Debunking Obama’s “Persistent Racial Disparities” in Criminal Justice myth

By Michael P. Tremoglie

The left makes the argument - ad nauseum- that blacks are arrested, killed by police, etc in percentages that are higher than their percentages in the general American population. Indeed, even President Barack Obama said through a spokesperson that there are “persistent racial disparities” in the criminal justice system. But, as we shall see, some “persistent racial disparities” are more equal than others according to liberals and their Leftist leaders.

The Left - including liberal Democrats - make many fallacious statements. They are famous for their sophistries. But their sophistry of racial-disparity-proving-racism-in-the-criminal-justice-system is the most menacing.

Why? Because it is used as an excuse to be lenient for criminal behavior or it is used to claim all police are racist for acts that have no racism at all. This then leads to more crime and the people affected most by crime are the very same black communities they deceitfully claim to want to help.

Let us take the most recent controversy that begins with the killings by white police officers in Lousiana and Minnesota  on July 5 and July 6.Immediately, the media template is “white” police officers kill unarmed “black” men. But these headlines were wrong on two counts:1- One of the police officers was Hispanic and 2-Both men were armed.

The media replayed these incidents repeatedly on the news. But two weeks earlier the video of an unarmed white male shot and killed by police made barely a ripple in the news. So we know a large part of the racial disparity fallacy is propagated by newsroom editors who see nothing significant about unarmed whites being killed by police. Because of this the reportage of police shootings is racially skewed.

So Fact One that Debunks the Criminal Justice Racial Disparity Proves Racism Myth is the skewing of police shootings by the media.

Fact Two - The Washington Post, Fox News, and other media reported that blacks are more likely to be killed by police than whites. But they omit the statistics that blacks are more likely to kill police officers than whites. Why does the media, “civil libertarians,” and some academicians ignore some “persistent racial disparities” and not others?

Fact Three - According to my own research (not only am I a former police officer, I have a Master of Science degree in Criminal Justice) but according to one of the most preeminent criminology statisticians in the world, and according to a former director of the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and according to a former acting director of BJS, as well as other criminologists, the comparison of the percentage of blacks killed by police to blacks in the general population is specious. The more appropriate comparison is to compare with the percentage of blacks involved in crimes. Because otherwise it is like saying boys hit more home runs than girls.

Fact Four - Leftists/liberals will say blacks are arrested in disparately higher percentages because of racism. This is the case President Obama makes. But the fact is - which also omittted by the media and the Left - blacks comprise a disparately higher percentage of crime victims!!!

Fact Five -There are - to use President Obama’s words - “persistent racial disparities” in professional sports and in the entertainment industry. Is this a function of racism? Of course it is not.

So there you have it, five facts that debunk the Leftist/liberal argument that racial disparities are proof of racism - to reiterate:

There are “persistent racial disparities” - to use Pres. Obama’s term - of blacks:

Who kill police officers
Who are victims or crime,
Who are included in the media reportage of police shootings,
Who are included in the erroneous statistical conclusions made by untrained ignorant journalists
Who are in professional sports and the entertainment industry because it disproves the racism = racial disparity argument.

Please share with me your thoughts.

Mike