The News Behind the News

Some majority-Black cities saw violent crime declines in 2020

Despite the national jump, nearly half of America's medium- and smaller-sized communities with majority Black populations actually saw drops last year in overall reported violent crime, an Axios analysis found.

Details: Axios reviewed recent FBI crime data, the 2020 census and, where available, state police statistics for 23 majority-Black communities with populations of more than 25,000. The data showed that in 10 of those, overall violent crime actually declined compared with the year before. (In four of those 10, however, the murder rate rose.)

These communities used a variety of techniques, from revamped training to changes in prosecutions to social spending experiments.Police in Newark increased officer training in 2020 and used the Newark Community Street Team, a group made up of former offenders, to defuse unrest during racial justice protests. Newark police also did not fire a shot in 2020.Marilyn Mosby, the state's attorney for Baltimore, stopped prosecuting drug possession, prostitution, trespassing and other minor charges during the pandemic resulting in big crime drops in the city. In March 2021, she made her temporary steps permanent.The city of Gary started moving residents out of high-rise public housing complexes and into other affordable housing options. The city this year began a pilot program for 500 residents around guaranteed income.

By the numbers: The 10 communities saw an aggregate 17.9% decline in the total number of reported violent crimes from 2019.

Flint, Michigan, a community of 95,000 people coming out of a water crisis, saw its number of violent crimes decline by more than 25%.Birmingham, Alabama, a city of 209,000 that played a key role in the civil rights movement, saw a 20% reduction in violent crime.Gary, Indiana, a city outside of Chicago and with a reputation for high crime, witnessed a 15% fall in overall violent crime.

The big picture: The estimated number of violent crimes across the United States rose for the first time in four years in 2020, according to statistics released by the FBI in September.

The estimated rate of violent crime — such as murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — was 387.8 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants, a 5.6% increase from 2019's rate.Of the 23 majority-Black communities whose data we examined, 12, including Detroit and Memphis, Tennessee, saw increases in violent crimes. Data for a 13th city was incomplete. - axios.com (Nov 7, 2021, accessed 3/20/2022).

Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed. Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith. May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Luke 13:1–9 ESV

1 There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” 6 And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ 8 And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. 9 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’ ”

This should be a rather cut-and-dried sermon today - the text practically preaches itself, if I were primarily a Revival preacher who understood myself as being called to preach to people that if they don’t get it together, God was coming soon to cast them into eternal damnation. Among other things, that is a good reason why we should do more than just read the headlines when it comes either to the News or to Scripture. It’s “the News behind the News” that gives us the necessary context to see where we are and where we are going, as individuals, communities, and as human beings created in God’s image to continue God’s mission in God’s world.

From the “Headline News” perspective, we as Christians have basically two objectives, save ourselves, and warn everyone else what’s coming if they don’t “catch the revelation.” Our Old Testament reading today can be understood as supporting this idea as well:

Ezekiel 33:7–9 ESV

7 “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 8 If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 9 But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.

In fact, most people who claim to have any familiarity with Christianity think that this is exactly what the Church is all about, and say that this is the basis of their rejection of Christianity! As they see it, the Christian “God” either doesn’t know how to create perfect people, yet punishes the ones whom He created for their imperfection, or else He is actually malevolently planning our eternal torture while dangling a false hope that we could avoid it simply by following His rules - except our beings are hard-wired to somehow manage to break them no mater what we do, and He knows this, since He knows everything.

But again, it’s the news behind the news that makes sense of what makes no sense.

Ezekiel 33:10–11 ESV

10 “And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you said: ‘Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?’ 11 Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

The insurmountable obstacle of our sin that keeps us separated from God, alienated from the life of God, has been breached by the One who took on the burden of our sin, our guilt, and our condemnation and placed it upon Himself, so that those who accepted His gracious offer of pardon and submitted to His Spirit as He works in us to will and to do according to His good pleasure, would know the joy of no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus!

People who have been set free from the burden of self-justification, self-preservation, and self-glorification, by being united to Christ through Holy Baptism by the work of the Holy Spirit, are made a part of a community of people who see what the world cannot see because it is spiritually blinded by Satan. It is a blindness that the Law of God exposes but does not cure. It is a blindness that man’s politics and philosophy laments but cannot eliminate. We can design “work-arounds” for physical blindness, canes, animal assistance, braille books and so on, and even medical procedures to replace damaged retinas with more serviceable ones, and there is an ongoing experiment, reported in the “MIT Technology Review” on Feb 6, 2020, that has given limited sight to a woman for a brief period of time.

We have not, however, found a natural cure for sin, for the pride, greed, hate, deceitfulness, lust, and everything else that pits us against one another and grieves the heart of God, and have we tried! We have explored the psyche, analyzed political, social, and economic systems for centuries and offered alternatives that always sound good in theory, and never fully work in reality. There is always someone, however, who says that if we would just put them in charge, it will work this time! So far, the cure has always proven to be at least as bad as the problem it sought to fix. because we don’t have enough natural skills, resources, or power to make everyone else cooperate with our solution, whatever it might be. our human cures cannot root out the sin that so easily ensnares us.

That’s why the Gospel calls for repentance - not because God wants to humiliate us, but because His perspective is so much higher than ours, and His view from eternity takes in so much more than ours does in time. He knows the heart of man. His remedy is available to all. “It reaches to the highest mountain and it flows to the lowest valley...”

The Gospel seems to good to be true, but it is true. Christ truly died for sinners and truly rose from the dead. The Church is the true witness to the Gospel being “the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes” according to Romans 1:16, for it consists of people who have experienced it personally and are called by God to share that experience with others. As the Holy Spirit said through the Prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 43:12 ESV

12 I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and I am God.

Jesus’ fulfilled the Old Testament promises of God by His death and resurrection, and committed the message of reconciliation to the Church:

2 Corinthians 5:18–21 ESV

18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Beyond everything else, the soup kitchens, the community gardens, the social action campaigns, and the community development projects, this is the mission of God, and the mission of the Church. If we fail in it, even if we do so much that we “gain the whole world,” we have lost. This is the message - the message of the cross - that we are to faithfully share with those around us. If we are not known as the people who love the Gospel, even if all like us for our philanthropy - our love of people - we have misunderstood our purpose and misrepresented God. He called us to be His witnesses, His people, and His children, and He has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness through the knowledge of His Son in both Word and Sacrament. So we cannot give up, we cannot grow weary in well-doing, for He has promised:

Galatians 6:9 ESV

9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

and

John 7:38 ESV

38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”

and the peace of God, that passes understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.