Kerby Anderson

Rav Arora provides a sad and very sobering summary of what happened to black lives in 2020. He writes about race, crime, and culture for the New York Post. He reminds us how the nation was “united in shock and horror after George Floyd’s death.” But he goes on to describe in painful detail what happened in our cities. Consider this statistic. “Last year saw the largest year-to-year increase in homicides ever recorded in US history. The homicide rate in 34 cities was 30 percent higher in 2020 compared to the previous year.” At least 8,600 black lives were lost to homicide last year. In Chicago, 80 percent of gun-violence victims in 2020 were African American. In New York City, 71 percent of shooting victims are black (even though they constitute 26 percent of the city’s population). Of course, the media narrative focuses only on those tragic circumstances where a black man or woman is killed by police (which he says happens less than half of a percent). He estimates that “the probability of an African American being killed by a civilian is more than 30 times higher than that of being killed by a member of law enforcement.” More than 90 percent of black homicide victims are killed by black offenders. He warns that in these cases, “the ghost of endemic white supremacy cannot be invoked to push racial grievance narratives. As a result, the media turns a blind eye.” He also reminds us of a much-publicized Gallup poll that found 81 percent of black Americans favored the same or higher levels of police presence in their neighborhoods. If we are truly concerned about black lives, then we shouldn’t be talking about defunding the police.