Actions have consequences

If athletes, the media and racial activists want to claim injustice and oppression at every conceivable turn, shout racism from every corner, so be it. But if they truly want to make a difference and invoke meaningful change for millions of our youth, then America needs to have an open, honest conversation about crime and the countless lives, both victims and perpetrators, being destroyed on a daily basis.  As someone who has friends from all walks of life, races, and economic dispositions, I’m by no means implying whites don’t commit crimes or that the prevalence of poverty, absentee parents, and a lack of education do not contribute to systemic, generational crime. Of course they do. And while it is not my intention to seem insensitive or haughty,  these statistics are so damning and unacceptable that we as a diverse, civilized society can no longer be afraid to speak uncomfortable truths simply because they may offend others. There is simply too much at stake. More than ever, this country and our inner cities need role models with an acute sense of accountability, community, not grandstanding athletes dedicated to publicity stunts or political vendettas that do nothing to address these failings or assuage the suffering of so many people. Giving children hope begins by giving them a sense of pride, moral obligation and an unbreakable belief in themselves that transcends all barriers or racial narratives. The intersection of crime and race is not a juvenile matter of screaming "I told you so", but a grave threat to the safety of our communities, the unity of this country and the future of all our loved ones.

There are dramatic race differences in crime rates. Asians have the lowest rates, followed by whites and then Hispanics. This pattern holds true for nearly every crime category and virtually all age groups. All statistics were provided by “The Color of Crime: 2016 Revised Edition” from Edwin Rubenstein of the New Century Foundation.

The evidence suggests that if there is police racial bias in arrests it is negligible. Victim and witness surveys show that police arrest violent criminals in close proportion to the rates at which criminals of different races commit violent crimes.

In 2013, a black was six times more likely than a non-black to commit murder, and 12 times more likely to murder someone of another race than to be murdered by someone of another race.

In 2013, of the approximately 660,000 crimes of interracial violence that involved blacks and whites, blacks were the perpetrators 85 percent of the time. This meant a black person was 27 times more likely to attack a white person than vice versa. A Hispanic was eight times more likely to attack a white person than vice versa.

If New York City were all white, the murder rate would drop by 91 percent, the robbery rate by 81 percent, and the shootings rate by 97 percent.

In an all-white Chicago, murder would decline 90 percent, rape by 81 percent, and robbery by 90 percent.

In 2015, a black person was 2.45 times more likely than a white person to be shot and killed by the police. A Hispanic person was 1.21 times more likely. These figures are well within what would be expected given race differences in crime rates and likelihood to resist arrest.

In 2015, police killings of blacks accounted for approximately 4 percent of homicides of blacks. Police killings of unarmed blacks accounted for approximately 0.6 percent of homicides of blacks. The overwhelming majority of black homicide victims (93 percent from 1980 to 2008) were killed by blacks.

Both violent and non-violent crime has been declining in the United States since a high in 1993. 2015 saw a disturbing rise in murder in major American cities that some observers associated with “depolicing” in response to intense media and public scrutiny of police activity.

Roughly 6-7% of black Americans, mainly males between the ages of 20-40, constitute 38% of the federal prison population and 35% of local jail inmates.