Daunte’s Inferno

What a week it’s been in Minnesota. Closing arguments in the Derek Chauvin case took place on Monday, April 19th and by Monday evening Chauvin’s fate was in the hands of the jury. The Minnesota National Guard had been deployed throughout Minneapolis and some surrounding areas. Tension was high. The city had braced itself for violent riots, looting, and arson. Most of us were praying that our community would be spared destruction and loss of life. Into this volatile situation stepped Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters. Ms. Waters however, did not bring a message of peace or reconciliation. Rather, she stoked the flames. On Saturday evening, speaking outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department, she urged rioters “to stay in the street! We’re looking for a guilty verdict. And if we don’t [get a guilty verdict] we cannot go away. We’ve got to get more confrontational.” Right on cue, in the early morning hours of Sunday, April 18th, there was a drive by shooting targeting a team of Minnesota National Guard and Minneapolis Police. Blessedly, two members of the MN National Guard suffered only minor injuries. It could have been much worse.

Thankfully, Water’s astonishingly inflammatory and unhinged behavior was met with a chorus of criticism. House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said, “Maxine Waters is inciting violence in Minneapolis – just as she has incited it in the past. If Speaker Pelosi doesn’t act against this dangerous rhetoric, I will bring action this week.” Mike Berg, the spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, added, “Telling rioters who have burned buildings, looted stores, and assaulted journalists to get ‘more confrontational’ is incredibly irresponsible. Every House Democrat should condemn Maxine Waters’ call for violence.”

We shall have more to say about the Chauvin verdict in the future. For now, I would like to dive a little deeper into last week’s tragic shooting of Daunte Wright and the lie of systemic police racism. Let’s first add some detail to that fateful traffic stop. This week I was able to review the incident with a former Brooklyn Center police officer. During the arrest of Daunte Wright, Officer Kimberly Potter was in a support role, probably as a field training officer – in others words, she was in a observation and assistance role. The primary arresting officer is a black male. He is the one who approaches the driver’s side of Daunte Wright’s vehicle and calmly informs Wright that there is a warrant for his arrest. This black officer then orders Wright to exit the vehicle so that he can be taken into custody. This black male police officer was almost certainly the one who made the decision to pull over Daunte Wright. Of course, this detail has been completely ignored by the media. I could not find any reference to this fact in any major corporate media report. So much is made over the issue of “driving while black” that it’s well worth practicing some critical thinking here. If you’re going to accuse the police of racism, surely it must matter that the primary arresting officer – the one made the decision to pull Daunte Wright over – was a black man?

Now I’m not rehashing this history in order to besmirch Daunte Wright. I am in no way claiming that he is wholly responsible for his own death. But for the sake of clear thinking, we must acknowledge two uncomfortable facts. First, our choices have consequences. Daunte Wright’s attempt to flee the police created unnecessary risk and contributed to his demise. Second, Daunte Wright’s death is primarily the result of the fact that Officer Kimberly Potter made a mistake. Based on the evidence presently before us, it seems that Officer Potter accidentally drew her gun rather than her taser. It’s a mistake that may be difficult for us to comprehend, but such incidents – while blessedly rare – are well described in law enforcement literature. I am certain that Daunte Wright’s family is suffering greatly. But in this highly emotional time, it’s vital that we get our facts straight. If we don’t have a firm grip on the facts, we’re at high risk of drawing the wrong conclusions.

Let’s now step back and think more broadly about the notion of “driving while black.” Are black drivers really pulled over more often other drivers? And is this phenomenon a manifestation of police racism? Many Americans have been thoroughly convinced that such is indeed the case. One white reader noted that they had driven around for months with expired license tabs without being pulled over, as if their solitary experience constituted knock-down proof that police are only interested in pulling over black drivers. More thoughtful readers will recognize that one isolated incident cannot be used to reach comprehensive conclusions about systemic police racism. Unfortunately, there are far too many people relying on such isolated anecdotes to reinforce their preexisting mindsets. I’m a white male who has been pulled over twice for having expired tabs. But never in a million years would I claim that my own individual experience somehow disproves police racism or racial profiling. If we’re going to consider claims of widespread police racism, we need to look at the big picture.

In 1999, the governor of New Jersey, Republican Christine Todd Whitman, accused her state’s highway troopers of racial profiling. The state of New Jersey had determined that the proportion of blacks stopped by police on the New Jersey turnpike exceeded their proportion of the driving population. Many left wing voices were quick to condemn the state troopers. Widely vilified, the troopers suffered a substantial drop in morale. Constantly fearing they would be accused of profiling, the troopers were forced to drastically curtail their roadway enforcement. Yet strangely, the proportion of black drivers stopped did not change. Those New Jersey troopers must have been pretty hard core bigots, right? Well, not so fast. Fed up with the way they were being treated, the New Jersey state troopers finally requested a thorough review of speeding behavior. The results of this study – released in 2002 – were revealing to say the least. It turned out that blacks accounted for 16% of drivers on the New Jersey turnpike. Yet blacks were 25% of those found speeding. (Speeding was defined as 15 mph over the limit.) 23% of those stopped by the troopers were black – slightly less than their driving behavior would predict. Remarkably, the study found that blacks were twice as likely to speed as whites.

But one sparrow does not a spring make, right? Let’s not draw any hasty conclusions based on just one study. In 2014, the town of Ferguson, Missouri became the birthplace of the Black Lives Matter movement when 18 year old black man Michael Brown was fatally shot by Officer Darren Wilson. (Although unarmed, Brown had physically attacked Wilson, who was exonerated of all wrongdoing.) Following this incident, the Department of Justice conducted a thorough review of the Ferguson police department. The police were closely scrutinized for any sign of racism or profiling. The DOJ report did indeed claim that there were clear signs of racism in the Ferguson PD. Their proof? The report noted that blacks accounted for 67% of the population of Ferguson, yet blacks were 85% of those stopped for traffic violations. (Sound familiar?)

If the Ferguson PD is a smoldering cauldron on racism, then New York’s finest must be far worse. Blacks make up roughly 25% of New York City’s population, yet account for 55% of those stopped for traffic violations. That is a massive 30 percentage point gap! Is the NYPD full of white supremacists sporting Confederate flags on their patrol cars like The Dukes of Hazzard? This troubling statistic becomes even more acute when we consider that the NYPD is now a minority majority department. The NYPD’s patrol officers are 43% white and 57% minority groups! Has America somehow grotesquely managed to make bigots out of the largely minority NYPD? I’m sure by now that alert readers can anticipate the solution to this puzzle: police conduct must always be evaluated in light of criminal activity, not simply population data.

The National Institute of Justice is the research arm of the Department of Justice. In 2013, the NIJ produced a study entitled “Race, Trust, and Police Legitimacy.” This study found that blacks were more likely to speed and commit other traffic violations. The NIJ concluded that the higher number of black drivers stopped by police officers was the direct result of the fact that blacks committed more traffic offenses. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has also determined that blacks break traffic laws more than whites in every significant category, including speeding, driving without a license, not wearing a seat belt, and not using a child safety seat. When we stop telling ourselves isolated anecdotes and look at things objectively, the notion of driving while black just does not hold water.

Let’s return to the crumbling state of Minnesota, which has become a symbol of systemic police racism. I mentioned last week that the Minneapolis Star-Tribune keeps a database on all Minnesota police related deaths. Surely this database must clearly demonstrate the epidemic of innocent black men being hunted down by law enforcement? The data reveal that since 2018, there have been a total of 44 people killed by law enforcement, only nine (20%) of them black. Who were these black men whose lives were cut short and what were the circumstances? (1) Noah Erickson killed himself after taking four hostages. (2) Mario Benjamin shot his girlfriend in front of their children just before being shot by responding officers. (3) Kobe Dimock-Heisler was shot by police while assaulting his grandparents with a knife and a hammer. (4) Isak Aden was shot when he refused to drop his firearm. (5) Ronald Davis rear ended a patrol vehicle, then attacked the police officer with a knife. (6) Dolal Idd fired his gun at police and was killed by return fire. (7) Thurman Blevins was wildly and repeatedly discharging his handgun when he was shot by responding officers. All seven of these black men were armed and dangerous. The names of the last two are etched into all of our memories. (8) Daunte Wright was accidentally shot when he attempted to flee. (9) George Floyd died due to combination of police restraint, health conditions, and drug use. Even if you are convinced that George Floyd’s death was an act of police brutality, there is still absolutely no rational basis for concluding there is an epidemic of racially motivated police abuse in Minnesota.

It is no exaggeration to say that our nation is at war with itself. The political left and their corrupt allies in the media have convinced millions of Americans that their country is hopelessly corrupted by racism. Growing numbers of people openly voice their hatred for the United States. These dark forces have been particularly successful in demonizing the dwindling number of brave men and women in law enforcement. But a clear look at the facts shows that the narrative of systemic police racism is a lie. I am not arguing that there is never any racism in policing. When Police Officers abuse their authority, they must be held accountable for their actions.

This whole discussion is not a matter of pitting police against the black community. In fact, everything I have spelled out here has been written out of love and concern for the black community and a deep desire to see them flourish. But no community or nation which consistently lies to itself will be able to attain the goal of flourishing. The lie of systemic police racism has created unbearable animosity towards our men and women in law enforcement. Fortunately, there are still many folks in the black community who recognize how badly they need a strong police presence. They know all too well that many black neighborhoods are plagued by gunfire, murder, robberies, and assaults. One Gallup poll – conducted just after George Floyd’s death – found that 81% of blacks wanted the same or even more police engagement in their community! Yet the lie of systemic police racism has produced the opposite. The police have been badly crippled. The only thing now flourishing in too many black neighborhoods is crime itself. Wise black leaders know that a strong and effective police force is essential for their well-being. As author Heather MacDonald often says, “No organization is more dedicated to the proposition that black lives matter than the police.”