Guess What, #Ferguson Protesters? #PoliceLivesMatter, Too!

I'm going to address this, hopefully, for the last time here (but I'm not going to hold my breath). I know this is going to piss some people off, but all this hysteria about police officers' "racially-motivated" "murders" is getting out of hand.

So here goes nothing.

To the "#BlackLivesMatter" crowd: Yes, they do.

But you know who else's lives matter?

The police.

Police Lives Matter, too, guys.
(source: Twitter feed)

Yes, police lives matter, too. So much so that they also have a hashtag — a couple, actually: #PoliceLivesMatter and #CopsLivesMatter — that I imagine will soon be trending as well.

Police lives matter, because it's the police who patrol those crime-ridden neighborhoods and do everything in their power to remove the criminal class and keep law-abiding folks safe. On the extremely rare occasion they're forced to use their weapons to stop crime or defend themselves or others, they get crucified in the media.

Talk about a thankless job.

So black lives matter, and so do police lives. But black lives just might matter TO police more than you may think.

Interest piqued? Read on below the break....

'Nuff said. (source: Twitter feed)

From PoliceOne.com, a Washington State University has recently performed a study on local police officers' mindset and reactions in potential deadly-force incidents. Officers wearing electroencephalograph (EEG) sensors were given a laser-simulator pistol and subjected to highly-realistic simulations, each one based on a real call in which officers were killed or injured. The results, according to Dr. Lois James — who ran and co-authored the study — were "unexpected":

• Officers were less likely to erroneously shoot unarmed black suspects than they were unarmed whites — 25 times less likely, in fact
• And officers hesitated significantly longer before shooting armed suspects who were black, compared to armed subjects who were white or Hispanic

Huh? What?

Let's repeat that, because it bears repeating. Officers are FAR less likely to erroneously shoot black suspects than white or Hispanic suspects, and they tend to hesitate longer before pulling the trigger when faced with a black suspect than with a white or Hispanic suspect.

WSU Spokane researchers Lois James and Bryan Vila
(source: WSU photo, retrieved from here)

Dr. James thinks there may be a "behavioral 'counter-bias'" towards black suspects, which doesn't transfer to white or Hispanic suspects, and wants to see this type of study replicated in other cities around the country. The cause of this counter-bias is unknown, but I'd bet the cultural and media-driven belief that police unnecessarily shoot black suspects more often — and the perceived harsher consequences of doing so, what with the media's blanket smear and libel campaigns against the involved officers, and the potential for a civil rights investigation from the Federal DoJ — are a factor, if not a direct cause.

Kinda kills The Narrative™, doesn't it?

The full study is available from the Journal of Experimental Criminology, but it's behind a paywall. Note the publishing date, though: October 23, 2012, well before this kerfuffle/clusterf#$k in Ferguson, MO.

Stay safe.