We live in an upside-down world when it comes to facts and logic. People with zero law enforcement experience are now citing best practices for law enforcement while once again ignoring the reality that comes via critical thinking.
First, several people have decried the use of deadly force against a 16 year old black female in Ohio that was inarguably not only armed with a knife but also attacking another black person with it. As an example of the media double standard at work here, just about a week earlier, this same media mostly ignored a Maryland trooper that killed a white teenager armed with an airsoft gun and a knife. There were no riots or protests.
Looking at known facts - at least to those capable of accepting facts - it is easy to see this nation has a black on black violent crime problem. Yet the story invariably reported is how the police killed a black person. What both the Ohio and Maryland officers arriving on scene did was 100 percent correct. When a deadly weapon is present and in use, there is no time to de-escalate. Warning shots are prohibited by most police departments for good reason - firing into the air, as one very uninformed “celebrity” suggested could very well result in an unintended death or injury due to an unguided bullet.
Next, here’s a look at the facts of the violence - gun and otherwise - in Minneapolis and Minnesota. What effect does this constant and increasing violence have on a police department when coupled with a lack of support and in fact an outright attack on budget and staffing?
Minnesota U.S. Census demographics for 2019 show 83.8% is white and 7.0% black (11.97 times as many whites as blacks), and in Minneapolis this changes to 64/19% (3.36 times as many).
Minnesota State Criminal Homicide Data for 2019 (latest year available) shows 117 criminal homicides with 41 (35%) in Minneapolis. Adding in the adjacent St. Paul homicides (28) brings the total to 69, so well over half of Minnesota’s criminal homicides took place in just two cities.
Victims by race were white: 37 and black: 65 (1.75 times as many as whites).
Suspects by race were white: 36 and black: 95 (2.63 times as many as whites).
Summary: In Minnesota as a whole, there are nearly 12 times as many white people as there are black, yet the criminal homicides for blacks was nearly twice that of whites. Of the homicide suspects, blacks are involved more than 2.5 times as often as whites. These facts prove in Minneapolis like other cities like adjacent Tallahassee, that the main threat to a black male is not a white police officer, it is another black male. Where then is the outcry for these 65 black people that were killed in 2019?
Minneapolis Congressional District 5 gun violence data for 2019 and 2020 from the Gun Violence Archive shows how bad the gun violence there has gotten. In 2019, there were 51 gun homicides. In 2020, this jumped over 1.5 times as many to 81. Gun injuries went from 111 in 2019 to 399 or 3.59 times as many in 2020.
A frequent complaint heard from ill-informed activists is that police target blacks far more often than whites. The first relevant fact is according to a Washington Post study, in 2019 U.S. police shot and killed 424 white people. That same year, they shot and killed 252 black people, which while less is proportionately more given blacks make up about 13% of the U.S. population. The next relevant fact is, as documented in the above numbers and just like the teenager in Ohio, blacks are targeted by blacks without any police involvement, which then results in police involvement.
Recently speaker of the house Pelosi elevated Mr. Floyd to the level of a martyr. He’s clearly a hero in her eyes. What makes a hero? The Bible gives a good clue here- one that is willing to lay down their life for another. How about a soldier in combat that throws himself on an enemy grenade to save his squad members? A logical question then is who exactly did Mr. Floyd lay down his life for? The day he died, he had self-ingested numerous drugs for his own benefit, and passed a counterfeit bill, again for his own benefit. In the past, he had been accused of aggravated robbery and home invasion, where as a convicted felon he illegally possessed a gun and threatened a black woman. Based upon his actions, is he really a hero for children to emulate? Only in an upside-down world. How about instead looking at the underpaid black teacher that goes to work every day, or the black doctor providing healthcare to those in need? Those are heroes to me. I know there are far more of those than the violent felons like Mr. Floyd, yet these good law-abiding black Americans like the 65 homicide victims are largely ignored.
For perspective here, think of a classroom teacher that is told to teach students, and then the school has the budget cut and there are fewer teachers. The school board is openly hostile towards the teachers, yet demands they continue to teach children. Who would want to teach in such an environment?
Now put yourself in the environment of a city police officer in Minneapolis circa 2019. Violent crime, especially among blacks, is trending up - way up - and the “leaders” at your city demand you reduce this crime. The situation there will only get worse as fewer men and women will wish to serve in law enforcement. A community must support their men and women that work in law enforcement. If they engage in bad or illegal tactics such as former officer Chauvin did, then the courts will hold them accountable. Although in that case, three homicide convictions for one death will certainly see two dismissed upon appeal, but it is understandable with the level of pressure involved why the jury there did not follow the law. Painting every police officer with the broad brush of corruption is the wrong thing to do, but punishing all for the misdeeds of a few is unfortunately commonplace.
Paul Henry