Here’s the headline from a March 28, 2021 “woke” SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE “Watchdog” article:
The Color of Authority: San Diego police, sheriff’s deputies disproportionately target minorities, data show
The only problem? The article’s own charts put the lie to the headline. And yet the U-T reporters and head editor Jeff Light STILL tout the article as true. They even sent me emails verifying that they stand behind the article and its conclusions.
Study the two charts below. There is no undue discrimination against blacks. Given that per capita blacks commit crimes — especially violent crimes — FAR more frequently than the rest of the county population, the traffic stops of blacks are — if anything — arguably too FEW rather than too many. The U-T categorically REFUSES to report the frequency of crimes committed by each race.
According to SANDAG (our county regional agency), compared to the average for all the other races — with 5% of the San Diego County population, per capita:
* Blacks committed murders SIX TIMES more frequently than everyone else.
* Blacks committed rapes SIX TIMES more frequently than everyone else.
* Blacks committed TWELVE TIMES more robberies more frequently than everyone else.
* Blacks committed FIVE TIMES more aggravated assaults than everyone else.
https://riderrants.blogspot.com/2020/07/all-black-lives-matter-but-not-to-blm.html
Even more interesting, per capita, the OTHER minorities (including Hispanics) have faced FEWER than average police stops (remember, the U-T headline said that the police “target minorities”).
BTW, too often the U-T smushes blacks and Hispanics into one single category, smearing our Hispanic population’s reputation. I’m surprised the Hispanics in San Diego County tolerate this racist U-T policy.
There’s a third chart in the article worth reviewing — the percent of traffic stops that result in the confiscation of contraband. See below. Note that the left column is the city of San Diego — the right column is the county sheriff’s department figures.
The paper makes a big deal over police car searches resulting in some minorities being caught with contraband more often than whites. But look at the chart — the percentage difference between races is miniscule. Contraband is found in searched cars from 19.7% to 26.8% of the time — combining the city AND county police department race category figures.
Look at the U-T‘s eight race categories in the “contraband” chart. Per capita, for the San Diego city cops’ car searches, only two groups have higher contraband rates than whites. FIVE have LOWER contraband rates than whites.
This “U-T Watchdog” story is just another example of how far the once-mighty U-T has fallen. Today, race baiting, virtue signaling and divisiveness are the driving forces of our county’s only daily newspaper.
Sadly, this outright dishonest article is too often typical of what the modern MSM delivers as “news” these days. Doubtless many local San Diego news outlets used this disgustingly false article as the basis for their own similar stories.
Not surprisingly, the newspaper’s circulation is plummeting. But the paper’s management and owners have yet to connect the dots.