A Few Words for Colin Kaepernick

In this country, you can protest anything you want.  It's your right. But, when you broadly brush all cops as pigs by wearing socks depicting a pig's head with a police cap, you force reasonable people to ignore whatever point you were trying to make. Those supposed pigs keep a lot of black citizens safe because, much of the crime is black on black in mostly black neighborhoods.  Cops arrest 2-1/2 million blacks each year for a variety of offenses.  Yet, for yourself, and those in the Black Lives Matter movement, the focus is always on a handful of incidents that go terribly wrong.  There is no such thing as perfection when humans are involved.  I doubt that you think you're perfection on the football field. 

Then, there's your practice of sitting during the National Anthem and the presentation of the flag.  Again, it is your right.  But, again, you are broadly painting the entire country as, I guess, racist.  You seem to forget that a million and a half of mostly white Union soldiers fought a civil war to end slavery; of which, nearly 600,000 were either killed, wounded, and went missing in order to do what was right. They fought that fight under the very flag you now disrespect.

You may be getting a lot attention at the moment.  But, for me, and whatever it is that you think your cause is, it is falling on my now deaf ears.  And, I think that it true for a lot of Americans.

References:

5 Devastating Facts About Black-on-Black Crime: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/11/28/5-devastating-facts-black-black-crime/

FBI: 2014 Arrests by Race and Ethnicity: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/table-43

FBI: 2014 Homicides by Race: By Offender and Victim: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/expanded-homicide-data/expanded_homicide_data_table_6_murder_race_and_sex_of_vicitm_by_race_and_sex_of_offender_2014.xls

Civil War Casualties: http://www.civilwar.org/education/civil-war-casualties.html

Tarantino's Misguided Attitude Toward Cops

In this country, the arrest rate per 100,000 residents is 3888.2.  That means that over 2-1/2 million arrests are made each year.  In making those arrests, a police officer never knows if the person being arrested will attempt to kill him/her or not; even during a routine traffic stop.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics,  nearly 20% of all inmates in state prisons were armed at the time of arrest.  For federal prisoners, the rate is 15%.  Often, the decision whether or not to use deadly force is made in a split second.  And yes, there will be mistakes, and unarmed people will die.  Whether its a young boy with an air gun that had its normally identifying orange tip removed or, a woman pulling out a cell phone at the wrong time.

So, here are the stats on police killings as of this writing.

According to a website run by The U.K. Guardian called 'The Counted', through November 15th, a total of 964 persons were killed by U.S. police in 2015.  20% of those (190) were unarmed at the time of their death.  Also understand that we don't know the circumstances surrounding those 190 deaths and whether or not the police personnel causing them were found to be guilty of murder, or whether or not the deaths were deemed accidental or justified. For example, 47 of those 190 deaths were as a result of being tasered; a supposedly non-lethal tool for cops to use when someone is resisting arrest.

To me, Quentin Tarantino's charge that cops are "murderers" is totally unfounded.  Given the number of times the police have had to arrest someone committing a crime -- 2-1/2 million times -- the number of unarmed deaths-by-cops is extremely small.  This proves that U. S. cops are showing relative restraint before using deadly force.  And, where is  the gratitude from Tarantino for the 2-1/2 million arrests made while enforcing the law, putting themselves in jeopardy,  and keeping people safe?

References:

Pressure is on Tarantino to apologize for calling cops murderers: http://nypost.com/2015/11/02/quentin-tarantino-to-apologize-for-calling-cops-murderers/

The Counted: Numbers Killed By Police: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database#

Fatal shooting of teen with toy gun was reasonable, experts say: http://nypost.com/2015/10/11/fatal-shooting-of-teen-with-toy-gun-was-reasonable-experts-say/

Uh Oh! Not Again! Unarmed Black Woman Shot to Death by Police in Georgia!: http://newsbuzzdaily.com/uh-oh-not-again-unarmed-black-woman-shot-to-death-by-police-in-georgia/

Arrest Rate in U.S.:https://www.google.com/search?q=number++of+arrests+per+year&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Bureau of Justice: Firearm Use by Offenders: http://bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/fuo.pdf

The Violent Criminals are Gaining Control of our Streets

With the execution of two white police officers, just days apart, the media has been focused on the increasing number of cops that have been killed since last year's Ferguson riots.  There has also been much attention drawn to the surging murder and other violent crime rates on our major city streets.  All this because many feel we have a President and a Department of Justice that is too quick to blame the cops, and not the criminals.   Thus, weapons are being left on  city streets at increasing numbers because the police have been intimidated into "NOT" conducting traffic stops of suspicious people; especially when it is a car full of blacks.

But, the one thing that the media has not focused on, is the fact that amid rising crime, many police departments are shrinking at an alarming rate.  Back in July, ABC reported this:

Police Face Severe Shortage of Recruits

With the number of applicants down more than 90 percent in some cities, police departments may soon be posting more signs that say “Help Wanted” instead of “Most Wanted.”

Then, too, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran this story about the police department of St. Louis County (the home of Ferguson, Mo.):

St. Louis County police losing officers at increasing rate

St. Louis County police officers are quitting the force in what may be unprecedented numbers, leaving commanders scrambling to fill vacancies.

Also, there was this headline about the Camden County Police Department, in one of the most violent counties in Pennsylvania:

Camden County Police Department struggling to keep officers

Nearly 120 officers - including large swaths of recruiting classes - have resigned or retired, making the department's turnover one of the highest in the state.

Simply, because of the politics of policing, existing and potential cops just don't want the job anymore. America's population is increasingly becoming the prey of the violent criminal. I would also expect, that the increased murder of cops will only result in even more resignations; more early retirements; and fewer police recruits in the future.

Thank you Mr. Obama for fundamentally changing America.

References:

Police: Off-duty officer killed in Texas - CNN.com: http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/01/us/texas-abilene-police-officer-killed/

Fox Lake officer's killing: Police find new evidence: http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/04/us/illinois-police-officer-joseph-gliniewicz-death/

Several big U.S. cities see homicide rates surge - USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/07/09/us-cities-homicide-surge-2015/29879091/ 

Police rattled by spike in violent crimes across US: http://www.rt.com/usa/312776-homicide-crime-rate-spike/

Police Face Severe Shortage of Recruits: http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=96570 

St. Louis County police losing officers at increasing rate: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/st-louis-county-police-losing-officers-at-increasing-rate/article_cc4dd3ef-0aaa-512d-8c34-1824b1676cf0.html

Camden County Police Department struggling to keep officers: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20150517_Camden_County_Police_Department_struggling_to_keep_officers.html

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Really? The Baltimore Cops are the Problem?

When it comes to crime, the Baltimore police have their hands full.  Baltimore is a city of just 623,000 people.  Yet, every year, they have more than 40,000 crimes. That's one crime for every 15-1/2 residents. Theoretically, that means that each resident will experience one crime every 15 years.  That 1-in-15-1/2 also creates  a helluva lot of suspects within that population; and may be why so many residents think they're being harassed by the cops. 

Based on the murder rate per 1,000 people, Baltimore's is 9-1/4 times higher than the national average.  The rape rate is twice that of the nation as a whole.  The robbery rate stands at 6 times higher, and assault is almost 3 times the norm. All together, the violent crime rate per 1000 residents is nearly 4 times higher than the U.S. average. 

According to the U.S. Attorney General and the Baltimore Mayor, the city has a civil rights problem within its police force.

To that, I say that the city -- which is 63% black and has a police force that is nearly half black -- has a civility problem.  Not a civil rights problem.  Police don't cause crime. They enforce the law and protect against it.  When you have 438 crimes per square mile each year, something is seriously wrong and it isn't the police.  They are simply being scapegoated for other more politically relevant problems; such as a 24% poverty rate and very high unemployment. Just 42% of the working-age adults in Freddie Gray's neighborhood have a job. Overall, young black men have a 37% unemployment rate in that city.  Also, 36% of Baltimore's adult population are functionally illiterate and can't read at even a basic level. High poverty, unemployment, and illiteracy have all been linked to higher crime rates. Baltimore has them all.

References:

After Freddie Gray death, U.S. starts civil rights probe of Baltimore police: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-justice-announce-20150508-story.html#page=2

Baltimore Quick Facts: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/24/24510.html

Baltimore Police Department: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_Police_Department

Just 42 percent of the residents in Freddie Gray’s neighborhood are employed: http://fusion.net/story/127163/just-42-percent-of-the-residents-in-freddie-grays-neighborhood-are-employed/

Baltimore's economy in black and white: http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/29/news/economy/baltimore-economy/

The Relationship between Crime and Unemployment: http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1069&context=parkplace

Poverty and Crime | National Dialogue Network: http://www.nationaldialoguenetwork.org/poverty-and-crime/

Baltimore Literacy Rate: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1999-04-19/news/9904170418_1_adult-literacy-literacy-rates-welfare-recipients

Two-Thirds of Students Who Can't Read by the Fourth Grade Will Either Wind Up in Jail or on Welfare: http://www.begintoread.com/research/literacystatistics.html