By now, nearly every American knows the mantra about police brutality: Black Americans are disproportionately targeted by police who routinely abuse, beat, shoot, and kill them without consequence since police exist to enforce “systemic racism.” Because of unchecked police violence, police departments should be defunded and abolished — or at the very least be held accountable to “civilian review boards” or the federal government. That is the mantra, but is it true? While liberal politicians and the liberal media regurgitate that mantra after the death of every black American at the hands of police, the actual numbers tell a very different story. 

Though police brutality does occur, police brutality is relatively rare and is usually adequately dealt with by the mechanisms that are already in place. Police departments in the United States, like other government offices, are kept from widespread abuse by checks and balances that prevent their consolidation of power. Because of those checks and balances, the record shows that when bad cops abuse the power with which they have been entrusted, they are held accountable. The system generally works.

Take, for instance, the tragedy that was used as a pretext for this newest wave of anti-police activism: the May 25, 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. After Chauvin held Floyd down for more than eight minutes by pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck, Floyd died. While the autopsy shows that Floyd was under the influence of both Fentanyl and methamphetamine (either of which, when taken alone could have contributed to his death by causing respiratory and cardiac distress), the chokehold applied by Chauvin was excessive and dangerous and therefore a case of police brutality, particularly during the period when Floyd was unconscious. Despite claims that the Minneapolis Police Department would make sure to protect its own, that hasn’t happened.

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