Police aren’t the problem; they’re the solution

“It’s easy for a black male to keep himself from being shot by a white cop,” the Wall Street Journal’s Jason Riley said on my radio show. “It’s much harder to keep from getting shot by other black men.” Riley’s point is that if you defer and don’t try to challenge a police officer he may insult you but he won’t kill you.

In fact, an African-American is 60 times more likely to be killed by a fellow African American than he is by a white cop, and more whites than blacks are victims of deadly police shootings. These tragic numbers make media obsession with Ferguson, Missouri even less defensible. Police risk their lives daily to try to stop black-on-black crime that afflicts every big city. When it comes to keeping black youths from violent death, police aren’t the problem – in fact, they’re a crucial part of any solution.