Right now, there are people protesting police racism in many places across the country. When Michael Brown died in Ferguson,Missouri, it was because he was African American. When Eric Garner died on Staten Island after being choked, it was because of his race. And in case after case, black victims of racially motivated police violence have been executed across the country. Right?
The simple answer is NO, NO, NO! According the Department of Justice, in the last year for which statistics are fully available, 48.2% of homicide victims were white and 48.1% were black. If you limit that to victims between the ages of 17 to 29, the percentages are 59% of homicide victims are black while 39% are white (2% are unknown or other). This would seem to indicate that there is "open season" on killing black young men. But are these men being killed by police? Here is where the statistics must be viewed carefully. In the same year used above, total homicides included just over 2% who were killed by police action. Over 80% of the deaths by police action came after the victim open fired with a gun at police. Over 10% of the deaths by police action came when the victim lost control of his or her car in a high speed chase. That means that the remaining number of homicide victims killed by police action is less than 0.2% of the total. In short, there is a problem that too many young black men are the victims of homicide, but they are being killed by others and not the police.
There is no question that even one person wrongly killed by police is one too many. The point, however, is that instead of marching about supposed police racism, the crowds ought to be concerned with why so many young black males are killing other young black males (just under 90% of all of these homicides.) I realize that protesting against violence in the black community will not give people like Al Sharpton a high profile or more power, but that is where the problem really lies. Just imagine the good that president Obama could have done if he had chosen to talk about this problem rather than to chime in on the anti-police rhetoric.
The simple answer is NO, NO, NO! According the Department of Justice, in the last year for which statistics are fully available, 48.2% of homicide victims were white and 48.1% were black. If you limit that to victims between the ages of 17 to 29, the percentages are 59% of homicide victims are black while 39% are white (2% are unknown or other). This would seem to indicate that there is "open season" on killing black young men. But are these men being killed by police? Here is where the statistics must be viewed carefully. In the same year used above, total homicides included just over 2% who were killed by police action. Over 80% of the deaths by police action came after the victim open fired with a gun at police. Over 10% of the deaths by police action came when the victim lost control of his or her car in a high speed chase. That means that the remaining number of homicide victims killed by police action is less than 0.2% of the total. In short, there is a problem that too many young black men are the victims of homicide, but they are being killed by others and not the police.
There is no question that even one person wrongly killed by police is one too many. The point, however, is that instead of marching about supposed police racism, the crowds ought to be concerned with why so many young black males are killing other young black males (just under 90% of all of these homicides.) I realize that protesting against violence in the black community will not give people like Al Sharpton a high profile or more power, but that is where the problem really lies. Just imagine the good that president Obama could have done if he had chosen to talk about this problem rather than to chime in on the anti-police rhetoric.
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