Last week during an interview with Think Progress, Ted Cruz said that Black Lives Matter activists are “literally suggesting and embracing and celebrating the murder of police officers.”
Cruz went on to say that the movement’s attack on police officers is actually costing more lives than it is saving, because police are now too scared to do their jobs, leading to increased violence within the black community. However, statistics show that violence is actually not increasing, but he’s a Republican so of course he’s not going to bother checking his facts.
But in case he ever wants to know what’s really happening in American, then here’s a few quick statistics for Ted Cruz: In 2014, more than 100 unarmed African Americans were killed by police officers. And 2015 is already on track to exceed that number, as 100 unarmed African Americans had already been killed by police by the start of September. And worst of all, unarmed African Americans are SEVEN times more likely to be killed by a police officer than any other race.
This is how Republicans operate, and it’s sickening. Rather than acknowledging that a problem exists – in this case, rampant racism among trigger happy police officers – they switch the story and claim that groups like Black Lives Matter are the only ones causing a problem. It’s misdirection, and it works with the Republican base. It ignores the real problem, which is what people like Ted Cruz want because they either don’t know how to fix the problem, or they just don’t care. In Cruz’s case, I think it’s safe to assume that it’s a little bit of both.
