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"A study by a Harvard professor released this month found no evidence of racial bias in police shootings even though officers were more likely to interact physically with non-whites than whites."

"The paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research, which examined thousands of incidents at 10 large police departments in California, Florida and Texas, concluded that police were no more likely to shoot non-whites than whites after factoring in extenuating circumstances."

"Mr. Fryer, who is black, told The New York Times that the finding of no racial discrimination in police shootings was “the most surprising result of my career.”

At the same time, the study found blacks and Hispanics were more than 50 percent more likely to experience physical interactions with police, including touching, pushing, handcuffing, drawing a weapon, and using a baton or pepper spray."

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A study by a Harvard professor released this month found no evidence of racial bias in police shootings even though officers were more likely to interact physically with non-whites than whites.

The paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research, which examined thousands of incidents at 10 large police departments in California, Florida and Texas, concluded that police were no more likely to shoot non-whites than whites after factoring in extenuating circumstances.

"On the most extreme use of force - officer-involved shootings - we find no racial differences in either the raw data or when contextual factors are taken into account," said Harvard economics professor Roland G. Fryer Jr. in the abstract of the July 2016 paper.

Mr. Fryer, who is black, told The New York Times that the finding of no racial discrimination in police shootings was "the most surprising result of my career."

At the same time, the study found blacks and Hispanics were more than 50 percent more likely to experience physical interactions with police, including touching, pushing, handcuffing, drawing a weapon, and using a baton or pepper spray.

The 63-page study, "An Empirical Analysis of Racial Differences in Police Use of Force," appears to support research conducted at Washington State University showing that officers in simulation tests were actually less likely to shoot at blacks than whites.
SEE ALSO: Police kill more whites than blacks, but minority deaths generate more outrage: analysis
The paper also challenges the contention by the new wave of civil-rights groups such as Black Lives Matter that racist police are singling out blacks for shootings.

The findings are nothing if not timely, coming after protests spurred by two deadly incidents earlier this month involving black men shot and killed by police in Louisiana and Minnesota.

Their deaths, which are under review, spurred a sniper attack on police Thursday in Dallas during a Black Lives Matter march that left five officers dead and seven injured.

The 25-year-old gunman, Micah Xavier Johnson, told negotiators he wanted to take out white people, especially officers. He was killed after Dallas police detonated a remote-control robot in his vicinity after he refused for hours to exit a college building.

Mr. Fryer's study found that police are 50 percent more likely to engage in physical interactions with blacks and Hispanics, including touching, pushing and drawing weapons.

"Adding controls that account for important context and civilian behavior reduces, but cannot fully explain, these disparities," the paper said.
SEE ALSO:
The study examined data collected in six Texas cities, three Florida counties and Los Angeles County, as well as New York City's Stop, Question and Frisk program.

Mr. Fryer said that the "importance of our results for racial inequality is unclear."

"It is plausible that racial differences in lower level uses of force are simply a distraction and movements such as Black Lives Matter should seek solutions within their own communities rather than changing the behaviors of police and other external forces," he said in the study's conclusion.

"Much more troubling, due to their frequency and potential impact on minority belief formation, is the possibility that racial differences in police use of nonlethal force have spillovers on myriad dimensions of racial inequality," Mr. Fryer said.

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No racial bias in police shootings, study by Harvard professor shows

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A study by a Harvard professor released this month found no evidence of racial bias in police shootings even though officers were more likely to interact physically with non-whites than whites.

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"Maher began the panel discussion Friday night by recapping the "rage" that has unfolded in the past weeks between the mass shootings in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay, the release of bodycam footage of the attack on Paul Pelosi as well as the growing police brutality case out of Memphis.  He noted that two older Asian men were responsible for the California massacres while five Black police officers were responsible for Nichols' death."

"'We go through this ritual when we wait for them to announce the race of the shooter… because somehow to a lot of people that's the most important thing,' Maher said. 'And I just thought it was very interesting that this week, Asians were killed by Asians — two Asian men who are, you know, 66 and 72. And then this week, we just got this video of the Memphis Five, a Black man is brutally beaten in Memphis by five cops. They're all Black."'

"'We hear about a horrible incident and we wait to see the race or identity of the perpetrator and the race and identity of the victim and we know exactly how it will play based on that, but to the family of the person that's murdered, does it matter?' Weiss asked. 'I don't really think it does."'

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Bill Maher says Tyre Nichols, California shootings prove America’s culture of violence goes ‘deeper than race’

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Late night host Bill Maher found a common thread between the mass shootings in California and the police brutality case in Memphis that America’s violence go beyond race.

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"Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, in a news conference Sunday, delivered a step-by-step recounting of the attack that police say came from a man armed with an assault-style weapon who wrote a manifesto of hate against Jewish people. One of Goldstein’s fingers was shot off in the assault, and another was badly injured."

“‘We are a Jewish nation that will stand tall! We will not let anyone or anything take us down! Terrorism like this will not take us down!' he said he told his congregants.

'We just came from Passover at the Seder table; we sang a song ... that God has protected us, that in every generation they rise up against us. But God will protect us,' he said."

“'The message needs to be brought out to the public: How does a 19-year-old, a teenager, have the audacity, the sickness, the hatred, to publicize such anti-Semitism in his manifesto? How does he come here to a house of worship and do what he did?' the rabbi said."

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Goldstein began his remarks by recounting the moments before the shooting.

"Here we are in the lobby, on one of the holiest days of the year, the last day of Passover, smiling at each other, and I walk into the banquet hall to wash my hands. I walk two, three footsteps when I hear a loud bang," he said. "I thought Lori may have fell or the table tipped over in the lobby.

"I turn around and I see a sight that I - undescribable. Here is a young man standing with a rifle, pointing right at me. And I look at him. He had sunglasses on. I couldn't see his eyes, I couldn't see his soul. I froze," he said.

"My first concern was, what's with Lori? Where did that noise come from? What's happened to Lori? And as soon as I did that, I took a look, and more shots came running right at me. And I lifted up my hands. I lost my index finger on this hand after four hours of surgery yesterday to try to save the index finger on the left hand," he said.

"I turn around and I saw the children that were playing in the banquet hall. I ran to gather them together. My granddaughter, 4 1/2 years old, sees her grandpa with a bleeding hand and sees me screaming and shouting, 'Get out, get out!'" he said. "She didn't deserve to see her grandfather like this."

A Border Patrol agent who, the rabbi said, "recently discovered his Jewish roots" was there. The rabbi told him when he first started coming to the synagogue, "You work for the Border Patrol. Please arm yourself when you are here; we never know when we will need it."

When the shooter's gun jammed, the rabbi said, another member of the synagogue, "Oscar Stewart, a former soldier, jumped into action. He tried to tackle down the gunman. The gunman just exited, ran away, got into his car."

Shortly after, the San Diego sheriff confirmed that Stewart, 51, "rushed the shooting suspect" in an "act of courage."

Stewart chased "after the suspect as he fled the synagogue to a vehicle parked nearby." The Border Patrol agent yelled at Stewart to get out of the way and opened fire on the car.

"The message needs to be brought out to the public: How does a 19-year-old, a teenager, have the audacity, the sickness, the hatred, to publicize such anti-Semitism in his manifesto? How does he come here to a house of worship and do what he did?" the rabbi said.

"Perhaps we need to go back a little earlier and think about what are we teaching our children. What are we educating our children?" he said.

The rabbi also said that he got a phone call from President Donald Trump and they spoke for 10 to 15 minutes. "I was amazed to answer the phone and say the secretary of the White House was calling," he said." It's the first time I've ever spoken to a president of the United States of America. He shared with me condolences on behalf of the United States of America.

"And he spoke about his love of peace and Judaism and Israel," he said. "He was so comforting. I'm grateful to our president for taking the time [to] share with us his comfort and consolation."

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"We Are A Jewish Nation That Will Stand Tall": The Rabbi Whose Synagogue Was Attacked Delivered A Sermon After His Fingers Were Shot Off

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Goldstein began his remarks by recounting the moments before the shooting. "Here we are in the lobby, on one of the holiest days of the year, the last day of Passover, smiling at each other, and I walk into the banquet hall to wash my hands.

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"Since 2019, gun violence has become the leading cause of death among Americans under age 18, surpassing car accidents. A closer look at the numbers reveals even more alarming trends, especially among young African Americans."

"And even more remarkable than the jump in gun deaths was the racial breakdown. In the 2021 data, the Pew Research Center found that Black children were hit much harder than other young people."

"Among African American children, the rate of gun deaths per 100,000 people was 11.8. That was more than five times the figure for other racial and ethnic groups. For white children and Hispanics, the figure was 2.3 per 100,000, and for Asian children, it was even lower, at 0.9."

"The difference in the 2021 numbers suggests a very different problem and challenge among Black children, which is confirmed when look at what drove gun deaths by race."

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Alarming rise in youth gun deaths breaks down very differently by race

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A closer look at the numbers reveals even more alarming trends, especially among young African Americans.

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"Two shootings that authorities say were carried out by elderly Asian men follow a spike in Asian Americans buying guns during the COVID-19 pandemic."

"This past Saturday night in Monterey Park, a predominantly Asian American city in California, the first Lunar New Year celebration since the pandemic began was kicking off when a gunman entered a ballroom dance hall and opened fire, killing 11 and injuring several more."

"The shootings come after gun ownership soared during the pandemic, with firearm sales to Asian Americans rising by an estimated 43 percent in the first half of 2020, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation.  Although data on firearm use among Asian Americans is limited, they have had low gun ownership rates historically, The Guardian reported last year."

"But Asian Americans who experienced increased acts of racism at the start of the pandemic were more likely to buy firearms and ammunition for self-defense, a study by researchers at the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University (EMU) found last year."

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Two shootings that authorities say were carried out by elderly Asian men follow a spike in Asian Americans buying guns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This past Saturday night in Monterey Park, a predominantly Asian American city in California, the first Lunar New Year celebration since the pandemic began was kicking off when a gunman entered a ballroom dance hall and opened fire, killing 11 and injuring several more.

The suspect, Huu Can Tran, 72, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound as police closed in on his white van the following day, authorities said.

As that community began mourning, another mass shooting left seven people dead at two landscaping nurseries in the California city of Half Moon Bay on Monday afternoon. Officers arrested a suspect, 67-year-old Chunli Zhao, after they found him in his car in the parking lot of a sheriff's substation. The victims reportedly were Chinese and Latino farmworkers.

The back-to-back shootings have left Asian American communities reeling, with advocacy groups calling them yet another blow after years of rising anti-Asian violence around the nation.

The shootings come after gun ownership soared during the pandemic, with firearm sales to Asian Americans rising by an estimated 43 percent in the first half of 2020, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

Although data on firearm use among Asian Americans is limited, they have had low gun ownership rates historically, The Guardian reported last year.

But Asian Americans who experienced increased acts of racism at the start of the pandemic were more likely to buy firearms and ammunition for self-defense, a study by researchers at the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University (EMU) found last year.

Asian Americans who perceived more cultural racism, including on social media, were also more likely to purchase a gun, the study found after collecting data in December 2020 and January 2021 from a representative national sample of 916 adults who identified as Asian American.

The findings indicated "an urgent need to investigate further the compounded effects of racism, the COVID-19 pandemic and firearm-related behaviors in this population," said Tsu-Yin Wu, the study's lead author and the director of EMU's Center for Health Disparities Innovation and Studies.

The research has shown that "racism and anti-Asian hate has resulted in increased risks for firearm ownership and intent to purchase more ammunition," she told Newsweek.

"Time is of the essence while we're waiting for sensible gun policies to become existent," Wu said. "We need to guard ourselves with other solutions for mental health, community awareness on firearm ownership and education."

"It's absolutely horrific to think about what victims' families and our communities have been through, left with so much fear and loss."

Sylvia Chan-Malik, an associate professor at Rutgers University, told Newsweek another factor is that Asian American elders may be less likely to seek mental health treatment.

"Our communities, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, East Asian communities that are now in diaspora in the United States are all communities that have gone through intense traumas before arriving in the United States," said Chan-Malik, who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area.

She continued: "Collective traumas, displacement, poverty, authoritarian governments...they are people who have trauma in their backgrounds, if not personally then collectively in their families.

"Mental health is a huge issue because it's not one that elderly Asian Americans are going to go seek treatment for," Chan-Malik said. "So these types of traumatic histories do, I believe, make them more susceptible to particular ideologies and prone to turning to violence."
Update 1/25/23, 7:06 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to add comments from Tsu-Yin Wu.

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California shootings come after spike in Asian Americans buying guns

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Two shootings that authorities say were carried out by elderly Asian men follow a spike in Asian Americans buying guns during the COVID-19 pandemic. This past Saturday night in Monterey Park, a predominantly Asian American city in California, the first Lunar New Year celebration since the pandemic began was kicking off when a gunman entered a ballroom dance hall and opened fire, killing 11 and injuring several more.