Racist Dogs! Los Angeles Police Dogs Increased Recorded Bites On Latinos And African-Americans
Policemen have long faced allegations of racism. Some have been convicted. Now, even their trained canines seem to have picked up their discriminatory ways.
As a premier American city, Los Angeles is a hub for cultural diversity. The mix of races will increase the accusations of racism whenever there's a conflict. The Independent cited the data published in a new report by the Police Assessment Resource Centre (Parc) which showed that that there was a vast increase of incidents where members of cultural minorities were bitten by LASD (Los Angeles Sheriff's Department . The data traces all the way back to 2004. Parc is a Los Angeles-based non-profit organisation, devoted to "advancing effective and accountable policing".
Even more alarming: "in the first six months of this year, every single victim of a bite by a LASD dog was African-American or Latino.The data was published in a new report by the Police Assessment Resource Centre (Parc), a Los Angeles-based non-profit organisation," The purpose of the study was "advancing effective and accountable policing".
"According to Parc records, the number of Latino individuals bitten by LASD canines went up 30 per cent between 2004 and 2012, from 30 to 39 bites. The number of African-Americans bitten increased by 33 per cent over the same period."
The report also analyzed the methods used by policemen in certain areas. In LASD areas of jurisdiction, injuries caused by dog bites have a much higher rate than alternative deterrents such as batons, tear gas and even guns.
"Crime rates are lower in these areas, but the stark disparity leads us to wonder why canine deployments seem to occur disproportionately in less affluent areas with larger minority populations. During the period covered in the report, the largely black or Latino areas of Century, City of Industry, Compton, Lakewood and South LA/Lennox suffered more dog bites than all of LASD's other 21 districts combined."
It is not determined as to why the police prefer to use dogs in these areas instead of other methods.
