When police officers killed Philando Castile and Alton Sterling it wasn’t because of their race. They were shot for disobeying officers’ commands.
The purpose of the Black Lives Matter movement is clear: to oppose the racist actions of police officers who are disproportionately targeting members of the black community.
According to the BLM website, the lives of black citizens are “systematically and intentionally targeted for demise” by society. Particularly by law enforcement. What the movement fails to recognize, however, is that the facts don’t line up with their assertions.
A study featured in the Washington Post this summer dispels the notion that law enforcement disproportionately murders blacks. It found that white people are nearly twice as likely to be killed by police than people of color. Based upon the study two things are clear: white citizens are statistically killed more often by police than blacks, and blacks do not encompass the majority of officer-involved deaths.
BLM says police officers are disproportionately targeting blacks. This is false when adjusted for population. Blacks make up 13 percent of the population in the United States. The FBI’s national statistics show black people commit 28 percent of violent crimes, which is proportionate to the study’s finding that blacks constituted 26 percent of officer-involved deaths.
The reality is that more blacks are killed by other blacks than by police officers. Political commentator Heather MacDonald pointed out during her visit to campus last Spring, “Black males between the ages of 14 and 17 commit homicide at ten times the rate of white and Hispanic male teens combined… while blacks of all ages commit homicide at eleven times the rate of whites alone.”
Black Lives Matter misses the point. Blacks comprise 53 percent of all homicide offenders and 51 percent of all homicide victims, so it would be more appropriate for BLM to campaign against this injustice.
Instead, BLM chooses to wage a war against America’s peacekeepers.
This results in a nationwide mutual distrust between minorities and police officers that is based upon nothing more than speculation and disregard for the facts.
BLM protests about the stories of individuals supposedly killed because of nothing more than their skin color, but turns a blind eye when police officers are killed simply because of their uniform.
Tragedies like the attack on Dallas police this summer are rare, thankfully, but the rate at which officers are shot continues to increase.
So far this year, 78 officers have been killed in the line of duty, an 82 percent increase over 2015. Many of these deaths are attributable to the anti-police rhetoric spewed by BLM.
More police officers than ever are making the ultimate sacrifice for a nation that refuses to defend them. Meanwhile, the media fails to tell the full story involving these types of shootings, leading to a misunderstanding.
A movement based on a false narrative can only continue so long as individuals remain ignorant of the facts. We owe it to our country and our police officers to spread the truth and share the reality.
Hank is a junior studying political economy.