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‘Our humanity no longer mattered’: Black Americans hardest hit by folly of anti-cop leaders

May 21, 2022 | | Print Article

In the wake of calls from progressive politicians and woke activist groups, black Americans have been disproportionately affected by soaring murder statistics and violent crimes, leaving a community already plagued by high homicide rates worse off in a society awash in “emboldened” criminals.

“While politicians were marching in arms with protesters claiming to care about black lives, they were actively making their lives worse,” writes Adam Coleman in an op-ed for the New York Post. “For black Americans who live in dangerous neighborhoods, removing the police has made them even more unsafe and has emboldened the criminal element that resides alongside the innocent.”

Coleman points to 2020 as a pivotal moment in America — one in which people “lost faith in institutions of immense importance” and “questioned the intentions of their neighbors.”

Americans watched cities explode after George Floyd died at the hands of Derek Chauvin.

“[Twenty-twenty] was not only a year to decide who our next president would be but also to determine what kind of society we want to maintain,” says Coleman.

“The elite decided that the safety of the American people is subject to political expedience,” he writes. “Our humanity no longer mattered.”

 

While small business owners and residents of rioting cities begged for police enforcement, cops were ordered to stand down, Coleman explains, and while many lost their livelihoods, “our politicians were left mostly unscathed.”

“[W]hen politicians ignore our humanity in pursuit of their own agenda,” he says, “the American people tend to suffer the consequences, even with their lives.”

Citing statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that show a 30% increase in murders between 2019 and 2020, Coleman lays at least part of the blame on “many of our supposed leaders.”

As government officials used the universally despised Derek Chauvin as a justification for defunding police departments amid pressure from politically-charged activists, “the homicide rate for black Americans increased by a dramatic 34%, higher than any other racial demographic.”

And, according to Christos Makridis and Robert VerBruggen of the Manhattan Institute, “since the black homicide rate was already many times higher than the white one, this translated into 8 additional black deaths for every 100,000 population,” compared to “only 0.5 per 100,000” among whites.

Notes Coleman, “it is understandable why Pew Research recently found that the most important issue for black Americans was related to violence and crime.”

As American Wire reported in mid-April, some police officers are pushing back against the campaign to defund departments.

In an ad campaign of its own, the DC Police Union placed the blame for soaring crime and a decline in public safety on local government policies.

DC Police Union chairman Greggory Pemberton, in a statement regarding the launch of the campaign, said at the time, “This week, the District lost another child to gunfire. Enough is enough.”

 

But according to Coleman, the push by politicians for people to fear the police will only result in fewer officers and fewer people who will care what pro-police activists say.

“If everyone believes that we are in constant danger by the very people we need the support of, then no one will care when mayors across the nation remove them from street corners,” he writes. “No one will care when the few activists speak for the many whose safety is at risk.”

“A mind virus has spread across our nation — that the death of the innocent is perfectly fine so long as police are demonized,” Coleman warns. “Our humanity is trivial at best; and it shows.”

Melissa Fine
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