A “State of Equity” report has been assembled by the Shasta Equal Justice Coalition for 2024. The coalition’s research showed that Black and Native American residents face more negativity in several areas than other Shasta County residents. Black people had the highest per capita rate of traffic and pedestrian stops at 529 per 1,000 individuals but they had the lowest rate of contraband discovery during those stops, at 27.1%. Native Americans experienced the highest rate of police actions during stops at nearly 66% as well as searches, at over 21%. In the City of Anderson, there were over 244 arrests for every 1,000 Black people. For whites it was 147. The primary motive in county-wide hate crimes -at 45.5%- was anti-Black bias, followed by anti-LQBTQ at 32% and anti-Hispanic at 18%. 80% of hate crimes were committed by White people. In the last decade Shasta County’s jail population has gone up 22%, while declining through most of California. The report points out that some agencies don’t collect demographic data, making it sometimes difficult to analyze bias. The full report is at shastaequaljustice.org.
-Steve Gibson