(Originally published in American Thinker.)
Despite police defunders and BLM who would have you believe that police officers hate Black people, crime is still a major concern among minorities, apparently much more so than their White counterparts who are quick to cry out to defund the police.
A Pew Research poll released this month showed that Black and Hispanic Democrats are twice as likely as White Democrats to view crime reduction as a top policy priority.
Reducing crime is a top priority for 66 percent of Black Democrats and 63 percent of Hispanic Democrats, but only 33 percent of White Democrats see it that way. Overall, only 47 percent of Democrats see reducing crime as a top priority.
This means that Black and Hispanic Democrats are much closer to what Republicans feel about this issue. The poll showed that 65 percent of Republicans view reducing crime as a top priority.
So why is it that so many so-called spokesmen for Black and Hispanic groups go on TV to proclaim things like that Republicans want to kill them? Why isn’t BLM siding with the Republicans on issues of crime reduction? It’s not Republicans who don’t want the same thing Black and Hispanic Democrats want. It’s the White Democrats who aren’t prioritizing crime.
In fact, while it has grown in importance among members of both parties since 2021, more Republicans view it as a priority problem. It has increased 10 points among Republicans the past two years but only 8 points among Democrats.
Why is that?
Most likely because it doesn’t concern them. Many of them don’t live in high-crime areas, whereas the larger cities in this country that have been seeing the largest spikes in crime are predominantly home to Black and Hispanic Democrats. They are seeing the problems that high, uncontrolled crime is causing in their neighborhoods. They don’t want to worry about whether they can walk to a neighbor’s house without being mugged or drive their cars without being carjacked. They would rather not have to live with bars on their windows and doors to deter home burglaries.
When people were rioting after the death of George Floyd in 2020, it was supposedly to proclaim that Black lives matter. Those people were on the streets trying to support Black lives. Only that is not what they did. Black people were killed in those riots. Black-owned businesses were destroyed. Black-owned homes were damaged. Black lives were ruined.
The police weren’t the reason for this. Had the riots remained peaceful protests, police would have let them happen, as they did in many locations. What also became apparent was that often the people rioting were not residents of the neighborhoods where they were rioting, and many of them were White Democrats who shout, fight, damage property and then return to their suburban homes, leaving the people they said they were helping to pick up the pieces.
While Republicans also don’t live in these high-crime areas, they generally seem to realize the difference between right and wrong. They know that crime is wrong and want to fight it. It might not be a personal battle for them as it is for urban Democrats, but it is a battle just the same.
Maybe it’s time non-white Democrats and Republicans start working together to reduce crime. If they did, things might actually change.
Michael A. Letts is the CEO and founder of In-VestUSA, a national grassroots non-profit organization helping hundreds of communities provide thousands of bulletproof vests for their police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs.
