
Police cited 55 people for eating on San Francisco trains. Only nine were white - hellllllllooo
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/26/bart-san-francisco-black-riders-food-citations
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larnmar
Without any data on what the demographics of people who eat on the BART are,
there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of bias (but a lack of evidence
certainly doesn’t stop anyone in the article).

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Noumenon72
Other frequently seen risk factors are people who are inclined to belligerence
when requested to stop eating on the BART, and people who are doing illegal
things that don't leave evidence but also eating on the BART, making it easier
to cite them for eating.

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hellllllllooo
So your claim is despite the black ridership being 10%, black people are more
likely to be beligerant or do something else that is somehow hidden but
illegal so citing for eating is justified?

You're really bending over backwards to give Bart police a pass.

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Noumenon72
That is my impression from reading many other anecdotes from police describing
their daily work, as well as various videos and true cop shows. You don't
necessarily even have to attribute it to race; just that a demographic of
employed programmers is going to have better impulse control, protective
social status, habits of deference to cops, and overall good behavior than a
demographic of low-income "frequent fliers" who have had many negative
interactions with the police before. Being in that second demographic is what
causes the disproportionate citations. Not in the choices made by the police.

~~~
hellllllllooo
Did you watch the video that the article cites? Please do. It's what sparked
this study of the statistics and the police behavior in it is completely
unreasonable. What you're saying doesn't align at all with what was recorded.
He could easily be an "employed programmer", your biases are showing. A lot of
programmers I know would respond similarly.

> San Francisco transit boss apologizes to rider detained over a sandwich

[https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/11/san-
francisc...](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/11/san-francisco-
bart-police-sandwich-race)

~~~
Noumenon72
I have watched the video now (I skimmed because I hate confrontation, which is
part of why I take the cops' side when people are belligerent).

This guy was not doing anything illegal that doesn't leave evidence, but he
does perfectly match my description of "people who are inclined to
belligerence when requested to stop eating on the BART". Employed programmers
and black people who do that are likely arrested at nearly the same rates.

I'm totally fine if you tell me "It's racist that cops only ever ask black
people to stop eating on the BART." Or "It's systemically racist to apply the
same rules to people who get a lunch hour at their jobs and people who don't."
I'm just saying that arresting 84% blacks is not necessarily racist _by the
cops_, because every one of those 46 arrests may well have a video like this
one, and this guy deserved it.

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hellllllllooo
> I'm just saying that arresting 84% blacks is not necessarily racist _by the
> cops_, because every one of those 46 arrests may well have a video like this
> one, and this guy deserved it.

Deserves to be detained for eating a sandwich? Beligerant for expressing how
stupid that is? The police department apologized for this so even they don't
agree with you. I think we're done here. Good luck.

~~~
Noumenon72
The entire system of police does not work if you are allowed to just not do
what the police tell you to because you think it is stupid. You can do that
democratically, but not individually. Just like companies allow you to tell
your boss they are being stupid, but not to stand up and say so at the
employee meeting. The authority hierarchy is more important than the actual
issue.

I should say that purposely getting arrested on video to highlight the
stupidity of the sandwich thing is a good tactic for getting it changed. I
support the guy's actions if that was his intent.

