Charles Blow of the NY Times is still going on about cops, race and guns, and he won't let facts get between him and the narrative.
Another video in another police shooting emerged this week — and it shows yet another case that demands empathy, and an understanding of the fraught moments that can lead to such an outcome, and the complexity of the legal process that follows.
The video showed an officer in Montana shooting and killing a passenger in a car at a traffic stop in a “high crime” area of Billings.
The dashcam video shows the young police officer, Grant Morrison, approaching the passenger side of the car and immediately saying...
The incident results in Richard Ramirez, who was high on methamphetamines, getting fatally shot.
Ramirez’s family was not happy. As CBS News reported: “Ramirez’s family wanted criminal charges against the officer and said Ramirez was a victim of racial profiling.” Morrison is white, Ramirez was “half-Mexican.”
Left unexamined is whether Mr. Ramirez might be a "white Hispanic" like George Zimmerman. From an earlier line-up photo, that is not a tough call:
Let's press on:
By the way, this was not the first time in Morrison’s five-year career that he had shot and killed an unarmed man who was high on methamphetamine and who failed to comply with his instructions. In February of 2013, Morrison shot and killed Jason James Shaw. In that case, another officer testified that Morrison said, “I know you have a gun!” and “I will shoot you.” Morrison was also cleared by a jury of wrongdoing in that killing.
Oh, and by the way, or by the wayside, since Mr. Blow neglects to mention it - Mr. Shaw was white. Actually, in the Times stylebook he is probably "white supremacist white" despite an absence of tatoos (it's a Montana thing...).
Among the issues raised by Mr. Blow is, inevitably, race:
There is also the question of whether bias and profiling play a role in officers’ propensity to use deadly force, as Ramirez’s family suggest. There is some conflict here. Studies using simulations in 2002 and 2005 showed that people were more likely to shoot unarmed black men, while, in the case of the latter study, letting armed white people slip by. On the other hand, a study published last year found that participants “were more likely to feel threatened in scenarios involving black people. But when it came time to shoot, participants were biased in favor of black suspects, taking longer to pull the trigger against them than against armed white or Hispanic suspects.”
These are not apples-to-apples studies, and the scenarios don’t neatly align with the Morrison shootings, but it is worth considering that the science around the issue does not make for simple talking points.
"[T]he scenarios don’t neatly align with the Morrison shootings". Can't disagree there, but let's talk about the role race played anyway.
First. And why?
Posted by: MarkO | January 15, 2015 at 06:17 PM
uno
Posted by: BB Key | January 15, 2015 at 06:18 PM
no, dos
Posted by: BB Key | January 15, 2015 at 06:21 PM
the language of a white hispanic
Posted by: BB Key | January 15, 2015 at 06:22 PM
It's an innovative approach to meth that should be embedded in more local governments, funding available per rse's comment on the prior thread.
A bit snarky, but such a program would do less permanent damage to society than what is likely to be funded.
Posted by: henry | January 15, 2015 at 06:26 PM
Charles Blowhard is not worth the effort to drag yourself through his dreck. You already know the outcome of every column before you start. Use the time to do something productive.
Posted by: GMax | January 15, 2015 at 06:34 PM
Jane,
Left you a response on the other thread regarding Belgiumn and the futuere. Not pretty.
Posted by: Jack is Back! | January 15, 2015 at 06:50 PM
If Charles Blow didn't write about race, he wouldn't have a job. Are you for more unemployment?
Posted by: Extraneus | January 15, 2015 at 06:56 PM
Jane,
More surveillance, the BIV (*Belgian Anti-Terrorism Group) on the case, more busts, but, but, Belgium is long gone as is France and Netherlands. Maybe Sweend also. Germany has a chance.
In 10 years Europe will be an Islamic colony. Believe me. There is no way in hell yiu can reverse it brecause the natives don;t beleiuve it and live in denial.
Pretty sorry but its real.
Posted by: Jack is Back! | January 15, 2015 at 07:02 PM
Got it Jib, thanks.
Posted by: Jane | January 15, 2015 at 07:08 PM
Do Mexicans generally have as bad acne as non-Mexicans?
I don't think so. (Noriega was Panamanian).
My guess is this trigger-happy cop just had it in for guys with bad acne.
All's I'm saying is is that if the President would call for free Proactive Acne cream in addition to free Community College in his State Of The Union, imagine how much gun crime we might clean up in this country.
Posted by: daddy | January 15, 2015 at 07:47 PM
"magine how much gun crime we might clean up in this country. "
Stay with avionics and dog walks. That's your expertise.
Posted by: Ben | January 15, 2015 at 07:53 PM
And yours is algebra where a negative plus a negative is positive.
Posted by: boris | January 15, 2015 at 10:09 PM
I don't know why I continue to be a little surprised by absurd opinions like Mr. Blow's. Illogical leftist.
Posted by: Joan | January 16, 2015 at 12:24 AM
A good part of rural America is infested with meth head tweakers. These guys and gals are crazier than a box of frogs; and they are about as dangerous as a hungry tiger. Violent, aggressive and horny (they'll screw the crack of Dawn and anything else) they are a cop's worst nightmare. Let Mr. Blow handle the meth head population in Montana for a while, and lets see if he survives or not.
Posted by: Comanche Voter | January 16, 2015 at 12:51 AM
Except to the inexplicable vagaries of life and British nobility we might easily be eating cardigans and wearing sandwiches. In the same way, if George Zimmerman had been named Richard Ramirez we never would have heard of Trayon Martin.
Posted by: George | January 16, 2015 at 12:14 PM
Mexicans run the gamut from pure Spanish blood, to pure Native American blood, and all points in between, including in some areas small admixtures of African-American blood. When you buy into the Leftard misrepresentation of a language group as a "race", you're playing their game, by their rules. If you want an example of how stupid the idea of Hispanics is, try thinking of all English speakers as a singular ethnic group. Really? From the aboriginal people of Australia to the Inuit of Canada - who would - except for some slang and colloquialisms - have no problem understanding each.
Posted by: Mike Giles | January 16, 2015 at 01:35 PM
ATF Form 4473 (Firearms Transaction Record) has question 10.a. for Ethnicity, where choices are "Hispanic or Latino" or "Not Hispanic or Latino". Question 10.b. is for Race which excludes "Hispanic or Latino" as an option. My local FFL explained that Hispanic/Latino Persons did not want that listed as a choice in Race (could choose "American Indian or Alaska Native", "Asian", "Black or African American", "Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander", or "White").
Posted by: PDinDetroit | January 16, 2015 at 02:39 PM
Moral of the story: Guns no longer bad, only whites with guns bad.
Posted by: PDinDetroit | January 16, 2015 at 02:41 PM