Black Lives Matter - I get it. I'm not one of those conservatives who takes issue with the name. I understand there's an unstated -too- at the end of it. And I understand the issue they are trying to call attention to - disparate policing practices. I just think they're going about it the wrong way and also missing the bigger issue.
First, we know from FBI statistics that over 90% of blacks killed are killed by other blacks. In 2013 (according to the FBI), 2,491 black people were murdered. 114 police officers were killed in the line of duty the same year. A USA Today analysis of shootings of black suspects by police found over a 7 year period ending in 2012 the average was 96 per year.
So all told the percentage of black deaths attributable to police is approximately 3.8 percent. Let's assume there has been an increase of 150% since 2012 (a very generous assumption). That's 5.7 percent of blacks killed by police. Now let's make another (very generous) assumption that half of those were unjustified.
So you've got a movement focused on 2.85% of the blacks killed in a year. And this movement is just making things worse.
As an aside (this could fill it's own blog post), I've heard the analogy of the BLM movement vs. the All Lives Matter people as "this house is on fire so let's focus on the house on fire and worry about the problems with other houses later." Except if less than 3% of the tragic deaths of black people is a fire, what is the other 97%? Children are dying in gang wars. They are far more innocent than most of the people shot by police. But again, that's another discussion for another day (and I recognize that each death is a tragedy in itself).
On to my main point.
Cops are human and painfully aware of the dangers of their jobs. This has always been a fact of life for them but now their fear is heightened. I have heard directly from multiple officers that they feel there is a war on cops right now. This only exacerbates the problem. Scared cops are more likely to use force because they want to go home to their families at the end of the day.
A better approach would be to build bridges, not burn them. Community outreach with local police departments. Sit down and have coffee with an officer and talk to him/her about how policing can be improved. Talk about what kind of training can make things better.
Above all, remember cops are human and they just want to live too. And the more violent the neighborhood - and the less they feel the people of the community have their backs - the more likely they are going to want to act to protect themselves - just like you would.
It's not a cop problem. It's not a racism problem (and the statistics are pretty clear on that). It's not a black problem. It's a human problem and we don't need to make enemies of one another.
