New Yorkers are divided by race on performance of the Police Department (67 percent of whites positive, 76 percent of blacks negative) A majority said minorities are not treated fairly by the criminal justice system, most think police officers are treated too leniently. 2/3rds feel that the officer who choked Garner should have been indicted.
Hi dailykos folks. These numbers are giving me cognitive dissonance perhaps some of you can explain. How can one recognize "yes our criminal justice system is unfair" then move on to say "but, I approve of what the cops are doing?"
Are these people saying that they approve of the system being racist? They want it that way? Given the fact that NYC is 44% white, 25% black there may not be very much overlap. It may just be that the 2/3s of people who disagree with the indictment includes very few white people, but even with that assumption there is still an overlap.
Of the 66 percent who did not agree with the grand jury:
25*.76 = 19 points come from black people who do not approve of the cops.
44*(1-.67) = 14.5 points come from white people who do not approve.
That's 33.5 percent, but we need to get to 66 to match people who do not approve of cops only with those who do not agree with the grand jury. So, if the remaining 31% of New Yorkers who are Asian and other races all did not approve of the cops at 100% there would still be 1.5% of the 2/3rds who did not agree with the verdict unaccounted for.
The idea that Asian and other races would have a higher disapproval rating for cops than black people is unlikely. Suppose it is the same as for black people. (this would be an overestimate no doubt but just to make the point.) Now we'd have 9% unaccounted for. Who are these people?
I guess the lesson is that the outrage over the grand jury is a long way from recognizing systemic racism. And that's not surprising.
There are people who say "It's so awful all of this suffering!" then they do nothing to stop the suffering. It basically lets them feel good about themselves and look good without contributing. Now the problem is easier to ignore.
I already know that my dignity and humanity is conditional. Now I can see that black suffering can also be a prop for feel-good outrage.