The George Floyd killing in perspective

Daniel Horowitz writes:

The act of the officer who placed his knee on George Floyd’s neck for several minutes after he was completely neutralized and couldn’t move is obviously indefensible. As with every criminal act that leads to murder, he should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

But why is it we never heard on the news about the endless trend of cop ambushes and executions at the hands of violent criminals in recent months? Why do we never hear about the cases where cops engage in near-suicidal restraint to go the extra mile to defuse a situation?

Consider the following: According to the Washington Post’s database on police shootings, 17 unarmed African-Americans were killed by police in 2018. Let’s just assume the unlikely assumption that all 17 were unjustified in the mold of the choking death of George Floyd. That accounts for just 0.002% [note: actually 0.2%] of the 7,407 black homicide victims that year, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, the overwhelming majority of whom were killed by black criminals, not white criminals or police. In cases where the races of both the victim and offender were known, a staggering 88.9% of black homicide victims were murdered by black criminals.

Race mongers and other leftists want to dismiss these facts as “what-aboutism,” an attempt to divert attention away from America’s allegedly endemic racism. But to rational people, these facts simply provide perspective.

The facts from the Washington Post preclude rational people from using words like “genocide” to describe policing in America. They preclude rational people from saying, as the Central Park bird watcher did, that the obnoxious woman with the dog was trying to “bring death by cop down on my head.” They preclude rational people from accepting nearly all of the rubbish spouted by the BlackLivesMatter movement.

The other problem that race mongers and other leftists have with what-aboutism is that it highlights the fact that the overwhelming threat to black lives in America is criminal behavior by blacks. As Horowitz notes, nearly 90 percent of black homicide victims were killed by blacks.

The problem is on display in the Twin Cities right now. I disagree with Horowitz’s claim that “what’s going on in Minneapolis has nothing to do with George Floyd’s murder.” However, Horowitz is right to see a relationship between the rioting and a pre-existing acceleration of criminal activity in the Twin Cities. He observes:

Crime has been increasing dramatically in the Twin Cities area, with robberies up 53% last year, attacks on public transportation growing out of control, and St. Paul experiencing a record year of homicides.

Accordingly, it’s reasonable to view the killing of Floyd as a pretext for more robbery and more violence.

All Minneapolis residents, of whatever race or national origin, have good cause to be incensed by the conduct of their police department and mayor. Residents are experiencing the worst of all policing worlds. A police force with a record of using too much force against individual suspects is now standing by while thugs burn down portions of the city, destroy businesses, and harm innocent people.

What liberal governance brought Baltimore, it’s also bringing to Minneapolis — and maybe to an even greater degree.

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