Monday banner
Thom's blog
What The NRA Doesn't Want You To Know
Thom plus logo  As Black Lives Matter protests continue across the nation, a new study is complicating the debate around police violence.

The study, which comes out of Harvard, took data from a number of police departments across the country and looked at how different groups of people are treated by law enforcement.

As expected, this study found that police officers are more likely to use force when dealing with black people than they are when dealing with white people.

For example, police are 18 percent more likely to push black people against a wall, 16 percent more likely to put them in handcuffs, 19 percent more likely to draw their weapons, and so and so on.

These statistics are depressing for sure, but not really all that surprising given the reality of systemic racism in this country.

But what is surprising is what this study found about police officers use of lethal force, i.e. when they kill people.

Contrary to what you'd expect, it found that police are just as likely to kill white people as they are black people.

Predictably, the right-wing media has jumped on this as proof -- PROOF -- that the Black Lives Matter movement is lying.

For example, the Drudge Report linked to a New York Times story about the Harvard study with a headline that read "STUDY: NO RACIAL BIAS in police shootings..."

But is this study really all that definitive?

No, not it's not.

The problem with the Harvard study is that it relies on data from just a handful of different police departments, most of which are located in big cities like Houston, Dallas, and Los Angeles.

This isn't a bad idea on its own. After all, the bigger a city is, the more representative it is of the population as a whole.

But in the context of studying police violence, relying on data from just a few big cities isn't the best idea.

If there's one thing that we've learned over the past few years, it's that some of the worst police violence occurs in smaller cities like Ferguson, Missouri or Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

A truly accurate analysis of police use of force should therefore include data from these smaller cities, not just the big cities that are almost always better trained and better equipped than their local counterparts.

And that raises the question -- why didn't the author of the Harvard study use better data?

Well, it's probably not because he was trying to make it seem like there's no racial bias in police violence.

It's because there's not really any good police violence data out there.

Even after the reforms that the FBI announced back in December, reporting of police violence to the federal government is still completely voluntary.

Until reporting by police departments of their officers' use of force is compulsory and countrywide, we're never going to get an accurate picture of what's going on.

Read more here.

-Thom
ITM Trading      Free Speech TV
The Big Picture (small)
Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... The Good, Bad & Ugly of The Dem Platform (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Green World Rising Be sure to check out our newest video: RESTORATION - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners / Visit GreenWorldRising.org to check out all the videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners

LIVE report from Dallas, TX
- Ashlee Banks, RT America  Twitter

BlackLivesMatter Panel:
- Joe Madison, The Joe Madison Show/SiriusXM Urban View  Twitter
- Ron Hampton, Institute of the Black World/National Black Police Association (former)  Twitter  Twitter

Best of the Rest: The Good, Bad & Ugly of The Dem Platform
Mike Lux, Democracy Partners/The Progressive Revolution: How The Best In America Came To Be  Twitter  Twitter

Is The Public Option Coming Soon?
- Dr. Diljeet Singh, Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group/Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP)  Twitter

Daily Take: What The NRA Doesn't Want You To Know
Podcast Banner ad 120     Thom TV
Monday's Daily Stack Daily Stack
Hour One: How Do We Bridge America's Racial Divide?
- Rashad Robinson, Color of Change  Twitter  Twitter
 
Article: "Dallas police ambush: The victims" by Heather Pelat.
Speech: "Remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr." by Robert F. Kennedy, 4 April 1968.
Article: "Stonewall riots" by Wikipedia.
Article: "Weather Underground" by Wikipedia.
Book: "The Turner Diaries: A Novel" by Andrew MacDonald.
Quote: "We can never attain the ideal Union our fathers dreamed, with millions of an alien, inferior race among us, whose assimilation is neither possible nor desirable." - from a fictional speech by Abraham Lincoln .
Article: "Shooting of Jeremy Mardis" by Wikipedia.

Hour Two: Hillary to Support Public Option... What You Need to Know
- Wendell Potter, Deadly Spin/Nation On the Take  Twitter
Article: "Obamacare: What's in it for me?" by Wendell Potter.
Article: "U.S. GMO food labeling bill passes Senate" by Chris Prentice.
Event: Philadelphia, PA, July 25-28, 2016: "2016 Democratic National Convention".
 
Law: "Civil Rights Act of 1964" by Wikipedia.
 
Talk Media News Segment:
- Victoria Jones Twitter
Article: "Suspect in Dallas Attack Had Interest in Black Power Groups" by Jonathan Mahler and Julie Turkewitz.
Article: "Doonesbury" 10 July 2016 (Trump positions).
Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman  Twitter

Hour Three: The Connection Between Violence and Addiction
Quote: "Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr..
Article: "Barney Miller" by Wikipedia.
Article: "Black Texans Protest Police Violence by Exercising Right to Openly Carry Guns" (The Huey Newton Gun Club) by Tina Nguyen.
Edison Factor          Subscribe to Thom Hartmann on YouTube
Tuesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET 
 
We'll have the latest news and information...everything you need to know to win the water cooler wars...
 
And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...
 
The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"
 
And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...
Order the new"Unequal Protection" now!
Show Info
Call Thom on the show at (202) 808-9925.

Sign up for Thom's podcasts.

Come on over to the free chat room, where Thom hangs out during the show.

Join in the discussions on Thom's free message board.

Blog or upload videos or audios at Thom's community.
Listen Live

Social Networks...
Best of Thom Hartmann audio
ADHD and the Edison Gene
Thom's Poll
Does BREXIT Signify the End of Globalization?

Vote here!
Ring of Fire

Small choice,
big impact

"Conventional agriculture worsens our current climate crisis
Organic viticulture helps curb it and supports our health"
Enjoy Thom's favorite, French Organic,
Vegan wines
with your family & friends
1-888- 326-9463
To order click here
Watch & Listen to Thom

Watch the Full "Big Picture" Show...

Full Show 7/8/16: Dear 'All Lives Matter' People, You're Racist
Full Show 7/8/16: Dear "All Lives Matter" People, You're Racist

Sam Sacks is in for Thom Hartmann and discusses the tragic shooting in Dallas and the killing of Anton Sterling and Philando Castile with Black Lives Matter's Kymone Freeman and former U.S. marshal Matt Fogg. Tonight's Rumble talks Hillary's damn emails, the terrible GMO bill moving forward in the Senate, and the GOP's voodoo economics tax plan. In tonight's Daily Take Thom calls for the repeal of the Second Amendment.

Equal Justice Is An American Issue.
Equal Justice Is An American Issue

How Do We Bridge The Racial Divide? (w/Guest: Rashad Robinson)
How Do We Bridge The Racial Divide? (w/Guest: Rashad Robinson)

The Flaws In The Right-Wing's Favorite New Study...
The Flaws In The Right-Wing's Favorite New Study...

What Is It Like Driving Around As A Black Woman in Texas?
What Is It Like Driving Around As A Black Woman in Texas?

Caller: Anglo Cognitive Dissonance Is To Blame
Caller: Anglo Cognitive Dissonance Is To Blame

Corporations Should Have To Tell Us What's In Our Food? (w/Guest: Patty Lovera)
Corporations Should Have To Tell Us What's In Our Food? (w/Guest: Patty Lovera)

Caller: Thom, What Law Has Hurt This Country Most In The Last 30 Years?
Caller: Thom, What Law Has Hurt This Country Most In The Last 30 Years?

The U.S. Is Number 41 In Freedom Of The Press!
The U.S. Is Number 41 In Freedom Of The Press!

Caller in Dallas: I Woke My Wife Up To Say I Love You Before Leaving For Work Today.
Caller in Dallas: I Woke My Wife Up To Say I Love You Before Leaving For Work Today.
Death in the Pines
Order Death in the Pines: An Oakley Tyler Novel, at Amazon or Barnes & Noble now!
Thom Hartmann app
The American Revolution of 1800
Order The American Revolution of 1800 by Dan Sisson with Thom Hartmann at Amazon or Barnes & Noble now!
Thank you for being part of our ever growing community for News, Debate and Opinion on the Thom Hartmann Program.
 
Click here to subscribe to the Thom Hartmann Newsletter.
 
Sincerely,
The Thom Hartmann Program