Arguably, the defining feature of black America in recent years has been the eruption of street protests every time a cop killed a black man. In each case, protesters vented existential angst with chants of: Black Lives Matter!
In fact, the spectre of white cops killing black men now dominates national consciousness, so much so that no less a venue than the Capitol is featuring (as part of a Congressional Arts Competition) a mural depicting cops as trigger-happy pigs. Truth be told, there have been far too many instances affirming this depiction. Never mind that a mural depicting black men as menacing, rabid dogs would represent a greater and more existential truth.
Perhaps more telling is how black consciousness led blacks to cheer Colin Kaepernick when he refused to stand for the National Anthem to protest police brutality. Kaepernick of course is the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers – whose teammates even awarded him their “most prestigious award … for inspirational and courageous play.” Never mind that his play was anything but inspirational and courageous as he led them through a feckless 2-14 season.
Incidentally, I refused to cheer – as “Delusional Kaepernick Standing Up by Sitting Down During National Anthem,” August 30, 2016, attests. I initially delineated my reasons for doing so in “Killing Michael Brown: as much about Resisting Arrest as Police Brutality,” August 12, 2014, and reiterated those reasons in countless commentaries, including most recently in “Five Policemen Murdered: America Beware the Dallas Effect,” July 8, 2016.
Meanwhile, the proverbial elephant in the room is that black men kill each other at 100 times the rate, to say nothing of the innocent black children they often kill in their crossfire.
Apropos of what menacing, rabid dogs they can be, there’s a manhunt underway as I write this for a black thug who killed a black cop in Orlando today; this, as she attempted to arrest him for allegedly murdering a pregnant woman a few weeks ago….
Unfortunately, far too many blacks refuse to see this proverbial elephant. This prevailing refusal supports my contention that black lives matter more to white cops than black thugs. And those who protest the killing of one black by a white cop, while countenancing the killing of 100 blacks by black thugs, only reinforce it.
Nothing can be more dismaying in this respect than reports that blacks in Orlando are now harboring that black thug who killed that black (female) cop….
All of which raises the question: What do these protesters have to show for their protests?
Alas, the short and all-too-predictable answer is: the killing of an alarming number of black men by black men … with relative impunity.
Here is how former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy called out Black Lives Matter protesters in this respect last week:
During a radio interview with John Catsimatidis on AM 970 in New York, McCarthy blamed protests against police brutality in cities like Baltimore, Ferguson, Mo., and Charlotte, N.C., for creating a ‘political atmosphere of anti-police sentiment.’
‘So what’s happening, and this is ironic, is that a movement with the goal of saving black lives at this point is getting black lives taken, because 80 percent of our murder victims here in Chicago are male blacks,’ McCarthy said. ‘Less than half of 1 percent of all the shootings in this city involve police officers shooting civilians.’
(Black Christian News Network, January 1, 2017)
That “less than half of 1 percent of all the shootings” involves police officers cannot be overstated, especially when you consider this:
Chicago marked 2016 as the deadliest year in nearly two decades, data released by the Chicago Police Department shows.
The city saw a surge in gun violence in 2016: 762 murders, 3,550 shooting incidents, and 4,331 shooting victims, according to a statement released by the department on Sunday.
There were 480 murders in 2015, the most in the city since 1997.
(CNN, January 2, 2017)
Of course it’s one thing to explain or rationalize crime data. It’s quite another to sound alarms in real time about factors that make up that data. As it happens, I’ve been doing just that for years — sounding alarms not only about too many black men triggering their own deaths by resisting arrest, but also about black thugs being a far greater threat to black lives than white cops.
Here are excerpts on point from just two of my commentaries:
____________________
- From “Why Chastise the Times for Describing Michael Brown as ‘No Angel’…?” August 26, 2014:
None of national leaders eulogizing Michael bothered to reinforce the most salient lesson everyone, especially young black men, should learn from his death.
That lesson is that distrust of the police, no matter how warranted, does not give anyone the right to resist arrest or engage in visceral confrontations with them…
I fear the lesson too many black men are learning from this tragedy is that they can resist arrest, so long as they shout the new-fangled slogan, ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ while doing so. Clearly, this will only lead to more of them ending up like Michael.
- From “Tyshawn Lee: Excuse Me, Which Black Lives Matter?” November 5, 2015:
God help the city where residents fear gang members more than they trust police officers. But, given the scourge of black-on-black crime, the irony is that blacks predominate in areas of far too many cities where this is the case.
This brings me to the unwitting spectre of the ‘Ferguson effect.’
Chuck Rosenberg, head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, said Wednesday that he agrees with FBI Director James Comey that police officers are reluctant to aggressively enforce laws in the post-Ferguson era of capturing police activity on smartphones and YouTube…
The comments offer more support for the theory that, faced with increased scrutiny, the nation’s police officers are pulling back.
(Washington Post, November 4, 2015)
Unfortunately, black activists and pundits have spent more time this week splitting hairs about the Ferguson effect than condemning the increasing lawlessness that led to Tyshawn’s death.
Never mind that nothing demonstrated the deadly impact of the Ferguson effect quite like police officers being reluctant to intervene as (black) rioters looted, pillaged, and burned their own areas of Baltimore earlier this year. To say nothing of the fact that no less a paper of record than the New York Times affirmed this effect in a June 15, 2015, report headlined, ‘West Baltimore’s Police Presence Drops, and Murder Soars,’ (the Baltimore effect?)…
The obvious and understandable truth [is] that police officers (white and black) have always been reluctant to police high-crime areas, like the South Side of Chicago. Only this explains the despairing resonance of Spike Lee’s forthcoming movie, Chiraq, about violence so wanton and unchecked in black areas of Chicago, residents might as well be living in Iraq.
The more troubling irony, though, is that police officers fear vigilant(e) public scrutiny that could end their careers (a la Darren Wilson) more than gangland violence that could end their lives.
Such is the seemingly inexorable and irreconcilable breakdown in trust between those who wear blue and those who are black in America today.
____________________
Alas, nothing explains why the killing fields of black America will remain fertile for years to come quite like Chicago’s current police superintendent echoing his predecessor’s dire lament:
Chicago police superintendent Eddie Johnson told the AP recently that officers have become more careful, partly because they’re concerned about viral videos [which could cause them to] lose their job…
The ‘the anti-police rhetoric’ in Chicago and across the country ‘has emboldened and actually empowered these gang members to do what they do.’
Gang members may believe community residents will take their side instead of the police’s, he added.
(ABC News, January 3, 2017)
This is why my forlorn hope is that black consciousness will compel protests against the unrelenting menace of blacks killing blacks – complete with far greater urgency and outrage than those we’ve seen against the incidental spectre of cops killing blacks.
As a case in point, I can think of no killing more worthy of such a Black Lives Matter protest than that of the black cop that black thug killed today:
Orlando police Chief John Mina called Master Sgt. Debra Clayton, a 17-year veteran, a hero who was dedicated to serving her community. She was a Central Florida native, married with one son, who is in college, Mina said.
‘Master Sgt. Clayton always had the time to give back to her community, whether it was by mentoring at-risk youth or serving on our law enforcement task force,’ the Central Florida Urban League said on Facebook.
(News6 Orlando, January 9, 2017)
Michael Brown died resisting arrest. Master Sgt. Debra Clayton died protecting and serving her community. Black lives matter, but there’s no denying that some matter more than others….
Related commentaries:
Delusional Kaepernick…
Resisting arrest…
Dallas effect…
Why chastise the Times…
Tyshawn Lee…