It saddens me that what little is left of the black civil rights movement is spent defending thugs, hustlers, drug dealers, and troublemakers such as Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Alton Sterling, and Philando Castile. Can you believe we’ve gone from honorable causes like fighting for the right of black people to attend college to defending black criminals who foolishly mouth off against, run away from, and fight with the police; police who are putting their lives on the line to protect us from criminals?
Can’t the protestors at least defend young black men of honor, quiet heroes going against the grain by wearing their pants around their waist; refusing thuggery, weed-smoking, and hustling; those who marry one woman, have all their kids with that one woman, proactively raise those kids to be successful, productive citizens, and love only their wife and no other woman; those who work an honest job with integrity, intensity, and discipline, no matter how menial the work? (Note: selling illegal cigarettes on the street or bootleg CDs on the corner doesn’t count as honest work!)
If a protest were held against the oppression of such young black men, I’d be the first to join in. Yet every time I hear of a black man being killed by the cops, he’s not the man I just described. He’s almost always a criminal thug I have no desire to defend. Hardly our best, and hardly what Dr. King died for.
It’s Easier to Blame Everyone But Yourself
You see, unlike those men recently shot, I do not fear for my life from the police. Quite the contrary, my life is made safer by the police who stand between me and people like Sterling, who is much more likely to break into my car or stick me up at night compared to any harm that might come to me from a police officer. The fact is, the police are not shooting black men like me. Why? Because I am not a criminal, and when the police stop me, I politely do what they say, and they leave me alone. I do not run away, fight back, or mouth off. It’s really pretty simple.
Why is no one asking how these men’s families and communities failed them so badly that they became criminals or thugs? If you look up “tough” in the dictionary, my grandmother’s picture will come up. If you were raised under her and acted up, after she got done with you you’d wish the police had gotten to you first. I’m glad my father was raised in such an environment. Discipline happens in the home, and it starts early. When it doesn’t, the police are left to clean up the mess of deeply broken human beings who were already doomed before their first interaction with the law. It’s totally unfair to ask the police to treat hardened criminals with kid gloves.
How did we get here? The Welfare Industrial Complex has produced generational government dependence that has devastated black families and communities and created the criminal underclass of black thugs the police are killing today. I wonder what Black Lives Matter has to say about that? Will they unequivocally call for an end to the welfare, food stamps, and government subsidized housing that have replaced the black father, and thus return the role of family provider to the black man where it belongs, not the government?
Will they call for a complete end to illegal immigration and to burdensome regulations and taxes that make hiring Americans too expensive? After all, these things reduce wages, increase unemployment, and harm the ability of young black men to get jobs that provide for a family. My guess: don’t hold your breath. It’s just so much easier to blame the police, white privilege, and institutionalized racism.
Yet amid all the hype, let us not lose sight of reality: No matter how much the media attempts to stir up racial strife, the fact is about 70 black people are killed by other black folks for every one killed by a white police officer. White police killings of black people are simply a non-issue compared to what black people do to each other, unfortunately.
So no, despite the prevailing atmosphere of hysteria, I’m not afraid of being killed by the police. Quite the contrary: sadly, the data shows I’m much more likely to be victimized by a fellow black man than by a white police officer. So may the police remain sharp, aggressive, and strike fear into criminals so the good people don’t become victims.