One of the most troublesome modern problems is the prevalence of high crime in America’s minority communities.
A black person is eight times more likely to be murdered than a white person. Blacks commit 53% of the murders and 60% of the robberies. Almost all of the victims are other black people. The Washington Post reported that 2019 police shootings included 9 unarmed black persons and 235 armed black criminals, while over 7000 blacks were murdered that year. Police “Brutality” is not the problem.
Christians have long recognized the issues in minority neighborhoods. The biggest problem is fatherlessness, which leaves single mothers in poverty and embitters their children. The young are failed by an education system which teaches no values and locks them into poverty. Gangs, drugs, and violence devastate the communities, and the imprisonment of the offenders starts the cycle all over again. Only Jesus can redeem these people and transform their communities.
Competing against the Christian worldview of individual responsibility and repentance from sin is the Progressive worldview which does not believe in God or individual responsibility for social ills. Instead of God, the Progressives look to government to solve the problem of criminality in the poor minority communities. However, despite over 50 years of government programs, to quote a recent Wall Street Journal editorial by Daniel Henninger, Progressives have been “Embarrassed and perplexed by the decades long persistence of crime and incarceration in inner city neighborhoods.”
Finally, the frustrated Progressives settled on a new plan to lower crime by simply redefining crime to exclude many criminal behaviors, and then electing district attorneys who would not prosecute many crimes. Citizens in Progressive run cities began to notice an influx of homeless people, followed by public urination, defecation, and drug use. Petty theft and shoplifting became rampant. Police programs like “Stop and Frisk” were discontinued and police were targeted as brutal racists by politicians pushing the Progressive Policing agenda.
Then came the George Floyd killing and a golden opportunity for Progressives to demonize the police to advance their cause. Despite the many scientific studies to the contrary, police were branded as racists who regularly hunted down black men. Radical groups like Black Lives Matter and Antifa spread violence, looting, and arson in many cities while demanding that police be “defunded.” Progressive mayors and governors, already sympathetic to the Progressive Policing agenda, caved in to demands and began reducing police protection in their cities and especially in the minority neighborhoods. Progressive Policing had arrived.
Now that Progressive Policing has been put in place in many cities, the only good thing that can be said about it is the rapidity with which it has failed. The mayor of Seattle, who thought that a “Summer of Love” would follow from abandoning parts of downtown to anarchists, had to eat her words and send in police because of murder and violence. Progressive Portland has experienced months of mob violence. And, in a comic irony, the Minneapolis city council recently asked the defunded police chief way crime had gone up.
There is, however, nothing comical about the “Minneapolis Effect” on innocent citizens. Researcher Paul Cassell from the University of Utah measured the spike in shootings after the Floyd death. In just two months, June and July, killings in America increased by 700, with 2800 more shootings, most of whom are minorities. Progressive Policing is producing the deadliest year in a generation.
As Christians we understand that spiritual problems like crime cannot be solved by human effort. We struggle against spiritual evil, not people. Prophet Chuck Peirce warned the Church of the coming Spirit of Lawlessness in 1998 (for more take a free download of our book Teshuvah Eclipse at: http://bit.ly/TeshuvahEclipses). Since that time we have watched lawlessness rise in this country, and Progressive Policing is just one manifestation. We must continue to pray for repentance, return to God, healing of our land, and revival as many of us have done through the Jewish 40 day repentance season of Teshuvah which ends with Yom Kipper, the Day of Atonement, on September 27.
We must also not forget over brothers in the inner city who are bearing the brunt of the failure of Progressive Policing. Let us put our prayer to action by helping meet the needs of the poor and demonstrating the love of God to bring people to salvation.
“Now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of Salvation” 2 Corinthians 6:2