Liberalism is Killing Blacks

In San Francisco there is an ongoing crisis of black-on-black murders. Recently a man was killed in front of a group of children at one of the city’s main African-American community centers, and within weeks another man was killed a block away. In 2005, 60 percent of 96 homicide victims were African-American, in spite of the fact that the city is less than 5 percent black. Police Department records show that a similar proportion of perpetrators were black, but the exact figures are hard to find: many research sources indicate the racial make-up of homicide victims but do not indicate the ethnicity of the perpetrator.

Liberal orthodoxy, especially in San Francisco, essentially holds that the antidote for murder is increased spending for social programs, a philosophy reflected in a homicide prevention measure on today's ballot. If we accept the view that institutional racism and related deprivation is the cause of black crime, these prescriptions might make sense. But the African-Americans who were one or two generations out of slavery had lower crime rates than blacks today: at a time when the US was more racist, slavery was a more recent wound, and African-Americans were poorer, the black crime rates were lower.

And the focus on a social-service model of crime reduction is contrary to what has worked in other communities. For example, Compton just had a 65 percent reduction in homicides after the sheriff “flooded the streets with 100 deputies and detectives, more than doubling the number assigned to the city. He dispatched the officers in patrol cars and community 'impact teams' that address complaints such as graffiti, loitering and street-corner drug sales.”

The idea that taking a zero tolerance perspective towards minor quality of life crimes will create an environment that will reduce the number of violent crimes, the “broken windows” theory, was also effective in New York City. And while many liberals decry such polices as oppressive or racist, the many young black men who have not been murdered because of tougher law enforcement would, or at least should, disagree.