A Father’s Questions for Black Lives Matter

In a widely reported study released in September 2020, ACLED concluded that the “vast majority of demonstration events associated with the BLM movement are non-violent,” but also found that hundreds of those demonstrations across the country in May 23 and August 22 in 2020 “involve[d] demonstrators engaging in violence.” According to ACLED’s metrics, “in more than 93% of all demonstrations connected to the movement, demonstrators have not engaged in violence or destructive activity.” The ACLED cited more than 10,600 total demonstration events during that summer, well over 80% of which were connected to BLM. Out of all the demonstrations during that summer, nearly 570 involved violence.

A Black Lives Matter protest outside the La Mesa Police Department in La Mesa, California at the end of May 2020 quickly escalated after “some protesters made their way onto Interstate 8, stopping traffic in both directions,” a San Diego-based Fox-affiliate reported. “Another group of protesters were on the plaza of the police station, throwing rocks, cans and ‘explosives devices,’ according to police. When demonstrators pulled down the flag and set it on fire, officers on the roof declared an unlawful assembly and began trying to disperse the crowd with less-lethal weapons, including tear gas and bean-bag projectiles, according to the police timeline.”

After a police bean-bag projectile struck a 59-year-old protester in the face, the situation in Le Mesa devolved further. BLM-supporting rioters took to the streets, set fires and vandalized and looted stores. Vons, Target, Walmart and Play It Again Sports, among other stores, were looted, while two banks and a historic building were burned down.

Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation says its mission is to “eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes." The group promotes a far-left agenda couched in heavily Marxist terminology and describes the black community as “targeted for demise.” It declares in its “about” page: “We are a collective of liberators who believe in an inclusive and spacious movement. We also believe that in order to win and bring as many people with us along the way, we must move beyond the narrow nationalism that is all too prevalent in Black communities. … We affirm the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, undocumented folks, folks with records, women, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. Our network centers those who have been marginalized within Black liberation movements. We are working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically targeted for demise.”

The BLM organization’s official website once listed among its goals "disrupt[ing] the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement." After backlash, the organization removed that language from its website. “We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable,” the website formerly read.

Patrice Cullers, one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter organization, has openly described herself and her fellow organizers as “trained Marxists”: "We are trained Marxists," she said. "We are super-versed on ideological theories."

Amid a wave of Black Lives Matter-themed protests, The New York Times reported in June 2020 that Black Lives Matter Global Network’s online petitions alone had raised $5 million.

The organization has come under intense scrutiny from both the left and right over how it is using the millions in donations it has received. “Some activists on the left have raised doubts, as well, frustrated by a lack of specifics about how funds are distributed and how local chapters obtain resources,” ABC reported in June 2020. “BLM has faced similar concerns in the past from the left and the right about its financial structure and spending priorities.”

Where exactly much of those donations are going remains unclear.

Retired police captain David Dorn, a 77-year-old black man, was tragically killed in June 2020 while trying to protect his friend’s pawn shop from rioters. A man charged with his death was among multiple looters caught on surveillance footage entering the pawn shop and then stealing several televisions.

"[Dorn] was murdered by looters at a pawn shop. He was the type of brother that would’ve given his life to save them if he had to," the Ethical Society of Police of St. Louis wrote after the murder, as CBS St. Louis affiliate KMOV-TV reported. "Violence is not the answer, whether it’s a citizen or officer."

Related video: “Are the Police Racist?” – Heather Mac Donald

According to the FBI’s 2019 Uniformed Crime Report, every day in this country individuals become victims of “47 murders, 372 rapes, 875 robberies, 2,221 aggravated assaults 1,154 child abductions, 3,561 home invasions, 3,836 DUIs and 6,849 burglaries,” as detailed by Fox News.

The black community suffers a disproportionate amount of crime, particularly violent crime, prompting greater concern about the issue in general. “In last year’s preelection survey, three-quarters of blacks – compared with fewer than half of whites (46%) – said violent crime is a very big problem in the country today,” Pew Research found in May 2019.

A 2018 Pew study found that black adults are more than twice as likely as white adults to say that crime is a serious problem in their community (38% and 17%, respectively).

Related video: “Police Go Where the Crime Is” – Heather Mac Donald

Some of the most effective ways to reduce the number of police-involved deaths is to increase the amount of hands-on tactical training, practice for de-escalation, and teaching of techniques to control stress.

Defunding police agencies will almost certainly lead to an increase in fatalities. Fewer officers mean less back-up and thus more stress and more likelihood of bad decisions by officers in the face of potential danger. It will also lead to increased response times and a decrease in training.

Shifting police funding to social services will not reduce the amount of crime or fatal encounters, as New York City has demonstrated. New York City spent one-seventh of all government welfare dollars in America for decades, yet crime started falling in the city only when the NYPD adopted the data-driven policing that has now become the norm across the country — sending officers to the areas where they are most needed.

In the 75 largest U.S. counties, about 60% of robbery and murder defendants are black, even though blacks comprise only 15% of the population in those counties.

In New York City, blacks make up 73% of all shooting victims, though they are 23% of the city’s population.

In Chicago in 2016, there were 4,300 shooting victims –– almost all of whom were black. Among the two dozen victims under the age of 12 was a three-year-old, shot on Father’s Day, who is now paralyzed for life, and a ten-year-old, shot on Labor Day, whose pancreas and spleen were ripped apart.

Related reading: “Systemic Racism? Make Them Prove It.” – Andrew McCarthy