Race and crime Bradley R. Gitz Monday, December 8, 2014 The decision to not indict police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson was the result of a grand jurys presumably careful consideration of evidence and facts. And that is how our legal system and the rule of law of which it is a part are supposed to work if justice is to prevail. For the left, however, the narrative of white cop kills unarmed black teenager mattered more than all the evidence and facts because that narrative is politically useful for reinforcing the central meme of 21st Century leftism, which is that America (including its police and criminal-justice systems) is incorrigibly racist. Thus, we have two conflicting interpretations, one based on evidence and facts (and forensic logic), the other on the disregard of evidence and facts in favor of inciting racial grievances. Hands up, dont shoot is dishonest because it almost certainly didnt happen that way, and those chanting the slogan almost certainly know that. But, again, what did or didnt happen doesnt matter when your goal is to exploit a tragedy for political benefit. Indeed, the very concept of objective truth becomes threatening to those who wish to peddle ideologically useful falsehoods. Within this context, it is possible to ask whether we would have ever heard of a place called Ferguson, Mo., if everything had happened there in precisely the same way but the officer who shot Michael Brown had been black, or if Brown had been white. Indeed, in all the labored liberal efforts to indict both Wilson and the broader criminal-justice system, no one has yet identified what he did that he shouldnt have done or what he didnt do that he should have (assuming that his retelling of events is accurate, as, again, the evidence suggests). Of course, Ferguson isnt just about what actually happened between a white police officer and a black teenager, because the broader issue, neatly integrated into the leftist racial narrative, is that blacks see police officers as an occupying army preying upon young black males. In the hysterical words of the New York Times, the killing of young black men by police is a common feature of African-American life and a source of dread for black parents from coast to coast. Left out of such claims is the very real possibility that the primary cause of the hostile relations between blacks and the (mostly white) police who patrol their neighborhoods is excessive black criminality; more precisely, the wildly disproportionate number of crimes committed by young black males like Michael Brown. The facts are there for anyone willing to look. A U.S. Department of Justice survey reported that a majority (52 percent) of murders committed between 1974 and 2004 were committed by blacks, although they comprise only 13 percent of the nations population. The Manhattan Institutes Heather Mac Donald noted that far more blacks (5,375) were arrested for murder in 2013 than whites and Hispanics combined (4,396). And the racial disparities become even more staggering when we focus more specifically on young males--as Columbias John McWhorter recently pointed out, young black males are 14 times more likely to commit murder than young white males. Even if we accept the liberal claim that racism pervades our criminal-justice system from cops on the street all the way up to judges handing down harsher sentences, we are still left with much more black crime than any amount of racial discrimination can possibly account for (unless we illogically assume that the vast majority of blacks convicted of crimes are actually innocent, and that lots of whites and Hispanics literally get away with murder). So let us step back a few paces and consider what such statistics mean. Police are in the business of deterring crime by apprehending criminals, with special attention appropriately directed toward those committing violent criminal acts. This also means that, if they are going to meet their responsibilities, many of their efforts are going to be directed against young black males in communities of color (Barack Obamas phrase). It is difficult for there not to be a racial dimension to crime when a small minority of a minority is responsible for so much of it. An inescapable tension thus exists between police who seek to protect public safety and a racial subgroup (young black males) that so disproportionately threatens that safety. Alas, one suspects that the level of personal safety in crime-ridden minority neighborhoods would not be improved were the invading army (that is, the police) to suddenly withdraw and leave residents to the tender mercies of the criminals, given that the vast majority of the victims of black crime are other blacks. Bottom line: Race relations in America will not improve, and relations between black Americans and the police will not become less hostile, until young black males cease to dominate the crime reports. The primary problem in all this is not the police or white racism; it is that young black males commit way too many crimes. And until that somehow changes, the only lesson that all of us can take from Ferguson is that bad things happen when you assault a police officer, whatever the color of your skin. ------------v------------ Freelance columnist Bradley R. Gitz, who lives and teaches in Batesville, received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Illinois.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 11:29:24 +0000
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