Should we use experience or data? How to discuss the state of policing

Published June 8, 2020 6:25pm ET



Protesters on the front lines have not spent their pandemic lockdowns studying data from the FBI or Bureau of Justice Statistics, in anticipation of the day when they would go public en masse equipped with a case.

The visible outrage ignited by George Floyd’s death hasn’t been driven by data. It has been driven by a video showing the entire event of his horrific death and, preceding all that, years of experiences of African Americans’ interactions with police.

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