Put Y'all Back in Chains, page 12
Since they are approved by Courts, they can only end with a Court’s agreement. In practice, they last a decade or more. In New Orleans and Detroit, news stories have highlighted the high costs of these investigations and the reform plans that have followed, including multimillion-dollar fees paid to the assigned monitors.137 P&P policies have enriched these outside monitoring teams but have done nothing to improve safety in communities. This is the reason the Trump Administration all but stopped these investigations. Unfortunately, President Biden has brought them back. As part of his executive order to “Advance Effective, Accountable Policing and Strengthen Public Safety,” issued in May of 2022, Biden directed the DOJ to expand the use of P&P investigations and pushed for the Justice Department to develop Washington, DC directed “best practices for independent investigations” of local law enforcement agencies.138 The first police departments announced for P&P lawsuits have been Minneapolis and Louisville.139
Biden Racializes Criminal Justice
Rather than addressing America’s crime problem in a way that separates law-abiding Americans of all stripes from the minority who are law-breakers, President Biden and his supporters seek to divide law-abiding Americans—largely along racial lines.
When the video of George Floyd’s ordeal in Minneapolis of being constrained by Officer Derek Chauvin was released, Americans across the board condemned a needless act of violence, but activists, and even some in the mainstream media, insinuated that there would be no investigation of his death without a public uprising.140
So rioters sowed destruction and death across the country.141 Respectfully waiting for the facts to come in wasn’t good enough if you wanted to be considered a good citizen. CNN’s Don Lemon likened the riots to the Boston Tea Party.142 When looters rampaged through Banana Republic, Old Navy, and Nordstrom, Seattle City Councilman Teresa Mosqueda said she “understood it.”143 MSNBC’s Ali Velshi explained with a straight face, while standing in front of a burning building, that the unrest in Minneapolis was “not, generally speaking, unruly.”144
In the midst of a pandemic that shut down the country, hitting the poor, black, and elderly hardest, when Americans across the board were told that they couldn’t work, travel, or entertain guests in their own homes—they were egged on to join a mob to force a reckoning for Officer Chauvin and for law enforcement in general.
Then-presidential candidate Joe Biden offered his endorsement of the mob: “It’s time to listen to those words, to try to understand them. To respond to them, respond with action.”145 Then-Senator Kamala Harris from California explained: “They’re not going to stop…. This is a movement, I’m telling you. They’re not going to stop and everyone beware, because they’re not going to stop…. They’re not going to let up and they should not and we should not.”146
But this impulse to demand a prosecution is dangerous. It is predicated on the false belief that without people marching in the streets and smashing windows, law enforcement and prosecutors won’t carry out their duties. Additionally, it assumes that the nation’s prosecutors are so weak that they need public pressure to make an assessment of criminal behavior in their ranks and to decide which charges they will bring. Ultimately, these mob actions risk the loss of justice that all Americans are supposed to receive, because they can, in fact, affect the final decisions made in our criminal justice system.
Blacks learned a hard-earned truth during the Jim Crow era: prosecutions should never be subject to mob justice but should be solely based on the facts—and the law. Americans, particularly blacks, lose when communities succeed in pressuring prosecutors, judges, and juries. The record of mob justice in the twentieth century provides an overwhelming argument that mob justice shouldn’t continue in the twenty-first.
Take a look at the Wilmington Race Riot of 1898 at the dawn of the twentieth century. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t spontaneous. Ostensibly, this riot was about an election dispute over alleged stuffed ballots in the city of Wilmington, a thriving port city on the coast of North Carolina that had elected a black Republican majority in the previous election. On Election Day in 1898, blacks were astonished by the level of fraud. They likely were shocked when five hundred white men opened the armory and undertook a bloody assault on the black community. This chaos occurred purportedly because local law enforcement had refused to investigate claims that black men had acted disrespectfully towards white women.147 But that was all a lie. It would take years to uncover the actual rationale for the conflict, but we now know that it was part of an orchestrated campaign involving the media, candidates, and elected officials.148
Even the name “Wilmington Race Riot” was a fraud designed to blame the victims. Instead of spontaneous protests, what actually happened was that hired protestors overthrew the elected government of Wilmington, confiscated land, burned houses, destroyed the black-owned newspaper, and killed more than sixty blacks in order to take over Wilmington and its government.149
As the comprehensive 1898 Wilmington Race Riot report would later reveal, the rioters weren’t concerned about justice. They were motivated solely by their aims to overthrow the Wilmington government and steal the property and political authority from the lawful residents. While this slaughter of blacks went on, law enforcement was nowhere to be found.
Then there’s the Atlanta Race Riot of 1906. Using a similar claim that law enforcement refused to arrest blacks for accosting white women, white mobs and rioters killed dozens of blacks, injured scores more, and looted and razed property and businesses owned by blacks.150 The local paper ran extra editions of the fake assault and rape claims, including accounts “sensationalized with lurid details and inflammatory language.”151 The damage and violence would have continued if Georgia’s governor hadn’t ordered the National Guard to shut it down. Once again, the real aim was to take over the political structure and the assets of their political nemeses—in this case, blacks.
A dozen years later, the 1917 East St. Louis Race Riot followed the same model with even deadlier consequences. This time the rioters claimed that prosecutors failed to pursue a charge against a black man accused of killing a white man. By its conclusion, many churches and homes had been burnt and nearly a hundred blacks killed.152 Six thousand blacks were also made homeless, all while local elected leaders and the police stood by.153 It took Illinois Governor Frank Lowden’s decision to call in the National Guard to end this racial slaughter.154
Only a few years later, the infamous Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 occurred. Again, murderous schemers used the claim that a young black man, Dick Rowland, had acted improperly while in an elevator with a white woman named Sarah Page as their pretext for violence and looting.155
Crowds gathered demanding justice. Again, rather than allow any kind of investigation to go forward, one of America’s most brutal race massacres would occur instead. The local paper, the Tulsa Tribune, was as inflammatory as possible in covering the alleged incident, leading to hordes of angry protestors charging the police station overseeing the investigation.156 This riot involved literally thousands of whites who burned the black-owned homes and shops over a 35-city-block area. Firefighters were prevented from assisting. More than a hundred black people would be killed.157
Mob justice resulting in the murder and plunder of innocent blacks, in the name of outrage over a failing of our criminal justice system, is a part of America’s history, one that we should never forget. Despite this history and the terrible and lasting deprivations—it would take decades or more before these communities would recover—the lesson of encouraging mob violence seems to be forgotten.
All Americans—minorities especially—benefit when prosecutors are able to do their jobs without undue efforts to influence them in their responsibilities. Demands by demagogues that specific charges be filed against anyone are perilous for criminal justice and are especially dangerous for blacks. Acts of violence in the name of urging an investigation should be seen for what they actually are: excuses for mayhem and an outlet for real injustice.
Instead of joining in with the mob, President Biden should take on the role of a real leader for all. He should stand up for a dispassionate role for prosecutors, instead of naming woke ones to work for him. Yes, Americans like George Floyd deserve justice, and so does everyone else—and rioting won’t provide that; it hurts us all. Over $1 billion in insurance claims were made in the wake of the “mostly peaceful” Black Lives Matter protests.158 Eleven Americans, most of them black, died during these protests.159 Mob justice inevitably risks harming minorities most. A President looking out for blacks would seek to diminish conflict, not inflame it.
Blacks Suffer Most in America’s Crime Wave
Crime in America disproportionately involves blacks. Both those who commit the drive-by shootings, robberies, and burglaries—and more importantly, their victims—are overwhelmingly black.
Blacks make up 13 percent of the population and account for 36 percent of those charged with rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.160 According to the FBI, in absolute numbers, more blacks are murder victims than those of any other racial group.161 The Centers for Disease Control reports that blacks are disproportionately victims of assault.162 Sadly, this is no anomaly. Homicide is one of the top five causes of death for black men; no other racial or ethnic group has this distinction.163
Leadership means responding not to the criminal actors and their circumstances but to the victims. Yet again, President Biden is missing in action. With great fanfare, he signed into law a replenishment of the federal crime victims’ fund.164 What he hasn’t done is push for steps that will end or reduce the crime wave that is expanding all over America.
During President Biden’s term, his supporters have sought to diminish the terrible crime news. Even though the murder rate has jumped by nearly 30 percent and aggravated assault by 12 percent, his supporters push the narrative that since other types of crime are stable or slightly dropping, there is no crime wave. Seemingly without a sense of irony, crime expert Philip Cook of Duke University explained, “There was no crime wave—there was a tsunami of lethal violence, and that’s it….”165 Noted Princeton sociologist Patrick Sharkey—a Biden sympathizer whose 2018 book Uneasy Peace argued that aggressive policing and incarceration policies likely reduce crime but could also “provoke a backlash among the public”166—joins in this sentiment. He further claims that the public’s perception of a crime wave is misplaced, since the real issue is “almost entirely a rise in gun violence, rather than a more general increase in all forms of crime.”167
“Except for the Killings…”
Reminiscent of D.C. Mayor Marion Barry’s appearance at a National Press Club luncheon where he explained, “Except for the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country,”168 such obfuscations are an attempt at downplaying perhaps the fear of the most serious crime: murder.
Americans are increasingly afraid of being murder victims. A Gallup survey in October of 2021 asked Americans how often they worry about murder. This question has been asked since August of 2000. This time the poll yielded a twenty-year record high of Americans afraid they’ll be killed, with over a fifth reporting they worry frequently or occasionally that they might get murdered.169
In a similar survey from Gallup, 53 percent of Americans report worrying a “great deal” about crime overall, the highest percentage in more than five years.170 Gallup explains that this elevated level “likely reflects the record high homicide rates in many cities last year.”171 Second only to inflation and health care costs, Pew Research reported in the spring of 2022 that 54 percent of Americans list crime as the great problem facing the nation.172
This sentiment has shown up in elections since Biden has been in office. For instance, pro-BLM prosecutor Chesa Boudin was recalled in San Francisco.173 Former police captain Eric Adams was elected mayor of New York City.174 Ann Davison was elected City Attorney of Seattle, becoming the first Republican elected city-wide in decades.175 In Maryland, voters ousted Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby176 in favor of Ivan Bates, who had run on a law-and-order platform.177 Even in Los Angeles, law-and-order candidate and former Republican Rick Caruso ended up a close second to progressive Karen Bass (who was on Biden’s short list for running mates in 2020) in the nonpartisan run-off for mayor.178
These signs portend a blow-out for Biden’s party in the 2022 midterms, but he and his team have refused to change course. Other than making a few speeches claiming to support police, he has never actually taken steps to reduce crime in America. He hasn’t pushed to expand the death penalty or to add additional grants to assist local governments with exploding crime rates the way he did in 1994. Instead, he has focused on stymieing law enforcement rather than violent criminals.
Biden is the first sitting President to oppose capital punishment,179 a position that even America’s first black President didn’t embrace. In July of 2021, Biden’s DOJ placed a moratorium on carrying out the death penalty at the federal level.180 However, 64 percent of Americans support capital punishment,181 with blacks evenly split between supporting and opposing it at 49 percent 182, but note the black support is a substantially larger percentage than Democrats overall, who support it at only 34 percent.183
Under President Trump, thirteen executions were carried out at the federal level. There are now forty-four men on the federal death row. Examining whether mass murderer/white supremacist Dylan Roof and Boston Marathon Bomber Dzokhar Tsarnaev, along with a host of drug kingpins and murdering bank robbers, should live until their natural deaths may seem like an important area to focus on by the Biden White House. But it is a luxury that many citizens simply can’t afford.
America’s crime wave has costs that go beyond the victims, who are indeed very important. But failing to lower or end the crime wave not only leads to more loss of lives—especially among blacks—but also limits the economy by affecting the willingness of companies to provide services in high-crime neighborhoods. Grocery stores close or never open. Other businesses soon follow the lead. In other words, the very communities that need investment the most suffer.
The best city planners try to partner with businesses, working to attract new ones to their community and developing business-friendly policies to help grow the ones that are already there. In these places, new shops including grocery stores and fast-food chains happily reside. The residents are happier and more prosperous. But when rioting and crime is the order of the day, business flees and, along with it, the prosperity of the residents.
Take the city of Baltimore. In 2015, riots broke out over the death of career felon Freddie Gray.184 Some 380 businesses were destroyed or shut down before the protests were over—almost every one of them located in West Baltimore, the neediest part of the city.185 In a mere seventeen days, $13 million in damages occurred. There were six officers charged in Gray’s death, but three were acquitted, and the prosecutors decided not to pursue charges against the remaining three officers.186 Obama’s Justice Department investigated, but ultimately, the DOJ declined to prosecute at the federal level.
The local CVS which offered seniors prescription discounts was closed for more than a year. 187 Similarly, a senior living facility that was under construction had its opening delayed by more than a year. Sadly, even seven years later the DTLR store (a black-owned clothing and shoe chain) that started in Baltimore was never rebuilt. Today, the area is a high crime zone and there is no commercial development occurring. The overwhelmingly black residents are forced to travel out of the community for clothing, food, and employment.
Is it any wonder that blacks in America regularly say in polls that they support more law enforcement, not less, because they need it the most?188
President Biden’s plans for the country have not made communities safer. In fact, in many cities, things have gotten substantially worse. A great goal that the country has achieved—getting Americans from all walks of life to join law enforcement—has also been undermined by a President who sounds more committed to lawbreakers than lawmen. The number of law enforcement officers nationwide189 has dropped, as has the number of black officers.190
For a movement that claims to want to reform law enforcement, it uses a strange approach: attacking white police officers as racist. It’s no surprise that this has created a situation where there are fewer qualified officers of any race.
Improving neighborhood safety and protecting business development in working-class communities is critically important to improving the quality of life for minorities and the poor. President Biden’s polices are instead premised on the false notion that racial disparities in the criminal system are a result of anti-black bias, not of differences in behavior. Americans, blacks in particular, are harmed as a result.
Instead of tepidly opposing the defunding of police departments, President Biden should support measures to recruit more local and state police. He should replicate a successful Trump crime policy, directing the Justice Department to identify communities with elevated crime levels and provide them with greater law-enforcement grants. He should push a major anti-crime measure promoting enhanced penalties for violent criminals and publicly reverse himself on capital punishment.
The Justice Department and the White House should speak out against the effort to eliminate bail, and President Biden must reverse course and pledge that he will veto any bill that comes before him that reduces “qualified immunity.” Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine created by courts to shield police officers from lawsuits demanding financial payments, as long as the officers did not violate “clearly established” law.191 Officers, as a result, can carry out their roles in the community without fear that they may lose their homes or their children’s college fund, when a high-profile incident leads to an injury or worse for an accused defendant.
