RE: Why I no longer care about the "black on black crime" rebuttal
I agree that the "black on black crime" rebuttal doesn't make sense if someone is saying it in the sense that "black people need to clean up their own backyard before they complain about anything else". That's dumb. Injustice is injustice and while resources are limited, we can shed light on all kinds of problems in this world.
That being said, I think most people are simply pointing out one possible irrationality of black lives matter, which is that they are focusing on cop-on-black crime and ignoring black-on-black crime. I'm not saying this is the reality, just saying this is their argument which is different than the "clean up your own backyard" argument.
Now I'll respond to your first 2 points.
#1 I agree, ending the black-on-black crime problem is really like trying to end all crime. It's a very difficult proposition. But I think you can easily apply that same logic to the police brutality/racism problem. It is also an insanely complex problem, but it doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about the problem or try to solve it.
#2 Police brutality and racism isn't that bad. It was way worse in past decades...
See what I did there. If it's a problem, it's a problem. You can rationalize it away by saying things have gotten relatively better. Just about everything in terms of violence and standard of living is relatively better than the past for most people on the planet. There are still serious problems that need to be addressed.
As a Libertarian, my approach to police brutality has always been to privatize police. Eliminate the idea of law enforcement officers, and enforce the idea of crime prevention and personal security. I feel that the government owned and operated police force is an inefficient "1 size fit all" solution that is horrible in practice. I felt that if there were more private firms in black communities focused on ending violence, things would be much better overall.
With that said, I am not a BLM supporter. I am also against the idea of BLM, as I feel police brutality is an American issue. I think the whole racialization of what we see is a horrible disservice to the real issue of police brutality, and the chasm between police and community.
With that said, the focus on black on black crime is an illogical rebuttal on many levels. And this post was just meant to highlight why it falls flat on it's face.
Agree with a lot of this.
I'm a little skeptical of privatizing the police force. While I think it would provide a better outcome in many or most communities, there would also likely be some situations where it goes very wrong. So I think we would see a wider variance of good and bad policing and the worst of the worst would be too much for most Americans to handle.
And I agree that the black on black crime rebuttal is not a good one, I just don't think what you said here would change anyone's mind that is using that rebuttal.