Here’s my question for you, David. You’re suggesting that non-Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic blacks both commit about 40% of violent crimes. Where are you getting those numbers from? The FBI arrest data you linked to suggests has a black/white breakdown showing that whites represent 69.7% of arrests, with blacks representing 26.6% of arrests. Then, they have a separate set of columns showing that Hispanics represent 18.4% of arrests, while non-Hispanics represent 81.6% of arrests. So, from this data, we’re clear on the percentage for Hispanics, but what we don’t have is information about what percentage of the whites and blacks arrested were Hispanic. You can’t just subtract 18.4% (i.e., the Hispanic number) from the white percentage (69.7%) to get around 40% because some of that 18.4% is presumably Black Hispanics. Moreover, the data I’ve seen on violent crimes broken down by non-Hispanic blacks/non-Hispanic whites/Hispanics suggests different numbers. Here’s a table from the Bureau of Justice Statistics that Heather Mac Donald reproduced in a National Review article from July 1, 2015:
As you see, this suggests that whites are responsible for 42.9% of violent crimes, while blacks are responsible for 22.4% violent crimes (well short of the 40% number you’re using), with Hispanics being responsible for 14.8% of violent crimes. These numbers are still compelling and support the same overall point, which is that non-Hispanic whites are responsible for around 43% of violent crime while representing around 50% of those killed by police, while non-Hispanic blacks are responsible for around 22% of violent crime while representing around 26% of those killed by police. So, when you factor out Hispanics, both races are killed by police at a rate a bit higher than what you’d expect from just looking at the violent crime totals, but non-Hispanic whites are at +7%, while non-Hispanic blacks are only at about +4%. This is still a bias in favor of blacks, but it’s not as stark as what you’re suggesting. Let me know if you have access to different information from what I’m seeing here.
