25 years ago, I was a photojournalist for a new station. I remember listening to the scanner and hearing crimes committed outside of the city limits that were too far for the new station to consider pursuing. They were in rural areas that were predominantly white. But on that same scanner, we would hear crimes that were committed a couple of miles from the station and easier to get to that were in black neighborhoods. I noticed a pattern, the news portrayed black communities as being more crime ridden then other areas that per capita had just as many crimes that didn't make the news. Was this done on purpose or was it too far to drive? Probably a little of both.

 

I said that to say this, if you look at the FBI crime statistics, they show a totally different story then what is betrayed on the news. This is not to excuse our black communities from the ridiculous amount of unprovoked violence, but to enlighten them that they are not as bad as the news betrays them. The bad part is, I see a lot of people who are willing to just go with what they see and not take the two minutes to look up the truth on both sides of this pendulum. They either rant and rave about how bad black communities are, and how white people don't commit crimes or on the opposite side just except that black people are the spawn of all evil. So, I have linked a couple of years of FBI crime, statistics to this topic.

 

In this world of false equivalence, know the truth!

 

https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/ucr.asp?table_in=2

 

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/tables/table-43

 

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/tables/table-43

 

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/tables/table-21

Also, let is remember that strictly and by definition....crime is simply breaking the law.

When most folks think of crime, they think of robbery, assault, murder, things of that nature.  But anytime a law that is on the books is broken...a "crime" has been committed.

There are SO MANY laws on the books in the United States that you can't know all of them and are inadvertently breaking the law almost every day in one way or another.  Most prosecutors and a lot of law enforcement officials know this and use this to their advantage to pick and choose who they go after for prosecution.