The recent increase in racial disparity in violence victims in NYC is getting worse. The disparity was always large. Nut now it’s worse. This year, through September, 1,430 New Yorkers have been shot. Five months between January and May, 366. Four months between June–September, 1,064. 1,064 is 2.6X compared to June–September last year.
Over these past four months, a black New Yorker has been 63 times (!) more likely to be shot than a white New Yorker. It seems to be the only racial disparity people refuse to address. In 2019, the black-to-white disparity (June–September) was 38 : 1. In 2020, it increased to 63 : 1.
Up through the end of September 2020, there have been 1,430 shooting victims this year. Of those 27 have been white, 304 Hispanic, 1,069 Black, & 21 Asian. These groups represent 32%, 29%, 24%, and 14% of the NYC population, respectively.
I don’t where else you find a disparity like that. And in what other situation such a disparity would it be ignored. But if we can’t speak of this disparity, how can we address it, much less fix it? Far smaller disparities in policing and health car get far more attention. But when it comes to victims of violence, as long as it’s not a cop who does it, there’s silence. Immoral silence.
Back in 1988, Benjamin Ward, the NYPD’s first Black police commissioner, addressed a group of journalists and called this racial disparity: “Our dirty little secret. . . . We are the victims and the perpetrators. . . . We should not try to hide it. We have to speak out about it.” Ward was criticized for his comments, as he would be today, more than 30 years later.
If the violence of the past 4 months becomes the new normal, more than 1 in every 1,000 black New Yorkers will be shot over the course of a year. 90% of these shooting victims will be men. The median age of an NYC shooting victim is about 27.
To put 1 in 1,000 of a group getting shot in a year in perspective. It’s a lot, but ~1 in 350 New Yorkers have died from COVID this year. Approximately 1 in 7,500 Americans get killed every year in a car crash.
I would like to get and share the best data available on police killings by race and class. Including regions of the country where possible.
Headlines and media focus Make it seem that this is almost purely a police versus African-American issue and I doubt that is true.
I have been watching several interviews you made and I did get the “killed by police.net “ Recommendation.
Thanks in advance for any assistance you can give me
I would like to get and share the best data available on police killings by race and class. Including regions of the country where possible.
I have been watching several interviews you made and I did get the “killed by police.net “ Recommendation.
Thanks in advance for any assistance you can give me
Hello Dr. Moskos,
I enjoyed reading your blog post because it was very informative and easy to understand. I feel very passionate about racial disparity and this blog post in particular truly got to me. It saddens me that we are living in the 21st century and are still dealing with racial disparity that does not seem to get any better as the years go by. As a hispanic living in the United States, this definitely feels familiar to me because I have experienced racial disparity myself as well. It is astonishing to see how the police will tend to go after minority groups even though this country preaches liberty and equality. I am interested to learn more about how racial disparity could potentially be controlled or decreased.