Monday, May 16, 2016

Yes, Black Lives Matter--That's Why They Need Police

The April issue of Imprimis featured an article by Heather MacDonald entitled. “The Danger of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ Movement.” The following blog post is mostly excerpted from this thought-provoking article.

The Black Lives Matter movement holds that racist police officers are the greatest threat facing young Black men today. And it must be remembered that police have sometimes been complicit in racist violence. But, the Black Lives Matter movement blames the police for a huge chunk of Black homicides. However, there is no government agency more dedicated to the idea that Black lives matter than the police. As police officers back off proactive policing in the face of relentless Black Lives Matter venom directed at them on the street and in the media, violent crime rises.

As anti-cop rhetoric continues in America, police officers have become more in danger of being killed or wounded on the streets. The number of police officers killed in shootings more than doubled during the first three months of 2016. Officers are at greater risk from Blacks than unarmed Blacks are from the police. Over the last decade an officer’s chance of getting killed by a Black has been18.5% higher than the chance of an unarmed Black getting killed by a cop.  

Every year, approximately 6,000 Blacks are murdered. This is a number greater than White and Hispanic homicide victims combined, even though Blacks are only 13 % of the national population. In Los Angeles, Blacks between the ages of 20 and 34 die at a rate 20-30 times the national mean. Black males between the ages of 14 and 17 commit homicide at ten times the rate of white and Hispanic male teens combined. Blacks of all ages commit homicide at eight times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined and at eleven times the rate of Whites alone.  

This disparity of Black killers over White and Hispanic murderers is a function of the Black crime rate: In America’s 75 largest counties in 2009, for example Blacks constituted 62% of all robbery defendants, 57% of all murder defendants, 45% of all assault defendants—but only 15% of the population. Blacks make up 23% of the New York City’s population, but they commit 75% of all shootings, 70% of all robberies, and 66% of all violent crime according to victims and witnesses. Whites are 33% of the city’s population, but they commit fewer than 2% of all shooting, 4% of all robberies, and 5% of all violent crime. The group that predominantly commits homicidal acts against Blacks is other Blacks, not the police.

For most of the last 20 years, crime rates in the U.S. have been decreasing. This has been attributed to more effective policing and data management by modern police departments around the country. But, now, the crime rate is on an upward spike—the first in two decades. Murders rose 17% in the nation’s 50 largest cities in 2015, and it was in cities with large Black populations where violence increased the most. Baltimore’s per capita homicide rate last year was the highest in its history. Milwaukee had its deadliest year in a decade, with a 72% increase in homicides. Homicides in Cleveland increased 90% over the previous year. Murders rose 83% in Nashville, 54% in Washington, D.C., and 61% in Minneapolis. In Chicago, the police have decreased their questioning episodes of pedestrians by 80%. Nevertheless, shootings were up by 90%.

Since last October, James Comey, the FBI director has been saying that this increase in violent crime is due to the recent campaign against cops. Yesterday, on the evening news, I heard President Obama disclaim any responsibility of the Black Lives Matter movement for this increase in crime. This is just another reason that I have learned to disbelieve almost everything I hear from President Obama, his spokesman, Josh Earnest, and the Secretary of State, John Kerry. This administration lies.   

 

 

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