Despite all the facts, the media are again taking a hit off the bong of the Black Lives Matters lies in pursuit of their political agenda — and higher ratings.
In the wake of Ferguson, the left seems to wonder what sort of country we live in. Michael Brown, who had just committed a strong-armed robbery and assaulted a store owner, then threatened the policeman arresting him and, with drugs in his system, tried to take the officer's gun during the arrest — and it was the police's fault he got shot?
The event that launched the Black Lives Matter movement, "Hands Up, Don't Shoot," turned out to be a lie.
Obama has fueled the racial divide he was so well positioned to extinguish. He has stoked the fires of misplaced anger among African-Americans by speaking out prematurely in every case involving race — and has been proven wrong.
When he said, "The Cambridge police acted stupidly" in the Professor Gates case, it turned out he was wrong — ditto for the cases involving Trayvon Martin and Ferguson, and Missouri's Michael Brown. Now, Baltimore courts have vindicated police officers so far tried in the Freddy Gray case.
This contrived “police war on black males” is a demonstrable lie. Even a black Harvard professor concluded there is no bias in police shootings.
BY THE NUMBERS
In her new book, “The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe,” Heather MacDonald cites simple FBI crime statistics that disprove the lie on which Black Lives Matter is based.
First, black and Hispanic cops are far more likely — 3.3 times — than a white cop to shoot an unarmed black suspect. While they are only 6 percent of the population, black males make up 40 percent of all cop killers.
Thus, she determines that a police officer is 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is likely to be killed by a cop.
One other inconvenient truth in the stats: 6,000 blacks died of homicide last year, 93 percent of whom another black person killed. Blacks commit homicide at a rate eight times higher than whites and Hispanics combined.
Blacks are 13 percent of the population, but commit 52 percent of all murders. This puts them into tenser, regular contact with police; it is understandable why occasionally there are problematic shootings.
‘THE FERGUSON EFFECT’
To save innocent black lives, police must aggressively patrol problem neighborhoods. Blaming police, instead of condemning criminals, has led us to what is being called the “Ferguson Effect.”
Police officers daily risk their lives in crime-ridden neighborhoods, only to be vilified and second-guessed, so they naturally slow their efforts.
The result: crime is up 17 percent in major cities.
Another Ferguson effect is that property values are down 30 percent; not only has crime increased, but businesses have left. The St. Louis Rams fled to L.A.
The decline of dysfunctional cities like Ferguson, Mo.; Baltimore; Chicago and Flint, Mich. has accelerated under Obama. These cities have in common longtime, socialist/liberal, Democratic rule; inept and race-obsessed government; teachers’ unions whose members get paid more for poorer student outcomes; and high local taxes that run businesses out of town.
NOW HIRING
Obama has turned our Midwest into the Middle East, with gun violence climbing in places like Chicago. He blames Republicans, not thugs and gang-bangers shooting each other in the streets of these “gun free zones” he so loves.
Chicago is now saying it will be a sanctuary city for Syrian refugees. Haven’t those people suffered enough?
Mindless celebrities feel the need to support the lie that is BLM. Kanye West, Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson are big supporters. So if thieves break into their gated L.A. homes, they should be provided a police escort to the pawn shop.
Obama praised BLM leaders when he invited them to the White House. Hillary Clinton, afraid she would not own the blind loyalty of black voters like Obama did, tweeted a "BlackLivesMatter" hashtag the day before Dallas.
The admirable police chief of Dallas, David Brown, summed it up for these misinformed protesters: “If you really want to do something to make things better, we are hiring.”
Ron Hart, a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author, is a frequent guest on CNN. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or tweet@RonaldHart.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: RON HART: Obama's intemperate remarks stoke racial divide