A Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Watchdog report finds racial bias in traffic stop data for Milwaukee and Dane counties and some issues with the State Patrol.
As a timely follow-on to my erroneous Kristmas with the Klan post comes this report from the Journal-Sentinel revealing the role that race still plays in the law enforcement community. The study reviews traffic stop data from three sources: The Milwaukee County Sheriff, The Dane County Sheriff and the Wisconsin State Patrol. The results are not encouraging. (The methodology is available here)
[Milwaukee County Sheriff] The data shows Hispanic drivers were searched at the highest rate of racial and ethnic groups: 10.2%. That compared with 8.6% for black drivers and 4.2% for whites.
But deputies found contraband items such as weapons or drugs at a lower rate in searches involving Hispanic drivers – 8% – compared with 17% for blacks and 11% for whites.
In the words of Sala from Raiders of the Lost Ark, “They’re digging in the wrong place!” This is what prejudice does, you pre-judge people and it causes you to make errors in judgement. In this case, you assume that Hispanics are more likely to be criminals so you stop and search more Hispanics. Meanwhile, white drivers go by, their cars full of contraband. Sheriff Clarke defended his department, questioning the manner in which the data were collected and analyzed, but the fact that the same sorts of prejudice were found in other law enforcement agencies in the state leads me to dismiss his criticism as a defensive reaction by a man under pressure to reform his department.
These same erros in judgement were on display in Dane County as well, though the target was African Americans.
[Dane County Sheriff] The data shows that black drivers were most likely to have their person or vehicles searched.
Once stopped, black drivers (5.8%) were searched more often than Hispanics (3.6%) and whites (1.6%). However, sheriff’s deputies found contraband at lower rates for black (40%) and Hispanic drivers (27%) than white drivers (42%).
The Wisconsin State Patrol fared a little better than the local sheriffs departments.
[Wisconsin State Patrol] A review of the patrol’s records shows little disparity among the stop rates for Asian, black, Hispanic and white drivers.
However, American Indian drivers were twice as likely to be stopped as any other racial or ethnic group. Once pulled over, black drivers (3.2%) were the most likely to be searched, followed by American Indian drivers (2.4%), but troopers found contraband in black motorists’ vehicles at a lower rate than white and American Indian drivers.
I expect the “stop rates” are similar because the majority of State Patrol stops occur on the highways where cars drive by too fast to allow racial bias to take effect (the officer cannot identify the race of the driver so cannot use that as a factor in the decision to stop the car). But once the car is stopped, the bias is reasserted in the officer’s judgement.
Structural racism is pernicious and permeates American law-enforcement culture. Indeed, it permeates our whole culture. We are not the people we tell ourselves we are. There is no equal opportunity in this country. It’s a lie. We are constantly judging one another with biases and prejudices based on nothing more than skin color and ethnicity. How is this possible? It happens because we deny that it happens. Denial is a powerful force in an individual, at the societal level it’s positively pathological.
A recent study by Harvard Ph.D. candidate Seth Stephens-Davidowitz found that racial animus cost President Obama 3 – 5 points in the 2008 election and, had the election been closer, would have been a decisive factor.
If the whole country held the same views as the most racially tolerant communities, the researcher found, Mr. Obama would have earned between 56.7% and 58.7% of the popular vote, compared with the 53.7% he won in 2008.
Racial bias manifested itself in two ways in terms of turnout: Some Democrats stayed home rather than vote for Mr. Obama and a similar number of Americans (who wouldn’t have voted otherwise) turned out for Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, according to the paper.
Tim Wise has devoted his life to exposing the institutional racism in America. His words are frightening.
What happened to Dr. King’s dream of a nation that judges men for who they are not what they look like?
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
In Wisconsin, you can dream, but don’t get caught DWB (Driving While Black) or DWH (Driving While Hispanic).
We still have a long way to go, Wisconsin.
Recent Comments