I listen carefully when the local newscasters drop their fake “buddy buddy banter” and read an actual news story. I am constantly amazed at the blatant attempt to give every detail of a crime except the race of the perpetrator.

In a recent TV news story several members of a white family were killed by the boyfriend of one of the daughters. Among the dead were the father, a sister and the grandmother. The daughter was seriously injured as was the mother of the family, all stabbed repeatedly in what was described as a blood bath. The TV news crews covered every aspect of the crime scene and the lives of the victims, going so far as having video of the murdered sister’s high school and the church they attended. They named the boyfriend and gave information about where he lived and worked. The only item missing from the report was that the killer was black.

The August 2nd Chicago Tribune ran a front page article, complete with pictures of a police news conference, detailing violent attacks on pedestrians in Chicago’s upscale Lincoln Park neighborhood. In the 531 word piece the paper detailed the attacks and the victims. The paper gave no description of the group of men who were sneaking up on unsuspecting victims, immediately beating them in the face and head and then stealing their wallets and cell phones. I thought perhaps as these attacks occurred at night and were so sudden and unexpected that nobody got a good look at the attackers. But a when I called the police desk I was told the perpetrators were a group of black men between 15 and 20 years old.

Why has it become standard procedure for news outlets to leave out racial description when discussing crimes committed by minorities? Don’t they think it is an important part of the overall description of the crime and the criminal?

As I explained yesterday, we cannot have a true and honest discussion without including all the facts. The ACLU is up in arms about the number of minorities pulled over by police, but until they catch these violent predators I hope that police pull over and investigate every group of young black men they see cruising the streets of Lincoln Park at night. God help us if the police ever get to the point of reluctance in investigating crimes because they don’t want to skew some study results on racial profiling. That would be as stupid and dangerous as announcing to your enemy when you are going to withdraw your troops.

I understand the frustration for every law abiding group of young black men that gets pulled over, but they must understand that the problem is not an act of prejudice but rather an investigation based on a description. They should be mad at the group of black attackers that caused the heightened sense of alarm. Police are not going to waste their time investigating groups of blacks if the description of the attackers is red haired Irish kids.

An honest and open discussion on race relations begins with honesty and openness, not some politically correct concept of protecting racial identity so as not to appear prejudiced. The Tribune online edition has a section of Chicago Police mugshots from recent arrests. I took a look at the latest 100 booking photos. The number of minorities was about 5 to 1 over whites. You can say it’s because police are focused on minorities but that doesn’t say that the minorities didn’t actually commit the crime. Look at the minority population in prisons, look at the number of minorities in the court system, look at the minority rate of high school drop outs, look at the minority rate of unwed pregnancy, look at the minority rate of single parent households, look at the minority rate of drug abuse, look at the minority rate of welfare recipients, all of these factors hopelessly binding them to a system of government handouts designed to keep them dependent and poor. All of this matters if we are going to actually be honest about race relations and move the discussion forward.

Or are we really just looking for more of the same.

We’ll bring this discussion to a head tomorrow.

As the country continues its preordained, politically correct discussion on race, the facts are getting skewed by the intentional misuse of misleading statistics. To be sure, statistical studies are an important tool in problem solving. But in order to find root cause solutions or even carry on a meaningful discussion one must first be willing to incorporate all the facts.

Industry has adopted a statistical system of process management and problem solving through the advancement of Six Sigma programs. These Six Sigma projects teach the importance of addressing all issues involved when attempting to find the root cause problem and implement solutions. The goal in these sometimes very time consuming activities is to zero in on the correct remedy rather than take a shot gun approach or worse yet attempt to debate a problem to death. It demands careful analysis and a true willingness to change based on the results of the study.

While the positive impact on industry from this approach has been profound, the supposed discussion the country is engaged in regarding race relations lacks several of the key features necessary for success. Rarely are all the facts addressed when discussing race and even less frequently is the discussion based on a willingness of all parties involved to actually change anything. We can discuss until we all turn blue, but rather than looking for solutions most of the discussion is simply trying to attach culpability.

Such is the case with the recent release of traffic studies of Illinois communities and the state as a whole. The Chicago Tribune carried a front page article ambiguously suggesting that while police search an inordinate percentage of minority driven vehicles at traffic stops, a higher percentage of white drivers actually have contraband found when searched. The study showed officers found contraband in 15.4% of the cases for minorities as opposed to 24.7% for whites. The ACLU jumped on this statistic as proof of unwarranted searches on minorities. But while it was mentioned that these were “consent searches” no other explanation of what that means was given. Once again, in an attempt to assure a particular conclusion not all the facts are included.

A “consent search” is conducted only if the driver gives his permission. There are actually very few “consent searches” performed, accounting for a mere 1% of all traffic stops. If the driver refuses the request to search his vehicle and officers still have probable cause to believe a search will render some form of contraband, other means are used to get legal authority to conduct the search. The results of these searches are not included in these statistics as they are no longer considered a “consent search”. The reality is that minority drivers are far less likely to allow a “consent search”, whether they have something to hide or not. It also shows that while whites are more likely to give consent they are not nearly as clever as they think they are in concealing their contraband.

The purpose of releasing these study results as they were is not to further the discussion on race but rather to promote a particular outcome to the discussion as illustrated by comments made by ACLU of Illinois spokesman Ed Yohnka. He said “There is just a predisposition to believe that minorities have contraband….. The data and indisputable nature of this is exactly what the president was talking about…..”

The ACLU is also filing complaints citing that in Chicago minority drivers are 4 times more likely to get searched than whites. But this statistic tells us nothing about the nature of the stop, the nature of the occupants in the car or the neighborhood in which the stop was conducted. I hate to break the news to the ACLU but there are a lot more drugs and guns rolling down the streets in the poor minority neighborhoods of Chicago than there are in the wealthy neighborhoods.

Just a quick glance at the violent crime statistics in the city will explain why more minority vehicles are searched. To somehow try to tie race to police enforcement without accounting for crime levels in the areas being patrolled is patently misleading and unimaginably dangerous.

If you want to have an honest and open discussion about race I’m all for it. But let’s start with all the facts and work our way from there.

More tomorrow.