Police Shootings: Racism and Statistics

"Today I called the police," a White woman posted on social media.  "I wanted to let them know that I feel that too much killing is going on, esp when it comes to black men like 32-year-old Anthony McClain, father of 2, , who was shot and killed by Pasadena Police.  I reached Lt. A.  What ensued was a big discussion telling me that I had no reason to be concerned, that the traffic stop that killed him was an investigation into criminal activity.   Lt. A  feels that his profession is being unfairly maligned. He told me to go look up the records reported by the Washington Post  about shootings in all jurisdictions all over the U.S. According to what he claims the WAPO reports, officers shoot more white suspects than anyone else."

1.  How important do you think statistics are to the #BlackLivesMatter discussion?  Explain.

2.   The following table shows the numbers of people killed by police in the US from January 1, 2015 through August 20, 2020 (the date data were accessed from the Washington Post site):

Question 2:  Based on this information, comment on Lt. A's feeling that police are being maligned as "racist."

Hint:  Police killed more White people than any other group.  However, there are more White people in the US.  We should take into account the total numbers of people in the US in each group.  Let's add a column to the table:

Question 3:  How can you use the additional data to respond to Lt. A?

Hint:  When you study the Chi-Squared Goodness of Fit hypothesis test later in this course, you will be able to use that.  For now, just calculate the number of killings per million people in each racial/ethnic group.  That will show that Black and Hispanic people are killed by police at disproportionate rates.  

Question 4:  The "race/ethnicity" of the victim is not the only variable in the WaPo database.  List at least five other variables relating to the event that might be important in understanding police shootings.  Identify each as quantitative (numerical) or qualitative (categorical).  You might want to look at the website.

The White woman who spoke with Lt. A concluded that "the police seem to work for themselves, doing what they have always done, and doing what they think is right. People calling with opinions that might not align with their own would do better keeping silent. I'd just like to say that I hope I don't have to interact with the police ever. His tone reminded me that it's not totally clear to me that I still live in a democracy." 

Now post in Discussion:  Police Shootings