“Racist cops” claims ignore the facts
We are in the midst of a nationwide campaign against law enforcement that is making our cities, including Minneapolis, more dangerous. Why were shootings in Minneapolis up 46% over 2015, as of mid-July? Because of the “Ferguson effect,” and because Minneapolis’s City Council has deliberately limited police officers’ ability to fight crime.
In an article that appeared first in today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune, Senior Policy Fellow Kathy Kersten brilliantly lays out the facts that those who accuse the police of being racist conveniently ignore. Such as:
- Nationally, blacks were charged with 62 percent of robberies and 57 percent of murders in the 75 largest U.S. counties in 2009, though they made up 15 percent of the population there, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
- Black males between the ages of 14 and 17 commit murder at 10 times the rate of other males of that age.
- Since May 2013, Minneapolis police have responded to approximately 1.5 million calls for service. In those three years, they have shot and killed three men.
- A police officer’s chance of getting killed by a black assailant is 18.5 times higher than the chance of an unarmed black getting killed by a cop.
Why, exactly, has the Minneapolis City Council cut back on police officers’ ability to patrol the city’s streets effectively? They say it is to serve the cause of “racial equity,” but how does it promote equity when the number of blacks being killed and wounded by criminals soars?
You can read Kathy’s column in its entirety here. And if you appreciate what Kathy and others at the Center are doing to bring truth to public policy debates in Minnesota, please go here and donate to American Experiment.