Philadelphia @DA_LarryKrasner asks "how do we adjust their use for the fact that Black and brown people are policed and searched, often under illegal stop-and-frisk policing, at much higher rates than white people?"

Great question!

I'll answer... https://www.phillytrib.com/special_sections/raceinamerica/justice/krasner-racism-hides-best-in-our-beliefs-about-crime/article_b2654cdc-79b5-5784-ac1a-10e4968218c2.html

In the United States, Black and Brown people have consistently been involved in violent crime at a disproportionately high rate. This involvement is as both victims and offenders.

The data supporting this are overwhelming, including decades of UCR & crime victim surveys.

Homicides in the U.S. with known/described offenders, for example, generally hover a tad over 50% Black offenders, despite Blacks being about 14% of the population.

In Philadelphia, Blacks are generally about 80-85% of homicide offenders, despite being 44% of the population.

Robberies, particularly armed robberies, reflect similar trends at both the national level and in Philadelphia.

And who are most-often the victims of these Black offenders?

Very often they are Black victims.

Those Black victims of robberies, shootings, etc. DESCRIBE offenders to police and subsequently make same-race identifications.

But REGARDLESS of the race of the victims, the descriptions of offenders of violent crime serve as ONE FACTOR of many that drive LEGAL stops & frisks.

As I have asked the anti- #StopAndFrisk zealots repeatedly, if the descriptions of violent offenders provided by victims and witnesses aren't a valid baseline for stopping people, what in tarnation WOULD be, except the relatively rare witnessing of violent crimes by police?

Further, population demographics aren't a valid baseline to uncover racial bias in stops by police, anymore than breast cancer treatment patterns are evidence of anti-male discrimination.

Violent crime and its described offenders are the core of a valid baseline.

In addition, proximity to that violent crime is also a factor in #StopAndFrisks.

Why?

Because cops are often deployed to where violent crime is. Most sane, law-abiding people WANT cops to do this.

And wherever cops go, they do cop stuff, often stopping cars & people.

So while the SAME EXACT CONDUCT in different neighborhoods might result in a disparity in the # of stops, that's often because of a higher police presence (driven by violent crime), rather than implicit bias or systemic racism.

To be clear, I am NOT--and I have never--suggested that race is a causal factor in violent crime.

But I am suggesting that since violent crime is not distributed evenly by race, across victims or offenders...