Why Not Tell The Truth About Black Homicide In the United States?

The rioting in Ferguson, Missouri, over the shooting death of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson has garnered nationwide media attention and "deep concern" from black politicians, including the President of the United States. Some black leaders and black media pundits are claiming "there is a war on black men in this country," intimating that whites, particularly white law enforcement officers, are the ones waging war on black men. But is that even remotely true?

The facts I'm going to cite will irritate a few people but factual statistics often have a way of doing that.

According to the FBI, in 2012 there were 12,765 total murder victims in the United States. Seventy-seven percent of those victims were male and 51.1% were black, as opposed to 46.3% white and 2.6% other races.

Eighty-nine percent of the perpetrators of these homicides were male. 53.4 percent of the perpetrators were black, 44.3 percent were white, and 2.3 percent were of other races.

Law enforcement agencies reported 720 justifiable homicides in 2012. Of those 720, private citizens justifiably killed 310 people during the commission of crimes and law enforcement justifiably killed 410. And while several black leaders and pundits say that "according to the statistics, two black people were shot by police every week" - there are no FBI statistics that back up that claim. They claim that "fact" based on numbers of the percentage of black victims.

There is one web page, Vox.com, that says "The FBI doesn't publish the full Supplementary Homicide Report records, but it provided Vox with data that included every case of a "felon killed by a police officer" in 2012." The only problem with that is there is no way to verify it. The FBI doesn't normally go around giving out information to just one specific web page, however.

But according to this information by Vox, blacks comprised 31% of all "victims" killed by police during an arrest situation. Fifty-two percent were white. The average age of the black suspect was 20 while the average age of the whites was mid to upper 20s. The information provided by Vox also says that 39% of blacks were killed while "not attacking police" compared to 46% of whites.

Even if these statistics could be verified, there are other factors to be considered. Last week I put this chart in another post but it's relevant to this one as well.

Blacks make up just over 13% of the population of the United States. Yet they are arrested and charged of violent crimes at a rate just over the white population, which makes up 77% of the total. Some will say this is because blacks are profiled or single out or that law enforcement is racist but the fact is that young black males commit more crimes than young whites. And many are violent crimes.

Total Arrests 2012

Total                                                        White                                Black

Murder and non-negligent homicide    9,499,725                           6,578,133
Forcible Rape                                              8,341                                  4,000
Robbery                                                     14,611                                  9,504
Aggravated Assault                                 305,220                              194,981

Total                                                     9,828,197                            6,822,061

Whites outnumber blacks in this country 5 to 1 but only outnumber blacks in crime commission by 30%. And again - those are FBI numbers, not mine.

The thing that seems to be ignored in this country by black people screaming for justice is the fact that most young black men are killed by other young black men. According to a study by Businessweek magazine:

"For most young adults, aged 20 to 24, the No. 1 cause of death is car accidents, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control. For black men in that age group, though, the top cause of death is gun violence; they are four times more likely to be shot and killed than they are to die in a car accident."

"A young black man is nearly five times more likely to be killed by a gun than a young white man and 13 times more than an Asian American man. These numbers, dramatic as they are, actually understate the problem. If a black person is killed by a gun, it is judged a homicide 82 percent of the time. For the broad population, most gun deaths are ruled accidental or the result of suicide; only 34 percent of gun deaths are attributed to murder."

Critics will say "Well, 85% of the murders of whites are committed by other whites." And statistically that's true. But blacks are killed by other blacks at a rate of 99.9%. The actual numbers from 2012 were 7,089 whites killed by other whites and 3,996 blacks killed by other blacks. According to population statistics, the number of blacks killed by other blacks should have been 520. Therein lies one of the biggest problems.

You won't hear protesters in Ferguson screaming about black on black homicide. You won't see them burning down stores and gas stations in Chicago, Detroit, or Washington, DC, because of young black men being murdered by other young black men. Why? Because racism is easier to swallow and easier to sell to the public, and more lucrative for those who know how to use it to their advantage. 

If the protesters in Ferguson, particularly those from out of state, and black Americans nationwide who are screaming about the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, actually cared about the death of young black men they would be protesting in the streets of Chicago. If they cared about justice they would be demanding that some action be taken to prevent the murders of thousands of black men instead of just two. 

But as I said - racism sells. Racism draws attention and draws TV viewers. Decrying racism following an incident like the one in Ferguson makes liberals with white guilt feel better about themselves. It does all of that. But it doesn't fix the real problem.