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Police in riot gear

Police in riot gear (Photo: Cat London / Getty)

Whites in the United States approve of police officers hitting men in significantly greater numbers than Blacks and Hispanics do according to a new study, reports Newsday.

Is anyone surprised given that whites probably are not hit as much as Blacks or Hispanics?

Newsday reports that about seven of ten whites, or 70 percent “can imagine a situation in which they would approve of a police officer striking an adult male citizen, according to the 2014 General Social Survey.” Only 42 percent of blacks and 38 percent of Hispanics said they could.

A prominent sociologist interviewed says that these numbers make perfect sense given the real life interactions and disparities in those interactions based on your racial or ethnic group:

“Whites are significantly more likely to give police officers the benefit of the doubt, either because they have never had an altercation with a police officer or because they tend to see the police as allies in the fight against crime,” said Ronald Weitzer, a George Washington University sociology professor who has studied race and policing in the U.S. and internationally.

However, blacks and Hispanics “are more cautious on this issue because of their personal experiences and/or the historical treatment their groups have experienced at the hands of the police, which is only recapitulated in recent disputed killings,” he said.

For more stats and to read the entire report entitled “Crime and Law Enforcement in America: Racial and Ethnic Differences in Attitudes toward the Criminal Justice System”

SOURCE: New York Newsday

 

Surprised? More Whites Approve Of Police Hitting People Than Blacks, Hispanics  was originally published on newsone.com