Another police killing. A male viciously beaten to death. But this murder went unreported by the media. That's because the victim was a white police officer. The alleged assailant is African-American. Skin color should not matter, however, in today's politically-charged environment race is paramount.
Delaware Police Officer Corporal Keith Heacook responded last week to a call for help in the assault of an elderly couple. After he arrived on the scene, he was brutally beaten and left unconscious. You couldn't find ten Americans who know Heacook's name.
You can bet most American recognize the names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade and Rayshard Brooks. The shootings of these African-Americans have become symbols of the narrative of racist police killings. There are no excuses for the horrific murders of these victims.
However, the actions of a few policeman cannot justify demonizing and condemning all law enforcement officers. The false narrative, perpetuated by the media and politicians, portrays an African-American community under siege by racist police officers deliberately gunning for blacks.
President Biden joined the chorus after police officer Derek Chauvin's conviction, contending the verdict "ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see systemic racism" of police. A specious claim since the prosecution in the case never introduced a scintilla of evidence Chauvin was a racist.
Chauvin was guilty, but not of personal racism. He made an indefensible decision to use excessive force.
Biden is not alone in race-baiting. NBA basketball player LeBron James, the self-appointed, unofficial African-American spokesman for the league, tweeted the following after the recent murder of Ahmoud Arbery in Georgia. The alleged killers were two white males.
"We're literally hunted EVERYDAY/EVERYTIME we step foot outside the comfort of our homes! Can't even go for a damn jog man! Like WTF man are you kidding me?!?!?!?!?!
In light of such prejudicial rhetoric, it is time to set the record straight. It is a rarity for a police officer to shoot anyone. White or black.
In fact, a black male is more likely to be struck by lightning than to be shot by a police officer. The latest data from 2019 shows that police shot and killed 1,003 people in the United States. Of those, 405 were white and 250 were African-American. Fifty-five were unarmed suspects: 25 whites, 14 blacks.
Since 2015, law enforcement officers have shot and killed 6,211 people: 46% of them (2,883) were white, while 24% (1,496) were black. According to the most recent Census data African-Americans constitute 13.4% of the population, while whites make up 60.1%.
One of the stubborn myths about police shootings is the fact officers shoot unarmed black men at an alarming rate, compared to whites. There have been about 7,300 black homicide victims a year. The 14 unarmed victims in fatal police shootings would comprise 0.2% of that total.
Since 2015, the data finds 91% of black males killed by police officers were armed: 75% were armed with a gun or knife; the remainder used other weapons, including automobiles.
The data cited above is from The Washington Post's Fatal Force database. That is significant because The Post is certainly not conservative or a pro-police news outlet. Often politicians and the media falsely claim law enforcement under reports shootings of victims, especially African-Americans.
The FBI compiles data from reports voluntarily sent to its offices from police departments. Since all police departments are not compelled to provide the figures, there is cynicism about the FBI data. The Post uses news accounts, social media postings and police reports to build its database.
Scientific studies have proven that racial bias is not a factor in the disparity between whites and blacks killed by police. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2019 found "no significant evidence of a racial disparity in the likelihood of being fatally shot by police."
For perspective, blacks accounted for 53% of the murder and non-negligent manslaughter arrests in 2018 according to FBI data. Blacks represented 54% of all robbery arrests and 37% of all violent crime arrests versus whites' percentages of 44%, 43%, and 59%, respectively, for those same categories.
In other words, police are more likely to encounter a black person in investigating violent crimes. More than 1.8 million blacks were arrested in 2019 for all crimes, the FBI reports. Based 2019 FBI data, a minuscule 0.0099% of the 10.08 million people arrested by police were shot and killed by an officer.
African-Americans made up 27.4% of the police arrests in the latest data. That means one out of every 6,762 black offenders were shot and killed by police. The ratio of unarmed black males shot and killed was one out of every 67,334 African-American men who were arrested.
The statistic no media or politician dares to mention is this: 88.9% of all murders of African-Americans are committed by blacks. By comparison 80% of white victims were murdered by other whites. Blacks kill far more of their own citizens than white policemen.
Those figures hardly justify headlines screaming police shootings of blacks are an epidemic. Given the sheer volumes of contacts law enforcement has in a single year, the number of people killed by police stands as evidence most police act responsibly and use proper judgement.
As further proof, Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) for 2015 revealed that 53.5 million people had at least one contact with police. The majority (95%) of those contacts involved traffic stops. Only 2% of all citizens involved with police experienced force or the threat of force, the BJS reports.
The facts haven't stopped politicians from asserting policing is an "indefensible system that grants impunity for state violence." That is a quote from Brooklyn Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the outspoken leaders of the national effort to dismantle policing in America.
The anti-police campaign has been built on lies, myths and the media's biased reporting of officer shootings. Yet if anyone armed with facts tries to unravel the narrative, that individual is branded a racist for refusing to bow to the established presumption of police targeting blacks.
Unless the country begins to examine the facts, racial divisions will become a chasm too wide to repair. That prospect is tragically becoming a reality because politicians and the media are invested in criminalizing police protection in our communities.
Ironically, a Gallup poll found African-American respondents were twice as likely as their white counterparts to want stepped up policing in their communities. Activists who want to defund police would do more harm to black communities by their insistence on weakening police protection.
If the anarchists have their way, the real epidemic will be runaway crime in black communities.
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