Elder offered up a few pertinent questions to Mad Max:

The police? All of them? Not just racist white cops? And Waters meant now, today — not decades ago. She said police are “led to believe that their greatest challenge … is to keep … Black people in their place”? Led to believe this by whom?

Is it relevant that many of our major cities have or have had Black police chiefs? Is it relevant that many big-city police departments increasingly reflect the racial diversity of the communities they protect and serve?

Is it relevant that an increasing percentage of the nation’s sworn police officers are officers of color, including the police chief in Minneapolis, where George Floyd died? //

“Police departments across the country have become less overwhelmingly white since the 1990s, according to a study published by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics last fall.

“The agency’s survey of police departments found that the share of white non-Hispanic police fell from 78.5 percent in 1997 to 71.5 percent in 2016.” //

“Irresponsible attacks against the supposedly “systemically racist” police by politicians like Waters are, in part,” wrote Elder, “responsible for the “Ferguson Effect,” the phenomenon of cops pulling back from proactive policing for fear of accusations of engaging in “systemic racism.”

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles County, Waters’ home base, homicides during the first two months of 2021 were up 186% compared with 2020, according to Fox News. //

When cops pull back from proactive policing, crime goes up. By teaching young Blacks that cops hate them, why would a young Black man comply when pulled over by a “systemically racist” cop?

And this failure to comply can turn a traffic stop into something deadly. Waters’ rhetoric has led to an increase in homicides in America’s cities, where the majority of the victims are the very “people of color” she claims to care so deeply about.