10/26/2021
As I’ve been pointing out, Black Lives Matter has not only gotten a lot of black lives murdered but also contributed to the spectacular increase in traffic fatalities last year. As you can see from this graph of half-black St. Louis, traffic deaths were heading slightly down until Black Lives Matter emerged at Ferguson next door to St. Louis in 2014. The Obama Administration searched and searched for evidence of racism in the Ferguson police department and finally announced, triumphantly, that Ferguson operated a speed trap to make money off of traffic tickets! And that’s racist!
Like murders nationally, St. Louis traffic deaths rose sharply in 2015–2016, but leveled off again in the first three Trump years. And then shot upward in 2020, as, first traffic eased offs, cops socially distanced themselves during the lockdown period, and a sense of laziness and standards being lowered set in and encouraged sloppy practices. Then black exultation went through the roof with the declaration of the racial reckoning after May 25, 2020. As you’ll recall, blacks were soon renamed “Blacks” to reflect their innate moral right to do whatever they felt like, such as drive fast.
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
St. Louis police hope to stop traffic death spike with citywide enforcement effort
Erin Heffernan, Katie Kull 7 hrs ago 71
ST. LOUIS — St. Louis police launched a citywide plan this month to crack down on speeding, running red lights and other moving violations in an effort to reverse a dramatic two-year spike in traffic fatalities.
In 2020, the city reported 81 traffic deaths, up 52% compared with the annual average of 53 from the previous five years. So far in 2021, traffic-related deaths remain high. …
St. Louis police Lt. Paul Lauer, who runs the city’s traffic division, said speeding has been the biggest factor. Since 2018, speed has contributed to 40% of the city’s fatal crashes, police said.
Last year, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and national roadway safety experts reported increases in fatal crashes and reckless speeding, despite seeing fewer people on the road during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lauer said that trend has continued in St. Louis despite traffic levels returning to normal.
Police in each of the city’s six patrol districts are hoping to combat that problem by focusing enforcement at 18 areas known to have a higher-than-average number of crashes.
This Defund the Police thing isn’t working out during a time when public standards of behavior, especially among blacks, have been in sharp decline. Defund the Police might make sense if the citizenry were showing evidence of steadily growing responsible behavior, but, instead, standards of care and effort have been in decline.
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