by Carl DeMarco
Recently released statistics by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed a massive increase in youth homicides in 2020, of which African-American youth made up the largest margin.
Youth homicides were up 47% across the nation, the CDC reported Monday. The homicide rate among African-American youth was nearly 15 times higher than that of white Americans and five times the rate of Hispanics. Between 2019 and 2020, the homicide rate for African-Americans between the ages of 15-19 increased by 37.38%, according to CDC data.
In 2020 alone, 1,647 African-Americans between 15 and 19-years-old were victims of homicides, according to the statistics. The homicide rate in June of 2020 was 60% higher than the reported numbers in 2019.
After the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, the Black Lives Matter Movement organized protests across the nation, the Daily Caller previously reported, a number of which escalated to riots in American cities. New York, Atlanta, and Washington D.C. became “hotspots for unrest,” in the weeks following Floyds murder.
“I think in general the focus is not always on violence within the community, when it happens nobody even raises an eyebrow,” Jonathan Saintiche, an African-American officer with the Peekskill Police Department, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Saintiche stated that most homicides or violence only gain attention only when a police officer is involved or the event occurred between members of two different races.
Saintiche argued that all homicides or violent acts should be focused on the same way, regardless of the circumstance.
Across all age groups [from those less than one years old to those +85], African Americans saw a 35.8% increase in homicides between 2019 and 2020 totalling up to 13,780 deaths, according to the CDC.
Saintiche asserted that the way to stop the violence is to focus on building stronger relationships within the home, while acknowledging this was the “golden question” people have been trying to answer. He argued that replacing the current culture of encouraging “gun play” could potentially help America’s youth and those in the African-American community not fall victim to violence.
The Black Lives Matter organization, National Organization of Black Law Enforcement, the Atlanta Police Department and the National Sheriffs Association did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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Carl DeMarco is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Police Tape” by Tony Webster. CC BY-SA 4.0.
