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Milestones — they seem so important when they’re far away and then you arrive at them and then it suddenly doesn’t seem such a big deal. At the start of the year, we had some big plans to mark this achievement (if that’s what you can call it), but then the lockdown happened, and well, the rest is…But, don’t fear — we actually put together a great show with a great guest: Roland Fryer, Professor of Economics at Harvard –making his Ricochet Podcast debut. His studies on changing the behavior of cops and racial differences in police use of deadly force are the gold standard and are used by police departments all over the world to write policies on training and engagement with civilians. It’s a fascinating conversation. We also do some reminiscing, some teasing, and some looking ahead to the next 500 (!) shows. Thanks for listening, sticking with us, and for all the thousands of great comments. We’ll do this again in 2030.
Music from this week’s show: The Proclaimers – I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)
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Sorry, Yeti pointed out it was Rob.
This is the kind of thing I was also thinking about, when I mentioned that it’s not a “static” thing.
The problem with demographic statistics is that they are correlated with each other: race, location, income, class, health, … I am skeptical, whenever anyone attributes causation to any particular demographic factor without carefully controlling for all other demographic factors. People are complicated and multivariate regression is a simplistic analysis.
I am skeptical whenever anyone claims to be “controlling for…” damn near anything, really.
I’m at the beginning of the podcast. First of all I really appreciate what you guys are saying about the lockdown. Perfect. It reminds me of, an interview on Thursday night’s Breitbart News Tonight with Dr. Ron Elfenbein. That guy said everything I’ve ever wanted to hear about all of this, perfectly. He just nailed it. Perfect criticism of the communication and management of the situation. Explained how to think about masks and the policy around it perfectly. It sounds like he’s sort of conservative or libertarian, but he did not say anything radical in that sense. I looked up an older video of him and it was similar. I really wish you’d consider getting him as a guest.
Andrew Breitbart’s book was really excellent. I need to re-read that.
@roblong & Negroni cocktail.
An Italian cocktail, native to Torino, equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet red vermouth, (a Torinese would insist upon Carpano Antico )
But one of my TAs introduced me to a negroni made with Barolo Chinato instead of Carpano Antico. Quite delicious, it’s what all the cool kids at the polytechnique are doing
Also, a negroni sbagliato, a classic negroni with prosecco (or, preferably franciacorta), instead of gin. Some might say that without the gin the negroni is a pointless lightweight drink. on the other hand you can drink 6 negroni sbagliato during aperitivo before dinner, where as six gin based negronis would floor you
Maybe the answer isn’t less force used on black suspects, but a need for more force used on white suspects.
I can still remember that day in 7th grade when they sat me down in front of an IBM 2741, using an acoustic coupler that ran at a blazing 15 characters per second (it takes a long time to print an ascii Snoopy at 15cps) …. Every job I’ve ever had has involved coding in one form or another (even if I wasn’t a coder, it was quicker for me to write an options model than to wait for an IT department to do it) …
… I’m still not sure if I’m good at it
Podcasts: I was 4 years into my Rico tenure before I started listening to any podcasts. I still prefer posts and comments, but podcasts are a great side dish. The Mickey D’s fries of Ricochet.com.
Roland Fryer has got to be the most hilarious statistical economist I have ever heard.
Also, liked the outro music, @blueyeti. Quite peppy. Uplifting. Good job.
Congratulations on #500!
Hey guys,
We also celebrated our 5th episode over at Land of Confusion. The show by Ricochet members for Ricochet members.
http://ricochet.com/767315/land-of-confusion-with-skipsul/
Another milestone! Congrats.
Regarding the 250th episode at USC. Yes, Pat Sajak was there. As well as Dave Carter, Mollie Hemingway and DC McCallister.
It would be great to hear from a gentleman like Pat Sajak about the riots, animosity, and censorship today. How does he think 2020 compares to the 1960s?
So maybe the good professor needs to come out of his office and do a ride along in a regular squad car in downtown Philly or NYC for couple of weeks…
You may be interested in this show we did with Roland and three other Hoover Institution Fellows (H.R. McMaster, Niall Ferguson, and John Cochrane) in which Roland describes his interactions with the police in his life:
Welcome to the club. I haven’t read a CS journal for years now, but I’m sure “Why Haven’t They Killed Us Yet?” articles are still a staple.
Real engineers used to laugh derisively about the title “Software Engineer” when it first appeared. I bet they’re sorry they gave up their slide rules, trig tables, and simple feedback loops now. Knuckleheads. (Although, to be fair, things like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge go back to the days when a computer was someone you could have lunch with. Modern software practice probably just extends the scope and power of innate incompetence.)
Blue Yeti – Thanks for posting the Podcast and I listened to it but – still “meh”. So the good professor was treated roughly while acting suspiciously while being 15(just how would the police have known he was 15 anyway?) and he was “embedded” with a couple of police forces while doing research and only saw one thing that was disturbing? Again, I would still like for him to spend a week in a car doing ride alongs in Philly, South side Chicago or equivalent and see how many automobile deaths, ODs, shootings, domestic violence beatings, murders and other aftermaths of violent crime that are traumatic to witness he would see. And for what it is worth, the Police Chief had a point when he stated he would run out of cops if he gave time off to recover for every OD death(or other horrible thing cops see monthly, weekly or even daily). The General would also run out of cops if they had a “critical incident” debrief (or whatever he labeled it) for every OD or automobile death or whatever – and he simply is uninformed if he thinks not firing a bad cop because of unions is a leadership failure – that is a situation that is just beyond his scope of experience. There are leadership issues that need to be addressed but the Unions hold most of the trump cards in that situation. The remedies advocated on the podcast would cost a lot of time and money if they were implemented(and perhaps some should be but foot patrols are feasible only in some jurisdictions – any idea how many police would be needed to walk a beat in a geographically really large city? ) but getting the budget for it would be tough in today’s climate(defund the Police, sound familiar?). They hinted at it but there is a cultural issue involved. I just think there is more to “use of force” issues addressed than was mentioned(cops often will handcuff someone pr put them in the back of a patrol car without arresting them because of other factors – having some control, over a complex scene while they sort things out is fairly common while they figure who hit who or if there are several people at the scene and only a few police, etc.and it is about control or at least not loosing control and letting a possibly tense moment descend into OUT of control). This is a huge problem and I know I am not anywhere smart enough to have even an inkling of a solution and am not trying to be nit picky or argumentative and am just as frustrated as anyone by it all…
Perhaps bottom line: statistics are neither Reality, nor Truth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRyoe2cgCYs
Prof Fryer’s statistics that blacks are molested by police, even when they are fully cooperating, is sobering. And he’s got, apparently, a bazillion data points in support of his theory.
But, is it just me, isn’t knowing the race of the police officers important?
What kind of “molesting” do his “statistics” actually “prove?” And as I mentioned before, what about the possibility that people – of any race – are/become fully cooperative BECAUSE OF the police being more “aggressive,” something that I believe is still known and trained as “command presence?”
This time I again driving eastward at an excessive rate of speed when I heard James’ dulcet tones awarding the esteemed “Member Post of the Week.” This time I was on AZ 260 east of Camp Verde; last time I was on I-10 east of Tucson. I am greatly honored.
Hah! Per your previous comment in the thread about Me As a National Treasure I actually considered whether you may be driving, and what effect this might have. But I persisted nevertheless!
I’m confused.
The Post Of The Week has 4 likes.
Four.
Uh.
What?
Yes, there are 132 comments. Most of which are about showing how Gary is wrong about… well, damn near everything.
Huh?
Was it really just about “
dogspresidents playing poker?”Edit: I checked, and Gary’s previous (first) Post Of The Week, 7 months ago, has… 4 likes.
It depends on whether or not it supports the research . . .
You have a twofer, right? I’m jealous!
Nah. It was about showing that Ricochet can be home to both kinds of Republicans, the good kind and the Trump kind. [removes tongue from cheek]
That he didn’t mention that data doesn’t mean they don’t have it. He emphasized the amount of data they have, meaning that there was little chance he could squeeze it all into a 10-minute interview.
I think it’s a perfect illustration of James’ esoteric tastes.