The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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This section of the interview asks the question, “Do you feel that the police are
always picking on blacks” The self report indicates that 28 percent of the blacks felt that
police officers always picked on blacks, while only 11 percent of the whites thought
blacks were always picked on. About the same number of whites and blacks felt the
police sometimes picked on blacks (33 percent of the whites, 38 percent of the blacks),
while 35 percent of the blacks felt police never picked on blacks.
Fifty-seven
percent of the whites felt the police never picked on blacks (Tables 3, 4).
The views found in the self reports can also be seen in the open ended interviews.
In the interviews, the majority of the youth feel that police are not picking on blacks in
their own community, however, it is believed to happen in other places. A few white
youth think that police do pick on blacks in Woodbury county and their quotes are
particularly meaningful. The rest have never witnessed this behavior. A sample of their
quotes:
Black youth
No, ma’am.
I don’t know. I guess sometimes. I’ve never seen it but people tell me that.
White youth
I don’t know if they do here, but I’m sure that some do.
No. The Rodney King deal, yeah. I haven’t seen it around here.
No. But some of them act like, I’m a cop and I can arrest you if I want to.
Some do. Sometime they are a little bit rougher, like they might push them
a little more.
No.
A: I think they treat black kids better sometimes, cause they’re scared
maybe. I think cops are scared.