heard from other travellers (that being that people I talk to are still definitely afraid of randomly getting shot in America. Not exactly a completely rational thought process but kinda understandable lol)
When online friends ask about visiting the US for the first time and have questions about crime, I explain that while crime/armed robbery in particular happens, the likelihood of it happening to...
When online friends ask about visiting the US for the first time and have questions about crime, I explain that while crime/armed robbery in particular happens, the likelihood of it happening to them is low and recommend general "walking alone in a city" safety advice. But they understandably don't have the cultural context to know how to interpret the risks. I don't think it's irrational at all.
Honestly I think it's a bit inherent to Americans as well, even though we might not know it. I've done a lot of travelling this year (literally right now in a Spa in Busan) and every time I leave...
Honestly I think it's a bit inherent to Americans as well, even though we might not know it. I've done a lot of travelling this year (literally right now in a Spa in Busan) and every time I leave the US I feel as if a weight lifts from my shoulders. It might be attributed to me being in vacation but when I take vacations in the US they're generally not as chill for me at least lol.
I can't speak to the experience of POC, and I haven't traveled abroad as much as an adult, but I have similar vacation vibes wherever I am, and not a lot of difference in how I feel being in a...
I can't speak to the experience of POC, and I haven't traveled abroad as much as an adult, but I have similar vacation vibes wherever I am, and not a lot of difference in how I feel being in a different country. So your mileage may vary
I'm not sure why I found that so frustrating, I think it was the police saying how they were trying really hard not to discriminate. When so obviously they are when they stop 20x the number of black men as white men.
I'd be curious at the rate they actually find knives divided by race, which I didn't see listed. Because the whole thing makes me think of officers pulling over black men in the US far more frequently (looking for drugs under whatever pretense) but finding illegal drugs at the same rate among black and white men. Thus providing their "instincts" come with implicit bias.
The government publishes extensive data (credit where it’s due for transparency, although not for the underlying reality the data appears to show).
From a relatively brief glance, it looks like the situation is very similar to what you suggest. Rates of arrest after a search are fairly similar across demographic groups (somewhere in the 12-14% range across the board) but the rate of searches being conducted is very, very significantly higher for black people - somewhere in the region of 4x-5x that of white people.
There are notes in the document about the data being heavily skewed by search hotspots, making it difficult to meaningfully apply population-level statistics, but I’d be very surprised if that were able to explain such a large disparity. Apart from anything else, it just loops back to the question: how much did police bias play a part in those specific areas becoming search hotspots in the first place?
Yeah I don't feel qualified to expertly parse it. But it's so consistent that police use their "judgement" to decide who looks suspicious and then human perception being what it is, they're validated just enough to keep going.
And no one seems to actually want to deal with that.
Gut feelings can effectively camouflage bias. For this reason people making hiring decisions should try to articulate why they want to reject someone, especially if it's based on the idea that they won't fit in
I have had to argue with folks about "fit" and what exactly they mean, especially when staff are hiring student employees. But I've been trying to make sure I'm thinking about it in hiring my staff as well. We're never gonna be perfect but we can be intentionally trying to be better.
The article (archive) is by David Woode, a crime correspondent for The Times (of London), which I thought was interesting for a UK perspective.
The police often looking for knives:
I know the article is focused on the US, but for the US, I found Amber Ruffin's stories compelling, as well as What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker by Damon Young and Shouting' in the Fire by Dante Stewart. In all these stories, as well as my conversations with my Black friends, the overarching theme is "Every time we get in the car, we know today might be the day we get stopped and shot by the police." This was something I (as a white male) was pretty oblivious to until a few years ago. But it's awful, it seems to be pervasive, and I wish here were a way to stop it.
His perspective on stop and search is really level-headed, especially when contrasted by the racist uses of it he experienced all his life. But he doesn't showcase any of the solutions the UK is working on... are there any or is the knives vs. cops problem a political impasse like guns vs. cops in the US?
Disclaimer: from the US so not sure if my comments are super relevant but I'd love to be corrected if they aren't.
I'd be really surprised if knives are as big of a problem as guns are in the US. One thing I learned from other travellers recently is that travel insurance goes up significantly when your destination is the US, and it's not like many of the people I meet while travelling want to go to the US anyways. Mostly anecdotal evidence of course, but as one of my travelling buddies put it, "you can get away from a knife much easier than a gun"
Does that have anything to do with guns? I would imagine insurance rates going up has much more to do with healthcare prices going up. Especially given that the number of foreigners who get shot each year is a rounding error compared to the number of visitors.
https://www.hdfcergo.com/blogs/travel-insurance/why-usa-and-canada-travel-insurance-is-costlier
That makes sense! Yeah mostly just a thought I must have mixed in with the other commentary I've heard from other travellers (that being that people I talk to are still definitely afraid of randomly getting shot in America. Not exactly a completely rational thought process but kinda understandable lol)
When online friends ask about visiting the US for the first time and have questions about crime, I explain that while crime/armed robbery in particular happens, the likelihood of it happening to them is low and recommend general "walking alone in a city" safety advice. But they understandably don't have the cultural context to know how to interpret the risks. I don't think it's irrational at all.
Honestly I think it's a bit inherent to Americans as well, even though we might not know it. I've done a lot of travelling this year (literally right now in a Spa in Busan) and every time I leave the US I feel as if a weight lifts from my shoulders. It might be attributed to me being in vacation but when I take vacations in the US they're generally not as chill for me at least lol.
I can't speak to the experience of POC, and I haven't traveled abroad as much as an adult, but I have similar vacation vibes wherever I am, and not a lot of difference in how I feel being in a different country. So your mileage may vary