The police brutality aspect of the Black Lives Matter movement consists of a protest against the American police force for racial profiling and brutality against black civilians. BLM protestors accuse a significant portion of white police officers of being more violent toward black citizens simply because of the color of their skin. Is this true though? 

Are a portion of white police officers patrolling up and down the streets of Starkville, Mississippi, looking for young black men to run a red light so they can gun them down, or is there more to this perceived social issue than most media outlets are willing to admit? If you guessed the latter, you are one smart cookie.

According to Yahoo News, in 2015, Britain’s Guardian newspaper found that black people in the United States are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than white people, but in the words of Larry Elder, black author and radio personality, “You can’t have an honest discussion about police conduct without having an honest discussion about black crime.” 

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, black people comprise only 13 percent of the entire American population, yet they commit roughly 50 percent of all American homicides with most of their victims being another black person. Yet, members of the black community do not seem nearly as concerned about their members being murdered in exponentially higher numbers by other members within their community. If you fully support the police brutality aspect of the BLM movement and you are in an uproar over white police officers killing members of the black community for the same reasons white police officers are forced to shoot members of the white community, why would you not be in an uproar over the significant portion of the black community murdering its own members in far greater numbers? Black lives seem to only matter to protestors when a white person is pulling the trigger. As the National Review put it, a year-long case-by-case study of police shootings done by the Washington Post revealed that “…The police use force mainly to protect human life, the use of force against unarmed suspects is rare, and the use of force against black Americans is largely proportional to their share of the violent crime rate.”

That being said, while most fatal situations involving police officers are matters of self-defense, not all of those killed by cops caused a situation in which lethal force was necessary. Just look at the Sandra Bland case. Bland, a black woman and possible murder victim, was found dead in a jail-cell after she was wrongfully arrested for a simple traffic violation. 

There is also the case of Sam DuBose, who was fatally shot and killed by a police officer without ever behaving in a way that endangered the life of the police officer who pulled the trigger. Police violence toward civilians, both black and white, certainly does exist and should end in the prosecution of the offender, yet police officers on a power trip are few in number. 

If this brutality aspect of the movement was about putting a stop to the legitimate cases of police brutality, I find it doubtful that the movement would face any opposition. Yet, protestors often preach a false-narrative that suggest these rare cases of actual police brutality reflect the attitude of our nation’s entire police force, while also consistently placing the blame for each and every encounter that involves a white cop and a black civilian that turns violent on the officer involved, despite any and all evidence that might suggest otherwise. 

This is what taints an otherwise justified movement. Activists shoot themselves in the foot by equating cases of legitimate police brutality with cases of legitimate self-defense. BLM protestors pretend the Michael Brown case and the Sandra Bland case complement one another when they certainly do not. The Michael Brown inspired “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” rally-cry that we see printed on T-shirts and chanted by protestors stems from what is in all actuality a lie. According to the Washington Post, moments after attempting to acquire Officer Darren Wilson’s firearm, Brown charged at Wilson, forcing the much smaller officer to use lethal force. Yet, Brown is graced with the role of “another black victim” while Wilson, who was acquitted of any wrong doing, is condemned for protecting himself. Coupling cases of sheer self-defense, in which the black civilian is at fault, with cases of actual police brutality, in which the white police officer is at fault, simply harms what otherwise could be a substantial argument for racial injustice. It is paramount that both the black and white community recognizes the difference.

The BLM movement has the potential to bring real change to the black community as well as the justice department, but as it stands today, the only change that is occurring regards how quickly the black community is criminalizing cops by declaring them solely responsible for every lethal encounter that occurs involving a black civilian. The direction the BLM movement is traveling in is one that couples cases in which lethal-force has been judicially determined as justified with cases in which officers abused their power and should be prosecuted for doing so. It completely ignores the drastically more pertinent problem of black-on-black crime, while clinging to a narrow-minded view characterized by irresponsibility. 

It encourages the racist ideology that all white cops are not to be trusted, and should fear violence by encouraging supporters to shout rhetoric like, “Pigs in a blanket, fry ‘em like bacon!” It is saddening to see such a large portion of the black community completely disregard the reality of black crime in America and pretend every unarmed black civilian that has died at the hands of a police officer was an innocent victim. If I ever reach for an officer’s weapon or assault him or her, even if I am unarmed myself, I hope with every fiber of my being that my family and the white community would not be foolish enough to equate my poor choice with the actual brutalization of civilians at the hands of corrupt officers. 

It is vital to understand that the biggest threat of violence and homicide facing the black community is the black community, and that almost every time lethal force is used in a police altercation the officer justifiably felt like a life was in danger, be it their own or someone else’s. Yes, we need to stand up against police brutality, but we need to stop pretending that those who died because of their poor choices were innocent victims as well. This part of the movement criminalizes a force that as a whole would risk their own lives to protect the lives of the same people throwing rocks at them. 

Black lives certainly do matter, which is why finding solutions to rampant black crime and being able to both acknowledge and understand the legitimate difference between self-defense and murder should be at the forefront of this movement.