It’s become commonplace for a debate discussing “black-on-black crime” to commence when the issue of police brutality inflicted on black people is the topic at hand. Violence in black communities is not usually a widely-discussed issue amongst pundits or politicians but instead is often used to counter the argument that police killings are unwarranted and often unaccounted for.

Former Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani’s stance focuses on murder amongst black youth and he believes the media has “created a disproportion”    regarding the issue of police brutality.

” When you say black lives matter, that’s inherently racist…Of course black lives matter and they matter greatly but when you focus in on 1% of less than 1% of the murder that’s going on in America and you make it a national thing and all of you in the media make it much bigger than the black kid who’s getting killed in Chicago every 14 hours, you create a disproportion. The police understand it and it puts a target on their backs.”

I agree that murders in some of America’s inner cities are often ignored by mainstream media. Their current narrative seems to be consistent with black males being murdered by police, particularly white officers. However, inner city violence- for many of whom do not agree with the media’s portrayal of police brutality- seems to be an after thought and counter argument, not an actual priority on which they feel a conversation should be held. This is the point that Rudy Giuliani is missing or perhaps refuses to acknowledge.

“Black on black violence” is either an issue all of the time or none of the time. Using it as a means to deflect from the problem of police murdering the individuals they have sworn to protect is a travesty regardless of media’s perceived agenda or public opinion.