Don't blame me, I voted for the other guy. (Politics General)

Examining only cases from fiscal year 2016, the Commission found a 20.7 percent difference in the sentence length for Black male offenders compared to White male offenders…

…after controlling for violence in the offenders’ criminal history, the difference in sentence length between Black male offenders and White male offenders was 20.4 percent, a difference of only 0.3 percentage points from the results found without the additional data… Similarly, the difference in average sentence between the remaining offender groups was virtually identical to what it was without the additional data included in the analysis.

…the Commission found that the effect of the data about violent criminal history on the sentences imposed was, in itself, not statistically significant. That is, violence in an offender’s past did not have any independent effect on the sentence imposed over and above
the effect of the other variables measured. As discussed more fully
in the 2010 Booker Multivariate Analysis, interpreting regression analysis results depends on several factors. One primary factor is the “significance test,” which asks whether the results of the analysis for each independent variable are “statistically significant.” Statistical significance is a determination of the probability that the measured relationship between an independent variable and the dependent variable is the result of random chance (i.e., that the measured relationship does not, in fact, reflect a true association) ³⁶. The Commission found that the prior violence variable itself had no statistically significant effect on the dependent variable (i.e., sentence length) ³⁷. That is, it cannot be said that violence in an offender’s past has any true association with the sentence imposed.

In 2016, a Police Accountability Task Force in Chicago found that police searched black and Latino drivers four times as often as white drivers. However, police found contra-band on white drivers twice as often as black and Latino drivers.^59^

CPD’s traffic stop data also raise significant concerns regarding racial bias. In 2013, 46% of CPD’s 100,676 traffic stops involved black drivers, even though only 32% of the City’s population is black. White and Hispanic drivers were stopped at rates lower than their representation in the City’s population.¹¹¹

For both blacks and Hispanics, the disparity widens significantly when it comes to vehicle searches. In 2013, CPD was over four times more likely to search with consent vehicles of black and Hispanic motorists, compared to white motorists (4.74 and 4.09 times, respectively). CPD was also more likely to search without consent vehicles of black and Hispanic motorists, compared to white motorists (3.42 and 4.82 times).¹¹²

Given these numbers, one might expect that CPD finds contraband in vehicles of black and Hispanic motorists at higher rates. That is not the case. In fact, the opposite is true. In consent searches, CPD found contraband when officers searched white motorists twice as often compared to black and Hispanic motorists. The “hit rates” were 12% for black motorists, 13% for Hispanic motorists and 24% for white motorists. The same pattern held for searches without consent. The hit rates were 17% for black motorists, 20% for Hispanic motorists and 30% for white motorists.¹¹³ These numbers appear to suggest that black and Hispanic motorists are subject to a high number of vehicle searches even though CPD’s own data suggest that, relative to whites, they are less likely to have contraband.

The disparate impact on minority motorists is not limited to routine traffic stops. From 2008 through2013, CPD set up 84% of DUI checkpoints in predominantly black or Hispanic police districts.¹¹⁴ Moreover,between March and August 2015, CPD set up 14 DUI checkpoints: nine in majority-black police districts,four in majority-Hispanic districts, and only one in a majority-white district. Some majority-white police districts have more alcohol-related car crashes than many of these minority districts, raising significant questions about how CPD selects the locations for these DUI checkpoints.¹¹⁵

The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, which is considered the official measure of the national crime rate, has always emphasized street crime to the exclusion of organized and white-collar crime.^g As such, the figures that inform law enforcement strategies and priorities tend to reflect the crimes committed by low-income and unemployed Americans who, in part because of structural inequalities, are disproportionately black.