Racial bias among America’s police force – or at least the appearance of it – has become a huge issue in this year’s presidential election. With Black Lives Matter wrecking havoc every time a cop allegedly mistreats a black suspect, police officers are in more danger than ever.
But as FBI Director James Comey points out, there is little reliable data to prove that such a bias actually exists.
In order to address this growing issue, the FBI has set out to launch a “nationwide database…that shows us what happened, who was involved, what were they like, what were the circumstances, so we can have informed conversations,” said Comey during a Senate hearing earlier this week.
Racial bias in policing is “one of the most important issues we confront in the FBI – I think we confront as Americans,” continued Comey. “Every conversation, in my view, about the use of force and race and policing in this country is uninformed.”
Comey told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that he expects the database to be fully functional in a year or two.
“People of tremendous goodwill (are) trying to resolve these things,” said Comey. “What we can contribute as a country is information to that conversation…so the great people who care deeply about these things can come to solutions that are practical and just.”
Comey noted that the data we have now, which comes mainly from newspapers, just isn’t reliable. “We simply must collect data that is reliable nationwide about police use of deadly force, in connection, in alterations encounters with civilians. We simply must.”
Comey noted that demographic data in regards to police-involved shootings is not always reported to the FBI. “No one in this country knows whether the use of deadly force against any particular group, African-Americans most particularly, is up, down, or sideways over the last 10 years… Do we have an epidemic of violence? No one knows.”
Senator Cory Booker, a black Democrat from New Jersey, insists that the data, although incomplete, reveals “an alarming fact pattern in our country.”
“I believe we have a chasm in this country that, in many places, where a divide is open and opening between law enforcement and communities, especially the African-American community,” said Booker. “The causes for it are complicated and long-standing, but not elusive… We have problems, things we can do better in law enforcement that are obvious and we’re working very hard to change.”
Everyone wants the same type of policing, says Corey, “up close, responsible, lawful, firm, but fair…transparent.”
“We are safer when we have it, and the good news for America is there are a ton of police leaders who feel exactly as I do, and we are going to drive that chasm closer together because it’s the way to save lives in this country.”
Ediotor’s note: The question is whether this will be an honest effort (and likely disprove most of the claims of Black Lvies Matter) or a “witch hunt” database to be used by liberals in their propaganda effort.