In the comfortable bubble of a mostly white and well-off political media, 2016 is lamented as one of the worst years ever. But whereas the dolor of pundits is largely self-indulgent, their lament could be aptly applied to other, less comfortable parts of America, such as Chicago’s South and West sides. There, it actually was a very bad year.
One of the most disturbing domestic trends of 2016 was an astounding spike in the number of murders in big cities. Chicago was ground zero. The Windy City saw about 800 murders, a 60 percent increase over the year before, and far beyond anything seen in at least the past eight years. This murder epidemic is having an astoundingly disparate racial impact. Only 32 percent of Chicagoans are black, but African Americans account for 80 percent of the city’s murder victims.
In an era when camera phones see everything and there is bipartisan skepticism about mass incarceration, the discussion of civil rights issues involved in criminal justice has expanded into new quarters. This is welcome. But public discussion is mostly about who is being arrested or confronted by police, for this allows it to stay on a subject with which left-liberal activists and their media allies are comfortable — allegations of racism, oppression, etc. The extreme disparate impact that crime itself has on minority populations is rarely acknowledged.
The Washington Examiner reported earlier this year, based on FBI data, that black Americans are not benefiting from the general improvement in public safety. In every year since 2009, the gap between them and everyone else has widened. Since 2011, blacks have comprised more than half of each year’s murder victims nationwide, despite representing just 13 percent of the population. This is largely because black people are disproportionately the perpetrators of violent crimes. They mostly live in black neighborhoods, so black people are most commonly their victims.
In 2015, the last year for which complete data are available, the number of blacks murdered spiked by 15.5 percent over the previous year. This discouraging trend seems, on the evidence of spotty reports from various cities during 2016, likely to continue.
America cannot become an equal society if the long-term decline in crime statistics merely masks a crisis among black citizens while others feel safe. No one who believes that black lives matter can be satisfied with this. It is a civil rights issue, and one that America’s new leadership must address.
During his campaign, President-elect Trump was occasionally clumsy in reaching out to black voters, but he was absolutely right to try, and we hope he keeps the promises he made to them.
A president can only do so much about this issue, but on this he should attempt to give it his all. Among Trump’s promises, for example, was for robust federal intervention to stem gang violence. In Chicago, police estimate that nearly 90 percent of the 2016 killings were gang-related, and it is probably much the same in other cities. A serious federal effort against criminal gangs could save thousands of lives each year, disproportionately among racial minorities.
Trump also promised to deport criminal aliens, and to punish municipalities that try to protect them with sanctuary policies. It is common sense that criminals do not deserve special protection. America’s government, as the servant of its citizens, has no obligation to welcome or accommodate anyone who has an established track record of harming them.
Finally, Trump made excellent promises about education and school choice. In the long run, these will do more than any law enforcement effort to make cities safer. He would accomplish much by simply dropping President Obama’s policy of finding far-fetched excuses to persecute states that use voucher systems to improve education. Trump can also continue the largely charter-friendly policies that Obama backed.
The new year begins amid uncertainty, for Trump is an unknown quantity as a political executive. But uncertainty is not always bad. It can bring positive change. Trump has an opportunity to show he is a man of his word. We hope that without flinching he keeps his promises to help those groups most afflicted by crime.
