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MAGA Top Cop Bill Barr: There Is No Systemic Racism In U.S. Justice System

MAGA Top Cop Bill Barr: There Is No Systemic Racism In U.S. Justice System

Barr
MAGA top cop Bill Barr: There is no systemic racism in the U.S. Justice System. Blacks and whites aren’t treated differently. Photo: Attorney General William Barr arrives at the 2019 Prison Reform Summit and First Step Act Celebration in the East Room of the White House in Washington, April 1, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, Daniel Prude, and Dijon Kizzee are just a few of the names of Black people who have died by the hands of the police this year. There are other names we may never hear of. 

The people killed by police between 2015 and 2020 have been disproportionately Black and male. “Although half of the people shot and killed by police are white, Black Americans are shot at a disproportionate rate. They account for less than 13 percent of the U.S. population, but are killed by police at more than twice the rate of white Americans,” The Washington Post reported.

A staggering majority of people shot and killed by police are male — more than 95 percent. And more than half the victims are between 20 and 40 years old.

Despite these statistics, Attorney General William Barr denies that systemic racism is a factor in the police shootings of unarmed Black men.

“I do think that there appears to be a phenomenon in the country where African Americans feel that they’re treated, when they’re stopped by police, frequently as suspects before they are treated as citizens,” Barr said in an interview with CNN. “I don’t think that that necessarily reflects some deep-seated racism in police departments or in most police officers…

“I think people operate very frequently according to stereotypes, and I think it takes extra precaution on the part of law enforcement to make sure we don’t reduce people to stereotypes, we treat them as individuals,” he said.

When asked if he thinks Black people are treated differently by police than whites, Barr said, “I think there are some situations where statistics would suggest that they are treated differently, but I don’t think that that’s necessarily racism. Didn’t Jesse Jackson say when he looks behind him and he sees a group of young black males walking behind him, he’s more scared than when he sees a group of white youths. Does that make him a racist?”

Barr added that he does not believe there are “two justice systems” when he was asked “why a 17-year-old white teenager accused of killing two protesters and injuring a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was arrested without incident but Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was shot several times in the back by Kenosha police,” NBC News reported.

“I think the narrative that the police are on some, you know, epidemic of shooting unarmed Black men is simply a false narrative and also the narrative that that’s based on race,” Barr said. “The fact of the matter is it’s very rare for an unarmed African American to be shot by a white police officer.”

Barr isn’t the only one who feels like this. Brown University economics professor Dr. Glenn Loury, who is Black, said he thinks there is no such thing as “structural racism” and that Black people are using the term as an excuse.

“People cry, ‘structural racism.’ Is that why the homicide rate is an order of magnitude higher among young Black men? They say ‘structural racism’. Is that why the SAT test-score gap is as big as it is? They say structural racism. Is that why two in three Black American kids are born to women without a husband? Is it all about structural racism? Is everything structural racism?” Loury asked in a recent interview with City Journal.

“It has become a tautology explaining everything,” Loury continued. “All racial disparities are due to structural racism, evidently. Covid-19 comes along and there’s a disparity in the health incidence. It’s due to structural racism. They’re naming partners at a New York City law firm and there are few Black faces. Structural racism. They’re admitting people to specialized exam schools in New York City and the Asians do better. This has to be structural racism, with a twist—the twist being that this time, the structural racism somehow comes out favoring the Asians.”

Barr’s statements and line of thinking didn’t sit well with many Twitter users.

“AG Barr should know that fear is one of the major catalysts for violence. Barr is either stupid, or more likely he is misrepresenting what Jesse Jackson meant in order to mislead the public. Either way, Barr is clearly a tool of Trump’s propaganda campaign,” Kuperberg Henry tweeted.

Teena @ctfran62 agreed, tweeting, “Jesse’s statement was made during 90’s when gang violence was rampant. He said it caused him pain. Barr took his comments out of context to justify killing of unarmed African Americans.”

Barr brought up Jesse Jackson to distract attention from the fact that the AG didn’t properly address the question of whether he thinks Black people are treated differently by police than whites, a Twitter user said.

“Attorney General Bill Barr is Attacking the Strawman, a form of argument and an informal fallacy of having the impression of refuting an argument, meanwhile the proper idea of argument under discussion was not addressed or properly refuted,” @gspowers tweeted.

Brother Dynamite @BrotherDynamit2 concluded, “I’d more more scared if I saw Barr walking behind me..When it comes to criminals he is at the top of the heap”

https://twitter.com/WtfWtf2020/status/1301530588604559361?s=20