Corine Mack is the President of the Charlotte, North Carolina NAACP. Ms. Mack recently made statements that should be music to Second Amendment supporters’ ears. On CNN, the NAACP prez said that the mere fact that someone has a gun should not be enough to allow police to shoot them.
MACK: At the end of the day, you know, a video may show a different perspective depending on the angle. And so if we don’t have many different angles, you may not get the full picture. I think the most important part is the contrast in him having a book versus a gun. But in my mind and in most of the community’s mind, it really doesn’t matter if he had a gun.
At the end of the day, we have the right, under the Second Amendment, to carry here in North Carolina. And their responsibility was to engage him in a more de-escalated way, to find out if he had a permit for his gun and allow him to go on his merry way and he would still be living today.
That’s not what happened. And so I don’t want anyone to walk away from this conversation today thinking that a video showing he had a gun in any way says that he’s guilty of anything.
Mack went on to say that police give white people who have guns different treatment than black people. That’s a common misperception. While it’s statistically true that black people commit violent crimes at higher percentages than white people, police are more likely to shoot white people who resist arrest than black people who resist arrest.
From an analysis at wattsupwiththat.com:
Since the common thread in the killings is that the person was resisting arrest, we need to compare how often people of each race get killed by police, with how often people of the same race get arrested by police. But clearly, we’re not interested in arrests for jaywalking and the like. Since 97% of these deaths are occurring in the context of people violently resisting arrest, they are best compared to the corresponding number of arrests for violent crimes.
Here are the results of that comparison for 2015.– For every 10,000 white people arrested for a violent crime, 38 white people were killed by police (± 2).
– For every 10,000 hispanic people arrested for a violent crime, 21 hispanic people were killed by police (± 3).
– For every 10,000 black people arrested for a violent crime, 21 black people were killed by police (± 2).
Go figure … I was as surprised as you, so I’ve triple checked the numbers, and it’s true—the odds of a given arrest going bad and ending up in a death are much greater for white men than for black or hispanic men.
That doesn’t surprise me much.
Police know that there are no white groups that are likely to riot in the streets if a white criminal is killed during an arrest. Police know they are much more likely to be criticized for a black person killed during a arrest than a white person. Police know that culturally, white people are more willing to give the police a pass on their behavior, especially if the individual involved has a criminal record.
There are no big city mayors who are going to condemn police for “racist” acts against white people. The President doesn’t won’t publicly state that white people “have a legitimate grievance”.
This doesn’t mean that the police consciously decide to shoot and kill a higher percentage of white criminals. It could easily be a sub-conscious, lower level of care when dealing with white criminals.
I applaud Corine Mack for her support of the Second Amendment. But the problem isn’t police racism. The problem is the higher level of black criminality, and its causes. I suspect those causes are primarily a lack of trust in the rule of law in black urban centers. All around the world a lack of trust in the rule of law is associated with high levels of criminality.
The constant, knee-jerk cries of “racism” reinforce the lack of trust in the police. Enforce the law equally and effectively in the black urban cores. Encourage a strong family structure. That will encourage a trust in the rule of law. As trust in the rule of law increases, black crime rates will drop.
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.