Wonder Land: When public officials desert any standards for public or personal behavior, expect violence. Image: Michael Reynolds/ShutterstockThe Woodson Center family lost one of our own on Memorial Day. Makhi Buckly, the 19-year-old grandson of Carl Hardrick, one of our most faithful leaders in youth violence prevention, was fatally shot in Hartford, Conn. Makhi was a student athlete in his freshman year at American International College in Springfield, Mass.
Our grief is shared by hundreds of minority families that have lost children to senseless violence over the past year. In June 2020, 3-year-old Mekhi James was killed on his way home from a haircut, riding in the back seat of a car in Chicago. A week later, 10-year-old Lena Marie Nunez-Anaya was killed after a stray bullet came through the window of her Chicago apartment. In July 2020, 7-year-old Natalia Wallace was shot in the forehead as she played outside, also in Chicago.
Over the past few years, the deaths of unarmed black people at police hands—including the murder of George Floyd—have rightly generated national outrage. But the number of unarmed blacks killed by police represents a fraction of those who are killed each day in our neighborhoods. Many of these victims are children. In 2020 nearly four children and teens were shot and killed each day in America on average.
The movement to “defund the police,” which rose to prominence after Floyd’s death, has actually gotten innocent black people killed. As police have pulled back, our neighborhoods have been left unprotected. Crime has skyrocketed. Major American cities saw a 33% increase in homicides last year as a pandemic swept across the country. Preliminary Federal Bureau of Investigation data show that the U.S. murder rate increased by 25% in 2020. Between Dec.
Homicide rates in large cities are up 24% since January. Criminologist Joseph Giacalone, an adjunct professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a former sergeant with the New York Police Department, predicts they’ll increase even more this year. A recent Gallup poll found that 81% of black people say they don’t want less police presence in their communities.
opinion BobWoodson Outstanding piece, BobWoodson!
opinion BobWoodson With the BS defund the police movement comes the inevitable raise in crime. Tragic that the communities that need the police the Most with Suffer the most. Black on black deaths is the leading cause of deaths for black males but BLM has no consideration for FACTS. Facts are Facts
opinion BobWoodson Fund the police. Eliminate criminals!
opinion BobWoodson The next time BlackLivesMatter will matter again is in 2024. 😉
opinion BobWoodson Yep
opinion BobWoodson The groups he cites that are greatly effective in working to reduce violence are community based. Cooperating with police, but seemingly most effective because they are NOT the police.
opinion BobWoodson Deaths how? GUNS. Nowhere in this opinion article does the author address how guns and their easy availability are an obvious cause of these deaths.
opinion BobWoodson Niggas be bussin guns in Connecticut, cops or not. Everybody knows how Hartford gets down, so don't blame defunding the police on this one.
opinion BobWoodson Какой-то чёрный расизм. Всюду все должны уважать права чёрных, но никто не говорит о правах белых.
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