The D-Words
Lifted from the comments, a technological feat:
Traffic cameras in Chicago disproportionately ticket Black and Latino motorists.
Readers are invited to spot the word that’s doing the heavy lifting. It appears 1o times in the article quoted above, excluding variations.
The red-light and speed cameras are, we’re told, “distributed roughly evenly among the city’s Black, Latino and white neighbourhoods.” Despite which, “the ticketing rate for households in majority-Black ZIP codes” is “more than three times that of households in majority-white areas.” And so, explanations are searched out, including the width of a given road, the effect of passing vacant lots, and the geographical distribution of grocery stores. “Structural racism” is of course invoked, a phenomenon that apparently includes ticketing cyclists who choose to ride on the pavement, illegally.
Those presented as victims of injustice, of “racial inequity,” include Mr Rodney Perry, whose photograph accompanies the piece, and who, in a single year, has received eight tickets for speeding and three for running red lights. The article appears not to have had room to include the views of those injured or bereaved by Chicago’s law-breaking motorists, despite an eye-widening spike in accidents, fatalities, and hit-and-run crashes. Nor, it seems, was there room to consider the possible effect of endless, widespread excuse-making for antisocial behaviour, and its role in making such behaviour more likely, not less.
See also the words disparate, disparity and disparities, which occur no fewer than 22 times.
Update, via the comments:
Rafi notes the article’s supposed candidates for our sympathy – the best that could be mustered, presumably – and adds, “They chose poorly.” Well, as a pin-up for victimhood, a basis for our collective weeping, Mr Perry is a, shall we say, suboptimal choice. But apparently, we are expected to sympathise with Mr Perry, our habitual lawbreaker, and to indulge his excuses, on account of his difficulty paying the $700 in fines that resulted from his repeated law-breaking. As if the financial consequences were inexplicable and somehow unforeseeable. Though it seems to me that not being in the best position to pay the fines that normally result from such law-breaking is a pretty good reason to avoid said law-breaking – specifically, repeatedly running red lights and thereby endangering other people’s lives.
At which point, it’s perhaps worth noting that many of the, as it were, racially insensitive cameras are located near schools.
Update 2:
In the comments, Jacobus adds,
So, it’s racist to enforce the law equally because certain individuals feel entitled to break those laws more than others? Or have these certain individuals been taught that law breaking is their right and are upset that these cameras do not acknowledge that special privilege?
It seems we’re supposed to believe – emphatically and indignantly – that Mr Perry and Mr Olatunji Oboi Reed, our candidates for victimhood, are being induced to break the law and to drive in ways that are dangerous to others, including repeatedly running red lights, because of “fewer pedestrians and more vacant lots.” Cyclists and dog walkers are also invoked as possible factors, along with the claim that a black person may have to drive to the nearest grocery store, a feat rarely undertaken by people of pallor, obviously.
And all of this is presented as if the gentlemen’s behaviour, their choices, could only have external causes. Other variables apparently being unworthy of consideration. And so, Mr Reed, an “activist for racial equity,” expects city officials to “eliminate any racial… disparities in camera ticketing,” while avoiding any mention of behaviour and personal responsibility. “The root cause of traffic violence in our society that is disproportionately impacting Black and brown people is structural racism,” says he.
As a result, the default narrative, the woke conceit, is just a little odd. Namely, if black people are being injured or killed as a result of reckless driving, very often by other black people, this is “traffic violence” and “structural racism.” But attempts to enforce the law and reduce the number of such incidents are also “structural racism” and must therefore be done away with.
Via pst314.
Not much about driving correctly and thus avoiding penalties.
Not much about driving correctly and thus avoiding penalties.
There does seem to be a reluctance to explore the issues of agency and irresponsible behaviour, which you’d think might have some bearing on the general topic.
For instance, we’re told that Mr Perry, quoted in the piece, “takes responsibility” for his habit of dangerous driving – eleven offences in one year – including repeatedly running red lights. And yet he seems quite keen to minimise his own role and to solicit sympathy. On grounds that he’s expected to pay the consequent fines, and because his commute involves driving, dangerously, past red-light and speed cameras.
Presumably, if the cameras weren’t there, nothing unlawful would have happened. Over and over again.
Black Drivers Matter
Those presented as victims of injustice, of “racial inequity,” include Mr Rodney Perry, whose photograph accompanies the piece, and who, in a single year, has received eight tickets for speeding and three for running red lights.
They chose poorly.
Not making the case he thinks he is.
It seems to me that if you were malevolent and wanted to undermine a racial minority, to degrade both long-term life chances and moral character, then attempting to exempt that minority from normal expectations of behaviour, and lawfulness, would be a good way to do it.
And yet we see it repeatedly and with ever more elaborate convolution.
It seems Black drivers simply speed more often than White drivers. There you go, Chicago, solved it for you. Cameras are colour blind you; do reaise this I hope?
Good lord. My brain hurt reading that! So, it’s racist to enforce the law equally because certain individuals feel entitled to break those laws more than others? Or have these certain individuals been taught that law breaking is their right and are upset that these cameras do not acknowledge that special privilege?
…Mr Rodney Perry, whose photograph accompanies the piece…
Yes, Lori Lightfoot, noted member of the Yte Cis-patriarchy, is keeping the BIPOCs down.
Seems reasonable. Wait, this just in…
Can’t figure out a website, building a digital company. OK, I am starting to see why interpreting speed limit signs, traffic lights, and speedometers might be a problem.
Damn wipipo.
I live in black Queens, the NYPD’s 113th precinct specifically, and people know where the cameras are and drive accordingly. Siri will tell you as you drive if you need help. The speed limit is posted plus 5. For red lights, run them slowly.
In other news, I’ve just finished compiling tomorrow’s Ephemera. I made myself laugh.
Which I probably shouldn’t admit, but there we are.
So, it’s racist… Or have these certain individuals been taught that law breaking is their right…?
Embrace the power of “and”
“The root cause of traffic violence in our society that is disproportionately impacting Black and brown people is structural racism.”
“Traffic violence”. People getting injured or killed because someone was speeding or ran a red light. This is reduced by enforcement of laws against speeding or running red lights; such enforcement is also structural racism.
It reminded me of the report cited approvingly by Peter Matthews in the Guardian, on the supposed phenomenon of litter inequality and the need to “achieve fairer outcomes in street cleanliness,” and which avoided any acknowledgement whatsoever of behaviour, of how the litter actually gets there. Likewise, if you shy from even exploring the possibility that some demographics are in aggregate more prone to antisocial driving than others, as if the very question were scandalous and unthinkable, then what you’re left with will tend to sound evasive and contrived.
I have seen who drag races/speed races their sports cars down the residential/university neighborhood streets around here (2 lanes, speed limit 25 mph, scads of pedestrians). It ain’t white frat boys. Some of these cars are quite new but show extensive body damage, so they have been involved in accidents as well as racing. The city police don’t patrol here, but the university police do sit on one of the streets that gets raced down, and even put up one of those “Your Speed Is” radar signs, to no avail. So far no students have been killed, so the racing will probably continue. The U prez put out a multi-paragraph email after St George ODed/was knelt on, full of sniveling about systemic racism here at the U, and how he will do better yadda yadda, wank, wank, wank, so even a death probably wouldn’t change anything.
Interestingly, my Middle Eastern colleague’s wife won’t drive in this town because she is afraid of “how the black people drive”. BAME on BIPOC racism, man. Say it isn’t so!
racist traffic cameras: the Left insist that blacks getting pulled over more is due to profiling/racism…but when I am in traffic I cannot tell the race or even sex of most drivers unless I am next to them, certainly not from behind. Try it sometime. With tinted windows even worse.
It seems Black drivers simply speed more often than White drivers.
And, in general, drive more aggressively: tailgating, weaving in and out of traffic, road rage, and so on. White people do these things, too, but less than blacks.
Racist cameras. Of course. Is there anything “structural racism” can’t do?
“The 28-year-old entrepreneur quit his job at a logistics firm last spring…”
He obviously sees a better future for himself in the fast-growing racial grievance industry. And who can blame him?
Eleven traffic tickets in one year. He’s almost a martyr.
@CLR
“they have been involved in accidents”
You misspelled ‘crashes’. Sorry, one of my pet peeves.
See also, racist pedestrian crossing signals.
Because every stone must be upturned in The Great Unending Search. Every crumb. Every atom.
…we’re told that Mr Perry, quoted in the piece, “takes responsibility” for his habit of dangerous driving…And yet he seems quite keen to minimise his own role and to solicit sympathy.
“Taking responsibility” in da hood, from felony bond court in Chicago:
Judge: Sir, you are charged with aggravated robbery…
Defendant: Yeah, I do that, so what?
Generally speaking, in Florida on the main roads, the worst drivers, the most reckless, are whites or hispanics. I’ve cynically attributed that to black’s fear of traffic stop leading to a parole or drug violation, but whatevs. As for whitey, I’ve joked that one’s proximity to Daytona has much to do with the aggressiveness of the drivers around you. And come Bike Week and Biketoberfest you get a mix of speeding biker idiots or, generally more likely at those times, the slow-rider types tying up traffic. Though that latter thing is limited to one’s proximity to the beach, etc.
He’s almost a martyr.
Far more likely to create a few than to become one himself. Pedestrians don’t generally benefit from airbags.
…in Florida on the main roads, the worst drivers, the most reckless, are whites or hispanics…
Of course in Florida south of Apalachicola the average age of wipipo driving is 176, and anyone on I95 or I75 is some damn yankee whether snowbird or transplant.
“Because every stone must be upturned in The Great Unending Search. Every crumb. Every atom.
You’re not exaggerating. Just google “[anything] is racist.” Literally anything. Bicycles. Spoons. Shoes. Salt shakers. Cars. Socks. Forks. Computers.
After a while you just shake your head and say, “Oh come on.”
If Net Zero happens, no one will be driving anyway – problem solved.
It’s not like anyone’s going to riot in US cities.
explanations are searched out, including the width of a given road, the effect of passing vacant lots, and the geographical distribution of grocery stores.
My nearest grocery store is about two miles away. Didn’t know this meant I could run red lights.
It’s cuz the wypipo all have BLM stickers on their cars.
Was this not in the brochure?
Ah, but it’s structural. As everyone knows, whites in the United States tend to live in high-density downtown areas where they can take public transport to work and walk to the store. Blacks, on the other hand, have been driven by white violence into the exurban sprawl, with no public transport, no walkable corner stores, long commutes to work, and children having to be driven to all of their activities.
Uh-oh. Insty spotted incoming… *ducks out back door*
(well, Ed)
Insty spotted incoming
Fetch the good china. Not this chipped rubbish you’ve been using.
Siri will tell you as you drive if you need help. The speed limit is posted plus 5.
Minorities can’t afford iPhones! WHITE PRIVILEGE! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Well perhaps if the North American Pavement Ape stopped committing crimes at such an insanely disproportionate level—-but no, that’s just crazy talk.
Let’s compare how race breaks down among the victims of those who commit moving violations. It might be that when you compare the ticket distribution to the victim distribution that there are not enough tickets given out in minority neighborhoods.
I recall something similar happened in the UK a few years back: speed cams installed in central London turned out to be racists.
Fetch the good china. Not this chipped rubbish you’ve been using.
Are you insane? Have you read the Insty comment threads? You should put out unbreakable plastic stuff instead.
[ Looks around the bar. ]
On second thought, I withdraw that comment.
Red light cameras were banned in Texas. They made a lot of money for the companies that installed them but studies showed they caused more accidents. In addition, a requirement was that an officer appear in court if the defendant chose to fight the ticket. But officers often did not show up or tickets were given where no police officer actually witnessed the red light being run when the photos were processed. Defendants were deprived of their right to face their accuser.
Shorter version: Blacks speed a lot and run a shit-ton of red lights.
There’s plenty of WTF in this article, for sure, but it does get one thing right: NEVER underestimate the City of Chicago’s ability to stick it to its residents for a dime. Because that’s exactly what lowering the speed limit on fines was all about. If they gave a toss about safety they would prosecute violent criminals and not let them out on bail.
Are you insane? Have you read the Insty comment threads?
[ Snatches away good china. Fetches sawdust, spittoon. ]
[ Leaves recent end-of-year round-up to poke at: ]
Oh there’s more, with links a-plenty. A whole year of woke contortion.
[ Leaves recent end-of-year round-up to poke at. ]
That could keep any new visitor busy for hours. Days, even, if they keep following the links.
“Hours of fun for the whole family!”
I’m with the woke on this one. F*** traffic cameras. If the cops want to give a traffic citation they can haul their ass out to where the traffic is.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/09/20/barts-fare-evasion-fines-hit-african-americans-hardest/
Data and science and fact checkers 1, racists 0.
Lateefah Simon brings what expertise to the board?
Indeed. Has happened to tens of millions of white people since the 60’s.
Covering all the possibilities that can be discussed in respectable society.
“Hours of fun for the whole family!”
No refunds. Credit note only.
Several years ago, NJ decided that its State Troopers were racist and targeting black drivers. They did a study on the Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, in which they installed speed cameras triggered at 10 mph over the limit. They ignored any results in which the driver’s race was not obvious. They found that the percentage of blacks speeding was far greater than their presence in the population. They also found that the higher the speed, the greater the percentage of blacks. Then, they found out that the rate of tickets to blacks was far less than that to other races.
In other words, even though the percentage of blacks speeding was far higher, the percentage of tickets was far lower.
Shortly after this study was published, it disappeared. Surprise, surprise!
…Or have these certain individuals been taught that law breaking is their right and are upset that these cameras do not acknowledge that special privilege?
There is an element of that: First, the subculture asserts the right to engage in grossly antisocial behavior. And second, liberals assert that blacks are victims who cannot be expected to behave responsibly…because #equity.
But also consider: There is a correlation between low IQ and inability to foresee the consequences of one’s actions, inability to plan ahead, and even inability to empathize with others and think about how one’s actions might harm them. Given the black-white IQ gap, it should be unsurprising that there is a black-white crime gap.
Shortly after this study was published, it disappeared. Surprise, surprise!
A good reason to save copies of things that the “woke” might seek to “disappear”.