Admirable Restraint

I wasn’t sure I intended to comment on the rioting going on now in cities across the country. However, Paul Mirengoff of Power Line writes something sensible about police violence you might agree with.

According to the Washington Post, 19 unarmed African-American males were killed by police in 2017, and 17 in 2016 — an average of 18 per year. It’s unlikely that all 18 were unjustified, but let’s assume they were.

That’s 18 too many. But measured against the number of police interactions during the year with the kind of people who are rioting, and recognizing that there will always be some bad cops and some inexperienced ones, it’s a small number.

If American police forces were populated with an appreciable number of genocidal racists, or even just trigger-happy cops, the number of unarmed black males killed by police in a year would be much larger than 18. Indeed, if American police forces were populated with an appreciable number of out-of-control cops, we would be seeing a more violent response by the police to the rioting that’s plaguing our cities night after night.

And something Mirengoff doesn’t note, urban cops know the mayor and most members of the city council side with the rioters, and share their cop hatred. Imagine how that feels, it’s a wonder urban police departments can recruit or retain officers.