One-third of all Americans killed by strangers are killed by police. If you are black, you're more likely to be killed by a police officer than someone whos name you don't know.
The point is that "black on black violence" is essentially a myth. If crime was responsible for the elevated rate of homicide among black people you would expect a higher proportion of strangers killing each other. All those intraracial homicides are essentially familial, and indeed when you control for household crowding the difference between white and black murder rates completely disappears[1]. You don't even need to control for economic circumstances, merely the number of people living together predicts the murder rate independent of race.
Despite the fact that black people are no more dangerous than white people who live in the same areas, black people are subject to massively disproportional violence inflicted by the state.
The thing that should really make you pause and consider your assumptions is this: Black Americans are more likely to be killed by a police officer than a criminal.
Why do you think I brought up all of the "killed by a stranger" and "familial" homicides if I was going to conclude by comparing the broadest numbers? "Killed by a criminal" is not ambiguous and very clearly does not just refer to all intraracial murders.
I should have stated earlier that I agree with the theory that the true primary cause of crime/murder is poverty.
>Why do you think I brought up all of the "killed by a stranger" and "familial" homicides if I was going to conclude by comparing the broadest numbers?
Perhaps to ignore the broader context so as to avoid confronting a big, uncomfortable, politically incorrect issue?
Dead people don't care if they were murdered by a family member or a stranger. If anything, this data is more evidence of the destruction of the family structure since the 1960s.
In 1960, 78% of black children were being raised in 2 parent households.[1]
In 2018, 65% of black children were being raised in a single parent households.[2]
I also don't read links that purport to tell me that it's safe to plunge my arm into boiling water.
I think it's spectacularly offensive to tell black people that there's no problem of other black people killing them in their neighborhoods. The problem clearly exists and is in desperate need of a solution. The real question is how to fix it.
Yes, this is undisputed. And this is a huge problem.
But the difference is that a police officer has sworn an oath and is paid to protect the people. Also, he has a special position of power that people see misused.
