Gail Herriot is a conservative member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights who posts at Instapundit. A majority of its members are progressives. She writes minority opinions debunking their racist claims.
The authors of a new report featured in Washington Post would have us to believe that arrests of African Americans are higher than for other races mainly because cops are biased and African American neighborhoods have historically been “over-policed.”
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights recently made the similar claim that students of all races misbehave in school at equal rates, and that (by implication) disproportionate discipline rates should be blamed on biased teachers. It was easily proven false.
The reasons for arrest/discipline disproportionality are complex and nobody should claim to fully understand the problem. But the notion that it’s primarily the fault of overzealous police and teachers is off base.
She is correct, of course. School discipline and law enforcement swarm misbehavior the way flies swarm roadkill. If some groups get more attention it’s because they misbehave more.
