Editor’s Note: Last Redoubt is not afraid to point out the truth. You can read more of his thoughts at his site.
It’s been noted before that many liberals, at least those who can afford to, may have their black friends, and talk about being down with the cause, but in the end, even as they espouse other values, they act like the very thing they decry: Stable families, gated “low crime” communities that are completely coincidentally vibrancy free, “good” – often private – schools that are just as coincidentally free of vibrancy.
Yet you will still hear the argument that the only reason blacks get arrested more is not because, as a population group, there are more criminals, but because of racism, because the cops pay more attention to black communities. I’ve literally heard “white people do all the same shit black people do, but the cops won’t arrest them.” One of the more recent examples I’ve heard was “but I’ve handed bad bills to cashiers” story post-Floyd. I’ve already noted how he didn’t “just” hand over a counterfeit bill.
Leave aside for a moment that – duh, of course there are more cops in an area with higher crime – the argument being made is that said crime is imaginary, a figment of racist imaginations. You’ll see examples trotted out such as blacks and whites reporting similar marijuana usage – while ignoring studies showing both underreported, but blacks far more so, by actually doing drug tests and comparing them to the self-reporting percentages.
One simple question, especially for those living in a community where you can still leave your door unlocked, or barring that, where you can leave your garage open half the day and your football and bike laid over in the front yard all day without bike locks: why don’t the inhabitants of said largely black communities do so?
Of course, then we get “but poverty causes crime!” Sure, I’ve noted that it does increase temptation, but crime causing poverty is a far more direct causational link, as the time and resources poured in to provide what was stolen need to be replaced, instead of being built on. Theft and violence steal people’s lives, in dribs and drabs, or wholesale via murder.
In the end though – it doesn’t matter if poverty causes crime, or not. The fact that such higher crime rates exist, and are not merely a racist figment of imagination to justify a racist police presence, are proven by the simple test of “do you trust your bike in the front yard?”
Preach. Community matters. I live in a place where I can leave trailers, lawn mowers, bikes, etc., unattended, and no one comes by and steals them.
It’s all good until some idiot starts turning/building apartments and duplexes into section 8 housing.