White Privilege?

[erpowers]

Would Jeffery Dahmer have been arrested sooner if he had not been white?

I am listening to the CNN podcast, The Rewind: 90s Edition. This week's episode is about Jeffery Dahmer. During the episode it is mentioned that the police received a call about a naked, beaten, bloodied, and unconscious male (possibly a boy) in need of police attention. When the police arrived, Dahmer convinced them that he young man was his 19 year old boyfriend and his injuries were due to the two of them having just gotten into a fight. As a result, the police left the young man in Dahmer's custody. When Dahmer was later arrested he admitted he killed the young man, who turned out to be 14, after the police left his apartment.

I realize that factors other than race may have been at play in this incident. Maybe the police failed to conduct a full investigation because there were two men involved and it seemed to be a gay situation. Maybe the fact that the young man was Asian played a bigger role than Dahmer being white. However, I am wondering if Dahmer would have been arrested the night the police were called out to his neighborhood if he had not been white.

[lunasun]

1. Yes and not only that person who was murdered, but many if not all his victims were non white

Many AA s and Asian
Since you are looking into the 90s

https://www.csmonitor.com/1991/0816/16041.html
Resignation sought In the wake of the Dahmer case, Mr. McGee has called for the resignation of Mayor John O. Norquist and Police Chief Philip Arreola. There's been a "deafening silence, in large part, from the local white leadership," says Walter C. Farrell Jr., a professor of community studies at the University of Wisconsin here. "City race relations have been in a state of disrepair for nearly a decade," Dr. Farrell says. "What the Jeffrey Dahmer situation did was to exacerbate and highlight the problems." Revelations about Milwaukee police actions prior to arresting Dahmer have added fuel to existing complaints that police are indifferent to black concerns. The family of one of Dahmer's victims has filed a $3 million federal lawsuit against the city alleging that police officers improperly investigated a complaint by minority citizens. Two months before Dahmer's arrest, Glenda Cleveland, a black woman living in the neighborhood, reported seeing a bleeding, naked Asian youth outside. Three officers questioned Dahmer but ignored her suggestion that the situation was serious. Police recordings of radio transmissions show that the officers returned the 14-year-old boy to Dahmer's apartment; they said Dahmer convinced them that the youth was an adult. They cracked jokes about the situation, calling the incident a "boyfriend-boyfriend thing." Ms. Cleveland's repeated requests for further information were rebuffed. In July, the boy's body was found in Dahmer's apartment. Many black community leaders say that had Dahmer been a black man, he might well have been arrested at that time. Outraged residents marched on City Hall and police headquarters throughout last week. After press coverage of the incident, Chief Arreola suspended the three officers with pay while an investigation is under way. Mayor Norquist

And if they even checked his identification they would have found he had a record as a child molester of this victim's brother

The police could have saved the life of Konerak Sinthasomphone and, maybe, of five more people.
But you know he " looked " OK despite AA and Asian alerts
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1991-07-30/news/9103240096_1_konerak-sinthasomphone-police-chief-philip-arreola-jeffrey-dahmer

[HipChick]

2. There is a case which has been on FBI America's Most Wanted..

Black wife, allegedly murdered by white husband...who was wealthy enough to lawyer up...the cops dragged their feet on evidence
the case ended up going to Cold Case.sure Wealthy+white has kept him out of jail..

[lunasun]

3. This man can kill more women since he is not in jail

If the police had not sent the boy to go back in to his - Dahmer
apartment the police could have saved the life of Konerak Sinthasomphone and, maybe, of five more people he killed after that

[lunatica]

4. back then anything deemed a "domestic disturbance" was treated that way

Most police never arrested anyone, even if one of the couple was badly beaten when they were involved in a domestic disturbance situation.

Stalking was also considered harmless and police were many times sympathetic to the person who was the stalker.

I remember when the California police decided to arrest someone in these cases. Usually the male. I also remember that people died from being beaten or stalked which brought about the sea change in considering the beating of a spouse a crime. After a young actress was murdered by her stalker as she opened her apartment door when he knocked the uproar ending up changing the law.

[Behind the Aegis]

5. Homophobia played a large part.

While I am sure "white privilege" may have had a part, way too many people forget other "privileges" exist as do other bigotries. So, in cases of domestic disturbance where the couple is/perceived to be gay, the police rarely did anything (or sometimes arrested both for indecency). Heterosexism (heterosexual privilege) is still quite prevalent as is homophobia, but those topics are often ignored or the conversation is steered away to other bigotries as if homophobia and heterosexism aren't worthy of discussion or concern.