"Our Perceptions Are Not Reality"

"In other policy areas, left-liberals tend to agree with me on this general logic. They usually insist on not confusing an anecdote for solid data. They point out, for example, the infinitesimal chance that you will be killed by a terrorist in order to puncture the compelling and emotional narrative that we are a nation under siege by jihadists. They note that the public's view that crime has been rising is, in fact, a fiction drummed up by Trump—and they cite the kind of data I just provided to prove it. But when it comes to race and police shootings, the data take second place to emotion. This is not bad faith on the part of left-liberals. It's rooted in an admirable concern about a vital topic—the use of violence by the state against citizens. And I have no doubt at all that Kaepernick and Reid are sincere, and I absolutely defend their right to protest in the way they have, and am disgusted by the president's response."

Andrew Sullivan at New York argues that "on the deaths of unarmed black men, the left-liberal characterization of the problem just does not match the statistical reality."