Facts, more facts are interpreted differently
“These are clear and indisputable facts.” That’s what Chattanooga Free Press columnist Ron Hart said in his June 12 commentary on police brutality. He once again cited his one source, Heather Mac Donald, a woman who has made it her life’s work to buck against her peers and claim police brutality against African Americans is an exaggerated lie.
A fact may be a fact, but an interpretation of a fact can still be wrong. Yes, statistically, more whites are killed by police than blacks in this country. But the number of black deaths is unusually high considering their percentage of the population. That’s why another fact, a black person is nearly three times more likely to be killed by police than a white person, can be true alongside the one fact Ron and Heather insist thumbing their soapbox about.
And the broad death average of the country can be misleading. It doesn’t capture other facts such as how blacks are seven times more likely to receive force from police than whites in Minneapolis. This is a fact that exists in too many of our cities.
James Riner