It’s revealing that following the cold-blooded murder of two police officers in New York by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, a black Muslim assassin, the primary concern of Al Sharpton and his ilk was that the murder of these cops not derail their “movement.” Their denouncement of the shooting and expressions of sympathy for the cops were little more than perfunctory.
Community activist Tony Herbert worried that the shooting would “discredit the larger cause.” NAACP president Cornell Brooks decried the linking of this “lone gunman” to “peaceful protests,” conveniently ignoring the rioting, looting, arson, unlawful obstruction, property destruction and shouts of “kill the cops” in many of these “peaceful protests.”
The “movement” is about an alleged epidemic of racist, discriminatory, unjust treatment of young black men by white cops. (Ironically, the two murdered New York cops weren’t white. Officer Rafael Ramos was Latino and Officer Wenjian Liu was Asian.) But there is no such epidemic. It’s a paranoid, politically self-serving fabrication based on anecdotes that don’t hold up to objective scrutiny (like the cases of Michael Brown and Eric Garner), compounded by propaganda concocted by progressive academics in specious sociological “studies,” inflamed by the theatrics of professional race-baiters, and blown out of proportion by the sensationalistic, liberal media with its anti-police ideological instinct.
Brinsley may not be directly linked to the movement, but his act was certainly the wholly predictable, inevitable consequence of the excesses of those who’ve blatantly fanned the flames of anti-police hysteria.
Police work is unavoidably imperfect, and legitimate complaints deserve full investigation and accountability. But the number of legitimate complaints is far less than imagined. As reported by Heather MacDonald of the Manhattan Institute, “In 2013, there were 6,261 black homicide victims in the U.S. — almost all killed by black civilians.” By contrast, police (including non-white cops) kill about 200 blacks a year, most of whom are armed and dangerous. This is a tiny fraction of the 40 million police- civilian contacts each year. In 2013, 42 percent of cop killers were black. Blacks comprise only 13 percent of the population but commit 53 percent of the nation’s murders. Their commission of other crimes is also greatly in excess of their share of the population. That’s the reason, not racist cops, why blacks seem to be disproportionally incarcerated.
With about 600,000 blacks currently in state and federal prisons, that means 41 million blacks aren’t in jail. And these are the overwhelmingly law-abiding citizens that black criminals mostly prey on. When an intruder breaks into their home, it’s the police they call to rescue them, not Al Sharpton. Outnumbered cops are the thin blue line between civilized society and chaos, especially in high-crime black urban areas.
Anti-police protesters have been chanting, “Black lives matter.” They certainly do. But no less or more than Latino, Asian, white or other lives. And police lives matter, too. Cops also have spouses, children, mothers and fathers who grieve when they’re killed.
Anti-police agitators and armchair liberal academics have proposed that cops hold back. Don’t make arrests for misdemeanors. If a law-breaker resists handcuffing, let him walk away. In Newark, N.J., superiors told officers to avoid people looking for confrontations. It’s even been proposed that cops give the benefit of the doubt to someone they believe is about to fire on them. What kind of message does that send to criminals? Police know their work is dangerous, but they’re not suicidal.
If we handcuff the police in the name of public safety, fewer innocent civilians will be hurt. However, the trade-off will be more criminals going free and more cops being killed, as have 1,500 in the line of duty over the last decade.
Freelance columnist Mike Rosen’s radio show airs weekdays from 1 -3 p.m. on 850-KOA.
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