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July 31, 2024 - 5:30pm
The details of the Sonya Massey case are disturbing. After all, it was Massey, a 36-year-old African American, who had called the police because she was concerned about an intruder in her home. There was no evidence of such a threat. Instead, one of the officers became agitated over a pot of boiling water Massey was holding in her hand. For reasons that seem impossible to justify, the officer fired three shots, killing her.
As upsetting as this outcome is, it was frustrating to listen to NPR’s framing of this incident as yet another example of a “systemic” problem of “unarmed black people being brutalised by white law enforcement officers”. As a professor of criminology in the United States, I know a thing or two about police shootings, and it is misleading to describe this issue in such inflammatory terms.
The Washington Post maintains a database recording all lethal police shootings of civilians in the United States since 2015. By the end of 2023, this source included information about 9,254 incidents. In 94% of those cases, the victim had a weapon. About half of the unarmed civilians killed by the police were in the process of fleeing. Of course, fleeing the scene does not justify shooting, but it is worth noting how rare it is for the police in the United States to use lethal force in a situation that resembles the circumstances of Massey’s death. That scenario describes about 3% of the cases, at most.
What about race and gender? Massey was a black woman. Between 2015-2023, the police shot and killed a total of eight unarmed black women. In other words, this demographic represents less than 0.1% of the civilian victims of lethal police shootings. So why did critical race theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw post on social media yesterday that “black women make up less than 10% of the population, yet when it comes to killings by police, we make up a 3rd [33%] of them, with the majority unarmed”?
A renowned scholar with tenured faculty appointments in not one but two prestigious law schools should not be making such misleading statements about race and gender in public. Yet the reason she may be able to get away with it is because she resides in an environment that has made it taboo to question even the most outlandish claims about racial disparities.
In the name of “antiracism”, this culture has elevated such intellectual “lightweights” as Dr Ibram X. Kendi into positions of power and influence. Kendi is famous for stating that any social outcome which lacks parity across racialised groups (such as the National Basketball Association?) amounts to direct evidence of racism, and that “the only cure for past discrimination is present discrimination.” Insights like these were recognised with a “Genius Grant” by the MacArthur Foundation and $50,000,000 in donations to establish a Center for Antiracist Research that has failed to produce any research.
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SubscribeJust another example of the relentless gaslighting. I enjoyed this rant on the subject yesterday.
https://open.substack.com/pub/lowstatus/p/unburdened-by-what-has-been?r=1fl6hp&utm_medium=ios
I think the beginning of the Great Gaslight was around June 1, 2020 when approximately 1300 “Public Health Experts” wrote an open letter excusing “Justice Protesters” from Covid Stay at Home Orders.
Yes – this was when I realised something was off, too.
The real tragedy is that the American left’s ridiculous posture on the issue, seeing it only through a racial lens and calling for defunding the police has blocked the kind of real reform that would have kept the trigger-happy idiot who killed Sonya Massey off the force.
It is now about 30 years ago that I had a conversation with a sociology PhD student at Harvard (don’t worry, I was just at a party thrown by my friend who studied there) about some heinous crime that had been committed, as is became known by word of mouth, by a black man but it was not in the news.
I asked him why, what’s the point? (this is the tzantzafied version, we actually had a heated argument).
He said “The point is the we can’t give ammunition to the other side”
Later, having read Thomas Sowell, I realized that the “we” in whose name he was talking was the “Anointed”.
Thanks to Savolainen for bringing evidence and expertise to bear. NPR’s irresponsible framing of this story is emblematic of too many journalists and activists who keep pushing the systemic racism narrative regardless of evidence,
Massey’s own family confirms her diagnosis with paranoid schizophrenia. After a calm conversation, she approached these deputies with a pot of scalding water, twice saying “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” and lifting the pot after both men told her to drop it.
Did she deserve to be shot? Absolutely not. Should the deputy who killed her have responded with better judgment to her surprising and potentially dangerous behavior? Absolutely. He screwed up, lethally, with a person who was mentally ill.
But where’s the indication that this had anything to do with race? And how would media coverage — and prosecution of Sean Grayson — change had Massey been white? The predictable knee-jerk fixation on supposed racism obscures what this tragic situation illuminates: the need for rigorous officer training when encountering mentally ill individuals.
We all know what happens next: Grayson goes to prison for a very long time. Massey’s family collects a huge civil settlement. And BLM notches another entry in the ledger of supposed racist policing.
While I know nothing about the Massey case and broadly agree with the article it has one significant failing. As any sensible person, and certainly every police officer, should know almost anything can be a weapon – a pencil, a bottle and certainly a pot of boiling water. Therefore Massey was not unarmed. Maybe we need a different word to describe not having a ‘pure’ weapon.
Knowing nothing about the incident about Sonya Massey cold blooded murder is not stopping you from commenting on the subject eh Casper? The fact it was the cop told her to go take the pot of boiling water of the stove then shot her when took it of the stove to place it on the counter does not stop you from putting your racist spin on what transpired. Go watch the Video and educate yourself fool. Not even White SUPREMACIST propagandist spinmeister could explain this cold blood execution yet he finds a way to attack Black victims of White supremacist police violence. Like white SUPREMACIST Degenerate Winston Churchill opined ” There is Lies Dam Lies and then there is White man’s Statistics “
I have watched the video. The police officer’s actions are inexplicable – and of course tragic. However, the statistics you inexplicably refuse to acknowledge show this incident was not typical of police behaviour towards black civilians.
BTW, the quote about “Lies, damn lies …” etc is from Mark Twain, not Churchill. Educate yourself, fool!
I believe the only reason this incident, tragic as it is, is getting the traction it has is because the officer was white and the victim black. She was paranoid schizophrenic and threatening the officer with a pop of boiling water. He should not have shot her as there were other means to de-escalate the situation. Having said that, does anyone think this incident would have made even the local press had the cop been black and the victim white, or both parties white?
Its always about the narrative.
“A renowned scholar with tenured faculty appointments in not one but two prestigious law schools should not be making such misleading statements about race and gender in public.”
Let’s turn that around. Maybe someone making such misleading statements about race and gender in public shouldn’t even BE a renowned scholar.
Why did the authors of the PNAS study retract their findings? Academics and others can’t expect to win their battles if they are not willing to fight them.
Bravo