Racial divides have defined the past several years. It all started with the Obama administration and former President Barack Obama’s repeated insistence that racism is at the core of American life and that it’s ingrained in the country’s DNA.
To this day, leftists and Democrats continue to exacerbate racial tensions by repeating this lie. But don’t be fooled by these race hustlers. Americans are getting along better than you might realize.
For example, on Friday a group of black men rushed to save a state trooper’s life after he was shot at a local mini-mart.
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the Pennsylvania state trooper, Jonnie Schooley, was shot in the leg early Friday morning outside of a convenience store.
Schooley and his partner noticed a disturbance at the convenience store — a man, later identified as Damian Ray Bradford, allegedly pulled out a pistol and pointed it at some of the patrons.
When the two troopers confronted Bradford, the resulting struggle ended with Schooley being shot in the leg.
At that time, footage of the event showed a group of black men in the area rushing to Schooley’s aid. Some helped tend to his wound while others stood by, presumably ready to lend their support as well if needed.
Bystanders come to trooper’s aid after he was shot at Aliquippa mini-mart
🎥 Bumpy Johnson lll
ALIQUIPPA, Pa. — Video shows the moments following a state trooper’s shooting in Aliquippa Friday morning.Bystanders can be seen helping tend to the trooper as backup arrived. pic.twitter.com/Tno6Neozeb
— PPV_TAHOE (@newschannelppv) July 29, 2022
Is the left wrong about the black community?
Yes: 100% (49 Votes)
No: 0% (0 Votes)
The incident speaks to a larger point about African American attitudes towards law enforcement. As it turns out, the black community supports police much more than the Democratic Party would have you believe.
For example, a Pew Research Center poll conducted in September of 2021 found that, despite the left’s insistence to “defund the police,” 38 percent of black adults believed police funding should be increased and another 38 believed that funding should “stay about the same.”
Only 23 percent of black adults took the stance that police funding should be decreased.
Even more surprisingly, another September 2021 poll conducted by a number of local Minneapolis news outlets found that black voters in the city — which served as the center of the 2020 racial justice protests over the death of George Floyd — also opposed defunding police.
According to the Star Tribune, while 58 percent of black voters had an “unfavorable” view of the Minneapolis Police Department, a whopping 75 percent opposed reducing the size of the police force.
Many leftists nonetheless argue that the relationship between the black community and law enforcement is largely negative. In order to make this point, many such leftists point to the increased police presence in black neighborhoods.
But, this fact actually proves the exact opposite. Police presence in black neighborhoods isn’t higher because police are targeting black citizens — it’s higher because citizens in black neighborhoods are more likely to call the police.
City-Journal contributing editor Heather Mac Donald explained as much in a 2020 report.
“Policing today is driven by crime data and community demands for help. Victim reports send police disproportionately to minority communities because that is where people are most being hurt by violent street crime,” Mac Donald wrote.
“Blacks between the ages of 10 and 43 die of homicide at thirteen times the rate of whites, according to the CDC. In New York City, blacks make up 73 percent of all shooting victims, though they are 23 percent of the city’s population.”
“These are the realities that police commanders in urban areas face daily. But community requests for help also determine police deployment, and the most urgent requests come from the law-abiding residents of high-crime neighborhoods.”
Black communities don’t want the police to be defunded. They don’t hate their local law enforcement officials. As Mac Donald laid out, often times it’s the very members of these communities responsible for the increased number of officers in their neighborhoods.
And yet, through “social justice” movements and policy proposals, leftists continue to push back against the wishes of black Americans by reducing police funding and presence in their neighborhoods.
Perhaps the majority-white Democratic Party should spend less time deciding what’s best for black Americans and more time listening to their cries for help.