Study: 911 calls fell in black neighborhoods after police violence

[GMDino]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/09/29/study-911-calls-frank-jude-jr-calls-fell-black-neighborhoods-after-police-violence-unarmed-black-men/91258664/

Quote:MILWAUKEE --- The beating of Frank Jude Jr. 12 years ago by off-duty Milwaukee police officers rocked the city, leading to the largest number of firings in department history, federal convictions of seven officers and a series of reforms.


A new study reveals another unseen but far-reaching impact: Residents in predominantly black neighborhoods in Milwaukee were far less likely to call 911 for months after the beating.


That dropoff in 911 calls suggests the incident eroded trust and sharply damaged the relationship between the police and neighborhoods that often count on them the most, according to the study.


Controlling for crime and other factors, researchers found that 911 calls dropped by approximately 22,000 citywide over the following year, with the effect much higher in black neighborhoods, according to a first-of-its-kind study done by faculty from Harvard, Yale and Oxford universities. It was published Thursday in the American Sociological Review.


As 911 calls dropped, the city experienced a surge in homicides later in 2005, leading the authors to suggest the lack of reporting of crimes by citizens may have contributed to the spike in killings.


The researchers found another drop in 911 calls in predominantly black neighborhoods after the beating of Danyall Simpson by a Milwaukee police officer. And they also found evidence that an incident of police violence in another city might have contributed to a drop in 911 calls in Milwaukee.

The findings come at a time when high-profile cases of police-involved shootings contribute to unrest across the nation. Meanwhile, homicide figures have spiked in some cities, including Milwaukee.


The Jude beating was first reported in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation that described the extent of Jude's injuries and spotlighted the failure by police and state prosecutors to thoroughly investigate what would later be described as the torture of Jude by the officers outside an off-duty police party in Bay View in October 2004.


The study's lead author, Matthew Desmond, associate social sciences professor atHarvard University, said the research shows that 911 calls started dropping right after the Journal Sentinel investigation was published and stayed down over the following year.


"Something like the Frank Jude case tears the fabric apart so deeply and de-legitimizes the criminal justice system in the eyes of the African-American community that they stop relying on it in significant numbers," Desmond told the Journal Sentinel in an interview.

Frank Jude Jr. is shown in the hospital after he was beaten by off-duty Milwaukee police officers in October 2004. After the story of this beating and this photo became public, there was a sharp drop in 911 calls placed from predominantly black neighborhoods, a new study found. (Photo: Family photo)

Desmond, who recently published a book that examined the unseen effects of evictions on families and communities, did the study with Andrew Papachristos, associate professor of sociology at Yale University whose research focuses on gun violence, street gangs, social networks and neighborhoods; and David Kirk, associate sociology professor at the University of Oxford in England.


The study examined more than 1 million 911 calls in Milwaukee between 2004 and 2010.  To do the statistical analysis, the authors controlled for crime rates in different neighborhoods, weather and other factors. They also removed calls unrelated to crime including traffic, fires and medical emergencies.


The study found 911 calls fell by 20% in the city over that year and the drop was markedly larger in black neighborhoods. Over half of the drop in calls — 56% — happened in predominantly black neighborhoods, which account for 31% of all neighborhoods. Desmond said he was shocked when he first saw the size of the drop.


"That is a huge effect and it symbolizes that these are not isolated incidents because they don’t have isolated effects, they have community-wide effects and those effects can actually make the city less safe by driving down crime reporting and thwarting public safety efforts," he said.


The new findings run counter to a theory that has been advanced to explain the recent spike in homicides in some cities — that the increase is fueled by police becoming timid which emboldens criminals. Coined the "Ferguson Effect" in reference to unrest after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., the theory holds officers have become passive out of fear they will be investigated for uses of force.


In the Jude study, researchers found data suggesting people withdraw from the system after an incident of police violence. Papachristos said the study shows that police violence and other misconduct may result in a deepening of so-called "legal cynicism" — the idea that police are either unable or unwilling to help — within communities. That dynamic can perpetuate crime and distrust.


"Our contribution is putting this into cause and effect. Here's what happened and there's a very clear change in behavior. That's what we showed," 
Papachristos told the Journal Sentinel. "I really think the big takeaway is the effect that cynicism has on black communities. Not only does it impede sort of their view of the law, it actually further impedes their own safety."


'Blue wall of silence'
In October 2004, Jude, another black man and two women went to a late-night off-duty police party in Bay View, Wis. They stayed a short time, felt unwelcome and left.


But before the four could leave, off-duty officers surrounded their truck and pulled the men out, accusing them of stealing officer Andrew Spengler's badge. 
The other man, Lovell Harris, broke free and ran.


Jude was surrounded by off-duty officers and beaten savagely as he was down and handcuffed on the street. The officers kicked Jude in the head and body, cut off his pants, yanked back his fingers, jammed pens deep into both of his ears and put a gun to his head as they yelled racial slurs, according to court testimony. An on-duty officer arrived but rather than stop it, he joined in the beating.


Jude was arrested, put in a police wagon and taken to the hospital where he remained for several days. No badge was found; no charges were filed.


After the beating, none of the off-duty police officers at the scene would talk to internal department investigators, forming what officials would later call a "blue wall of silence."


Three months after the beating, in February 2005, the Journal Sentinel investigation publicly showed Jude's battered face and reported that no officers had been arrested or charged in the incident.


Three officers were later charged in state court but were acquitted. A subsequent FBI investigation resulted in charges against those three plus five other officers. Seven were convicted and one acquitted. The three main culprits received prison terms between 15 and 17 years.


Jude sued the city, eventually settling for $2 million. Jude, 38, of Wauwatosa, has been arrested and charged several times since the beating and is currently in jail, awaiting trial on charges of obstruction of a police officer in Milwaukee County.


Police calls fall
Immediately after the Journal Sentinel investigation into the Jude beating, there were calls for accountability by the public and elected officials, and protest marches.


In the days after the story, state prosecutors said they were noticing the Jude beating being mentioned during questioning in jury selection, especially by black jurors who expressed distrust in the system. The prosecutors called it "the Jude effect."


There was another effect unfolding at the same time, the study found. Calls to police were falling in black neighborhoods.


There was no drop off in 911 calls right after Jude was beaten, in October 2004, but that changed when Jude's picture was published in the Journal Sentinel in February 2005.


To test if all calls went down for an unforeseen reason, the authors examined traffic-related 911 calls under the theory that they would not be affected by the Jude beating because people report crashes for practical reasons like insurance coverage. The authors found the traffic calls did not drop.


In the six months after 911 calls began to drop, there was an increase in homicides, the study noted. The researchers looked at homicides because unlike other crimes, the numbers would not be affected by the lack of crime reporting.

There were 87 homicides in the six months after Jude's beating became public, which was the highest in the seven-year period studied, from 2004 to 2010.
The authors did not list the increase in homicides under the study's findings, but they examined it as a possible effect of the drop in 911 calls.


Desmond said they could not, in this study, definitely say the drop in calls is the reason homicides spiked, but added, "I think the pattern of homicide data does suggest the drop in crime reporting in the immediate aftermath of Frank Jude might have contributed to that spike in a major way."


The study found that the calls to 911 from black neighborhoods did not rebound when officers were charged or fired. Rather, the calls simply came back slowly on their own, Desmond said. The authors think that's because residents realized they had no alternative but to use the system.

Second case, similar pattern
Researchers found another drop in 911 calls, this time after publication of a separate Journal Sentinel investigation that examined injuries suffered by 19-year-old Simpson in May 2006.


Milwaukee police officer James Langer hit Simpson in the face with a flashlight, breaking Simpson’s eye socket and cheekbone while responding to a complaint of public urination. Soon after the department began an internal investigation, Langer quit. Prosecutors declined to prosecute him.
The Journal Sentinel found Langer used force far more often than fellow officers and hit people with a flashlight at least three times during his three years on the job.


The Journal Sentinel investigation reported on Simpson's injuries and published a picture of his bloodied face in February 2007. Shortly after that story was published, 911 calls again began to drop in black Milwaukee neighborhoods, the study found.


The authors did not examine effects on the homicide numbers after Simpson's injuries became public. Figures show that homicides in 2007 were down compared with the months after the Jude beating.


The researchers also tested to see if police violence in other cities had an effect on 911 calls in Milwaukee. The results were mixed. In the case of Sean Bell who was fatally shot in late 2006 in New York, they found calls here dropped. However, 911 calls in Milwaukee did not appear to be affected by the fatal police shooting of Oscar Grant in the subway in Oakland in early 2009.


There have been many more incidents of high-profile in-custody deaths in recent years. In the light of the new study, there are natural questions: Are 911 calls dropping in black neighborhoods in Tulsa or will they in San Diego? Is this a possible explanation for why Milwaukee, St. Louis and Baltimore saw large spikes in homicides last year?



Based on what they found in Milwaukee, Desmond and his fellow researchers say those are areas ripe for more study.

[Mike M (the other one)]

So 2 rare incidences over a 12 year period causes black communities to stop calling 911, even though the cops in the first incident were convicted. The cop on the second incident is no longer on the force.
Because they stop calling, homicides go up.
Sounds self-inflicting to me.

[GMDino]

(09-29-2016, 12:15 PM)Mike M (the other one) Wrote: So 2 rare incidences over a 12 year period causes black communities to stop calling 911, even though the cops in the first incident were convicted. The cop on the second incident is no longer on the force.
Because they stop calling, homicides go up.
Sounds self-inflicting to me.

Huh.

I guess you could see that way.

You *could* see it like a community became afraid because of the actions of the people they thought were there to protect them.  And that those actions reinforced a growing feeling that a lot of unreported/uninvestigated/unpunished incidents also go on.

But you could blame the community for not trusting the police when there are "rare incidents" where citizens were beaten.

You could also ignore how the officers who committed the crime handled it and how that might add to the citizen's mistrust.

You could see it that way.

[JustWinBaby]

So people stopped calling 911....because the cops might beat the criminal?

[*PhilHos*]

(09-29-2016, 12:20 PM)GMDino Wrote: You *could* see it like a community became afraid because of the actions of the people they thought were there to protect them.  And that those actions reinforced a growing feeling that a lot of unreported/uninvestigated/unpunished incidents also go on.

You could see that. I still think they're idiots for not calling the police anyways. I don't care how bad my police department is; I don't care if the largely hispanic and black police department is hugely racist and openly hates whites (they're not and they don't, FYI), if I find my house broken into or my wife raped/murdered, you better be damn sure I'm calling the cops.

What I find funny about this type of argument, Dino, is that after a group of black teens beat up someone in my neighborhood, if I said I was fearful of black teenagers, I'd be called a racist. It's like on hand, you can kind of understand their argument, but then on the other, you're guilty of judging an entire group based on the actions of the few. Something I know that YOU'RE against, at least when it comes to minorities and Muslims. 

[GMDino]

(09-29-2016, 12:38 PM)PhilHos Wrote: You could see that. I still think they're idiots for not calling the police anyways. I don't care how bad my police department is; I don't care if the largely hispanic and black police department is hugely racist and openly hates whites (they're not and they don't, FYI), if I find my house broken into or my wife raped/murdered, you better be damn sure I'm calling the cops.

What I find funny about this type of argument, Dino, is that after a group of black teens beat up someone in my neighborhood, if I said I was fearful of black teenagers, I'd be called a racist. It's like on hand, you can kind of understand their argument, but then on the other, you're guilty of judging an entire group based on the actions of the few. Something I know that YOU'RE against, at least when it comes to minorities and Muslims. 

Well I always try to look at it as who has the power.  A group of teens vs the police.  One I expect to respect the rights of its citzens as it is their job and they can take away your rights (and life) legally.

But can I reverse that and say if a group of police beat a black man to a pulp you would say its not racism because it's an isolated incident?  Something you probably wouldn't do since you know people who accused a group of black kids would be called racist too.

[GMDino]

(09-29-2016, 12:33 PM)JustWinBaby Wrote: So people stopped calling 911....because the cops might beat the criminal?

Because they lost (more) trust in the police.  Because they got the feeling that the police really didn't care about them since they beat one of them to a pulp.

Maybe.

[*PhilHos*]

(09-29-2016, 12:55 PM)GMDino Wrote: Well I always try to look at it as who has the power.  A group of teens vs the police.  One I expect to respect the rights of its citzens as it is their job and they can take away your rights (and life) legally.

But can I reverse that and say if a group of police beat a black man to a pulp you would say its not racism because it's an isolated incident?  Something you probably wouldn't do since you know people who accused a group of black kids would be called racist too.

Well, I ain't no Jackie Chan sooooooooooooooooo I don't see how I have power over the teens. Then again, my point was about labeling a whole group negatively based on the actions of a select few, so I don't see how power has any role in this debate.

As to a group of police beating a black man to a pulp, it depends on the situation. If it's a group of white police officers and there was absolutely no reason to be violent (let alone taking multiple police officers to do so), then I'd probably say it WAS racist. See, I am capable of seeing racism when it's actually present. 

[*PhilHos*]

(09-29-2016, 12:56 PM)GMDino Wrote: Because they lost (more) trust in the police.  Because they got the feeling that the police really didn't care about them since they beat one of them to a pulp.

Maybe.

Maybe I don't trust black kids that come into my store, because one time a black kid robbed me at gunpoint. Maybe that doesn't make me racist.

Maybe.

[GMDino]

(09-29-2016, 01:05 PM)PhilHos Wrote: Well, I ain't no Jackie Chan sooooooooooooooooo I don't see how I have power over the teens. Then again, my point was about labeling a whole group negatively based on the actions of a select few, so I don't see how power has any role in this debate.

As to a group of police beating a black man to a pulp, it depends on the situation. If it's a group of white police officers and there was absolutely no reason to be violent (let alone taking multiple police officers to do so), then I'd probably say it WAS racist. See, I am capable of seeing racism when it's actually present. 

Did you read the article about the attack?

[*PhilHos*]

(09-29-2016, 01:09 PM)GMDino Wrote: Did you read the article about the attack?

No, but I never said it was or it wasn't racist, either.

[GMDino]

(09-29-2016, 01:16 PM)PhilHos Wrote: No, but I never said it was or it wasn't racist, either.

Yeah, you need to read what happened to put the community reactions into perspective:

Quote:In October 2004, Jude, another black man and two women went to a late-night off-duty police party in Bay View, Wis. They stayed a short time, felt unwelcome and left.



But before the four could leave, off-duty officers surrounded their truck and pulled the men out, accusing them of stealing officer Andrew Spengler's badge. 
The other man, Lovell Harris, broke free and ran.


Jude was surrounded by off-duty officers and beaten savagely as he was down and handcuffed on the street. The officers kicked Jude in the head and body, cut off his pants, yanked back his fingers, jammed pens deep into both of his ears and put a gun to his head as they yelled racial slurs, according to court testimony. An on-duty officer arrived but rather than stop it, he joined in the beating.


Jude was arrested, put in a police wagon and taken to the hospital where he remained for several days. No badge was found; no charges were filed.


After the beating, none of the off-duty police officers at the scene would talk to internal department investigators, forming what officials would later call a "blue wall of silence."





Three months after the beating, in February 2005, the Journal Sentinel investigation publicly showed Jude's battered face and reported that no officers had been arrested or charged in the incident.


Three officers were later charged in state court but were acquitted. A subsequent FBI investigation resulted in charges against those three plus five other officers. Seven were convicted and one acquitted. The three main culprits received prison terms between 15 and 17 years.

Not reading the whole thing before you respond that its nonsense it, uh, nonsense.

[*PhilHos*]

(09-29-2016, 01:20 PM)GMDino Wrote: Yeah, you need to read what happened to put the community reactions into perspective:




Not reading the whole thing before you respond that its nonsense it, uh, nonsense.

I was talking about not calling 911 when you're a victim because of a single instance. But after reading what actually happened, that makes me think they're even stupider. We're talking about cops that were off-duty. Sure, the way that reads those cops should not only be fired, but sent to prison for a long time, but I still fail to see how that one incident means people aren't going to call the cops when there's someone in their house or their family member was raped or there stuff was stolen.

I could understand, somewhat, if we're talking about uniformed cops pulling that kind of shit after being called to the scene of an alleged crime, but we're not. Do these idiots expect that if they call the cops because their house was burgled the cops are going to come in and beat the shit out of them? It sure sounds like that's what they expected.

I could also understand them not being trustworthy of the police if they wanted to report police wrongdoing, but we're not talking about that. We're talking about the failure to call 911. It's stupid. It's like complaining about racist white police in the form of destroying black businesses. They're only hurting themselves.

[GMDino]

(09-30-2016, 01:18 PM)PhilHos Wrote: I was talking about not calling 911 when you're a victim because of a single instance. But after reading what actually happened, that makes me think they're even stupider. We're talking about cops that were off-duty. Sure, the way that reads those cops should not only be fired, but sent to prison for a long time, but I still fail to see how that one incident means people aren't going to call the cops when there's someone in their house or their family member was raped or there stuff was stolen.

I could understand, somewhat, if we're talking about uniformed cops pulling that kind of shit after being called to the scene of an alleged crime, but we're not. Do these idiots expect that if they call the cops because their house was burgled the cops are going to come in and beat the shit out of them? It sure sounds like that's what they expected.

I could also understand them not being trustworthy of the police if they wanted to report police wrongdoing, but we're not talking about that. We're talking about the failure to call 911. It's stupid. It's like complaining about racist white police in the form of destroying black businesses. They're only hurting themselves.

We're talking about a community that already thinks they get the short straw from the police...whether true or not...now seeing a group of officers (even if off-duty) beating a community member to a pulp and backing each other up to try and cover it up.



If you had a couple relationships where your woman cheated on you and you had multiple friends that were cheated on would you not have at least a little reservation when you were in a new relationship?

And that would with a much larger pool to pull from (women) than the police who are in their area for example.

Trust is easy to lose and hard to rebuild.  And *if* there was already a trust issue (and again, even a misguided one) and incident like the beating would do a tremendous amount of harm to whatever trust there was left.

[NATI BENGALS]

Wonder if it could have anything to do with music released by two pretty well known rappers? Who happened to release somgs related to snitching right in the timeframe of this study.

https://youtu.be/OlqRGJeiUiw
https://youtu.be/2cWDfl93qXM

[GMDino]

(10-01-2016, 01:29 AM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: Wonder if it could have anything to do with music released by two pretty well known rappers? Who happened to release somgs related to snitching right in the timeframe of this study.

https://youtu.be/OlqRGJeiUiw
https://youtu.be/2cWDfl93qXM

I'm sure a couple rap songs had much more effect on the community as a whole than a group of off duty police officers beating a man and then stoning up about it.

No doubt.

[NATI BENGALS]

(10-01-2016, 01:35 AM)GMDino Wrote: I'm sure a couple rap songs had much more effect on the community as a whole than a group of off duty police officers beating a man and then stoning up about it.

No doubt.

Yea you are right , music being influenced by culture and having a cultural impact is outlandish. 

[GMDino]

(10-01-2016, 01:46 AM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: Yea you are right , music being influenced by culture and having a cultural impact is outlandish. 

Nope.  

But using it to try and offset a brutal beating is.

All seriousness aside there could be other reasons the 911 calls dropped.  The article and the study say that.

But a couple rap songs?  Get serious.

[JustWinBaby]

(10-01-2016, 01:35 AM)GMDino Wrote: I'm sure a couple rap songs had much more effect on the community as a whole than a group of off duty police officers beating a man and then stoning up about it.

No doubt.

I'd be willing to bet more people heard about the rap song than the cops.

No doubt.

And that might help explain the entirely irrational logic of why someone is being robbed but won't call the cops.

[JustWinBaby]

(10-01-2016, 01:51 AM)GMDino Wrote: But a couple rap songs?  Get serious.

NWA's music caused riots.

Yes, serious.