>At 04:46 PM 4/12/01 -0400, yoshie wrote:
>>1. Gun ownership can't explain racial profiling and police
>>brutality, unless perhaps you are arguing that blacks are more likely
>>to own guns than whites & that therefore cops fear blacks more than
> >whites, but there is no evidence for this argument.
>
>Blacks are significantly more likely (7 times as likely to be exact) as
>whites to commit homicide. They are also more likely (6x) than whites to
>be a victims of homicide; see: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/htius.pdf
>pages 40-41.
>
>That supports my argument.
From "Homicide Trends in the United States": "The homicide rate doubled from the mid 1960's to the late 1970's. In 1980, it peaked at 10.2 per 100,000 population and subsequently fell off to 7.9 per 100,000 in 1985. It rose again in the late 1980's and early 1990's to another peak in 1991 of 9.8 per 100,000. Since then, the rate has declined sharply, reaching 5.7 per 100,000 by 1999" (at <http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/htius.pdf>). Homicide trends closely match economic trends, but the war on crimes has steadily grown to a massive size regardless of ups and downs of homicide trends, and that's because little of the war on crimes has to do with chasing down those who committed homicides.
As for the gap between black & white rates with regard to commission of & victimization by homicides, it is not surprising at all given areas of concentrated poverty (aka ghettos) that many blacks live in, high unemployment rates of young black men, etc.
Racial profiling, however, affects not just the poorest blacks but also relatively well-off blacks & even black cops.
Yoshie