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The following is adapted from a speech delivered on April 27, 2016, at Hillsdale Colleges
Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington, D.C.,
as part of the AWC Family Foundation Lecture Series.
For almost two years, a protest movement known as Black Lives Matter has
convulsed the nation. Triggered by the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson,
Missouri, in August 2014, the Black Lives Matter movement holds that racist police
officers are the greatest threat facing young black men today. This belief has triggered
riots, die-ins, the murder and attempted murder of police officers, a campaign to
eliminate traditional grand jury proceedings when police use lethal force, and a presi-
dential task force on policing.
Even though the U.S. Justice Department has resoundingly disproven the lie that a
pacific Michael Brown was shot in cold blood while trying to surrender, Brown is still
HILLSDALE COLLEGE: PURSUING TRUTH DEFENDING LIBERT Y SINCE 1844
venerated as a martyr. And now police offi- the issue of policing, crime, and race that
cers are backing off of proactive policing in remains a taboo topic. The problem of
the face of the relentless venom directed at black-on-black crime is an uncomfortable
them on the street and in the media. As a truth, but unless we acknowledge it, we
result, violent crime is on the rise. wont get very far in understanding pat-
The need is urgent, therefore, to terns of policing.
examine the Black Lives Matter move-
ments central thesisthat police pose ***
the greatest threat to young black men. I
propose two counter hypotheses: first, Every year, approximately 6,000
that there is no government agency more blacks are murdered. This is a number
dedicated to the idea that black lives greater than white and Hispanic homi-
matter than the police; and second, that cide victims combined, even though
we have been talking obsessively about blacks are only 13percent of the national
alleged police racism over the last 20 population. Blacks are killed at six times
years in order to avoid talking about a far the rate of whites and Hispanics com-
larger problemblack-on-black crime. bined. In Los Angeles, blacks between
Lets be clear at the outset: police the ages of 20 and 24 die at a rate 20 to 30
have an indefeasible obligation to treat times the national mean. Who is killing
everyone with courtesy and respect, and them? Not the police, and not white civil-
to act within the confines of the law. Too ians, but other blacks. The astronomical
often, officers develop a hardened, obnox- black death-by-homicide rate is a func-
ious attitude. It is also true that being tion of the black crime rate. Black males
stopped when you are innocent of any between the ages of 14 and 17 commit
wrongdoing is infuriating, humiliating, homicide at ten times the rate of white
and sometimes ter- and Hispanic male
rifying. And needless teens combined. Blacks
to say, every unjusti- Imprimis (im-pri-mis), of all ages commit
[Latin]: in the first place
fied police shooting homicide at eight times
of an unarmed civil- EDITOR the rate of whites and
Douglas A. Jeffrey
ian is a stomach- DEPUTY EDITORS
Hispanics combined,
churning tragedy. Matthew D. Bell and at eleven times the
Timothy W. Caspar
Given the his- COPY EDITOR
rate of whites alone.
tory of racism in this Monica VanDerWeide The police could
country and the com- ART DIRECTOR
Arthur Donley
end all lethal uses
plicity of the police MARKETING DIRECTOR of force tomorrow
in that history, police William Gray and it would have at
PRODUCTION MANAGER
shootings of black Lucinda Grimm most a trivial effect
men are particularly CIRCULATION MANAGER on the black death-
Wanda Oxenger
and understandably by-homicide rate.
STAFF ASSISTANTS
fraught. That history Robin Curtis The nations police
Kim Ellsworth
informs how many Kathy Smith killed 987 civilians
people view the police. Mary Jo Von Ewegen in 2015, according to
But however intoler- Copyright 2016 Hillsdale College a database compiled
able and inexcusable The opinions expressed in Imprimis are not by The Washington
necessarily the views of Hillsdale College.
every act of police Permission to reprint in whole or in part is
Post. Whites were 50
brutality is, and while hereby granted, provided the following credit percentor 493of
line is used: Reprinted by permission from
we need to make sure Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale College. those victims, and
that the police are SUBSCRIPTION FREE UPON REQUEST. blacks were 26 per-
ISSN 0277-8432
properly trained in centor 258. Most of
Imprimis trademark registered in U.S.
the Constitution and Patent and Trademark Office #1563325. those victims of police
in courtesy, there is a shootings, white and
larger reality behind black, were armed or
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APRIL 2016 VOLUME 45, NUMBER 4 < hillsdale.edu
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HILLSDALE COLLEGE: PURSUING TRUTH DEFENDING LIBERT Y SINCE 1844
ALASKA
VANCOUVER ROUNDTRIP
ALL-INCLUSIVE!
JULY 27-
Aboard the Cry
stal Serenity AUGUST 6, 2016
Vancouver | Juneau | Hoonah | Hubbard Glacier
Skagway | Sitka | Ketchikan | Nanaimo
C O N F I R M E D S P E A K E R S
Michael Walsh
Contributor, National Review Online
Author, The Devils Pleasure Palace
David P. Goldman
Columnist, Asia Times
Author, How Civilizations Die
Larry P. Arnn
President, Hillsdale College
Author, Churchills Trial
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APRIL 2016 VOLUME 45, NUMBER 4 < hillsdale.edu
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HILLSDALE COLLEGE: PURSUING TRUTH DEFENDING LIBERT Y SINCE 1844
Hillsdale College
Online Learning
HILLSDALE COLLEGE offers free, not-for-credit,
online courses taught by its faculty. In addition to
weekly lectures, these courses feature readings,
quizzes, and discussion groups. Those who complete
them successfully receive certificates of completion.
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APRIL 2016 VOLUME 45, NUMBER 4 < hillsdale.edu
anti-cop Left and in criminology circles. 18.5 times higher than the chance of an
Despite that furor, FBI Director James unarmed black getting killed by a cop.
Comey confirmed the Ferguson effect in The favorite conceit of the Black
a speech at the University of Chicago Lives Matter movement is, of course,
Law School last October. Comey decried the racist white officer gunning down a
the chill wind that had been blowing black man. According to available stud-
through law enforcement over the previ- ies, it is a canard. A March 2015 Justice
ous year, and attributed the sharp rise in Department report on the Philadelphia
homicides and shootings to the campaign Police Department found that black
against cops. Several days later, President and Hispanic officers were much more
Obama had the temerity to rebuke likely than white officers to shoot blacks
Comey, accusing him (while leaving him based on threat misperception, i.e., the
unnamed) of cherry-pick[ing] data and incorrect belief that a civilian is armed.
using anecdotal evidence to drive policy A study by University of Pennsylvania
[and] feed political agendas. The idea criminologist Greg Ridgeway, formerly
that President Obama knows more about acting director of the National Institute
crime and policing than his FBI director of Justice, has found that black officers
is of course ludicrous. But the President in the NYPD were 3.3times more likely
thought it necessary to take Comey down, to fire their weapons at shooting scenes
because to recognize the connection than other officers present. The April
between proactive policing and public 2015 death of drug dealer Freddie Gray
safety undermines the entire premise of in Baltimore has been slotted into the
the anti-cop Left: that the police oppress Black Lives Matter master narrative, even
minority communities rather than bring though the three most consequential
them surcease from disorder. officers in Grays arrest and transport are
As crime rates continue to rise, the black. There is no evidence that a white
overwhelming majority of victims are, drug dealer in Grays circumstances, with
as usual, blackas are their assailants. a similar history of faking injuries, would
But police officers are coming under have been treated any differently.
attack as well. In August 2015, an officer We have been here before. In the
in Birmingham, Alabama, was beaten 1960s and early 1970s, black and white
unconscious by a convicted felon after a radicals directed hatred and occasional
car stop. The suspect had grabbed the violence against the police. The differ-
officers gun, as Michael Brown had tried ence today is that anti-cop ideology is
to do in Ferguson, but the officer hesitated embraced at the highest reaches of the
to use force against him for fear of being establishment: by the President, by his
charged with racism. Such incidents will Attorney General, by college presidents,
likely multiply as the media continues to by foundation heads, and by the press.
amplify the Black Lives Matter activists The presidential candidates of one party
poisonous slander against the nations are competing to see who can out-dema-
police forces. gogue President Obamas persistent race-
The number of police officers killed in based calumnies against the criminal
shootings more than doubled during the justice system, while those of the other
first three months of 2016. In fact, officers party have not emphasized the issue as
are at much greater they might have.
risk from blacks I dont know what
than unarmed will end the current
blacks are from frenzy against the
the police. Over police. What I do know
the last decade, an DID YOU KNOW? is that we are play-
officers chance of Over one million students have signed up ing with fire, and if it
getting killed by for Hillsdale Colleges free online courses keeps spreading, it will
since the first course was launched in the
a black has been fall of 2011. To sign up for archived or new be hard to put out.
courses go to online.hillsdale.edu.
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