Joseph Schreiner: Author and Columnist

Crime and Punishment in the United States – Part III

Worm Moon, 03 March 2026

This moon I return to my series on crime and punishment in the United States. I wish to address a willful delusion that prevents the United States from adequately addressing criminal activity in its major urban centers. That delusion is “the United States legal system is biased against Blacks.”

As the best lies often incorporate an element of truth, this falsehood cites the undeniable fact that Blacks are incarcerated at a greater rate than other races in the United States. This fact is then turned on its head by the reality-defying assumption that this incarceration rate is due to discrimination or racial prejudice. The result is untoward leniency toward Black criminals, and tolerance of their continuing crime sprees in urban centers.

This assumption of racial discrimination pervades other domains – percentage of Blacks in higher-level jobs, lower academic test scores, percentage in academically challenging fields. Strangely, this assumption that disproportionate representation equals racial discrimination never seems to apply to the dearth of White men in professional sports teams such as football or basketball.

Yet everyone knows the truth, even if no one is allowed to express it. The mainstream media is so adamant about hiding this truth that Americans are as cynical about their media as were the Russians about the government mouthpiece Pravda. Whenever we read or hear about a wilding or criminal flash mob, we know the race of the perpetrators. Whenever we hear or read of a horrific, random crime, like burning a person alive, a knock-out punch, or being shoved onto train tracks, we know the likely race of the criminal.

Many are the excuses for such behavior, all of which absolve the Black criminal of responsibility. It is racist to even consider the role of genetics, the dysfunctional justice system, the dysgenic welfare policies that increase the criminal population, or the widespread absence of fathers in the household.

Avoiding these truths has become both an article of faith and a form of art. Apologists claim that Whites commit the majority of crimes in the United States. This deceitfully avoids the uncomfortable fact that proportionally, per capita, Blacks commit far more crimes than other races. Another avoidance tactic is the proclamation that Blacks are proportionally more often the victims of crime than other races. This victimhood posturing avoids addressing the fact that the criminals themselves are still Black.

Such apologists are virtual signaling. They know that they are lying. They would never themselves think of moving into a Black neighborhood. Everyone knows such neighborhoods are to be avoided, even other Blacks.

The problem is not poverty. There are plenty of poor people and poor communities who do not commit so much crime. If systemic racism perpetuated by Whites is the fundamental cause of crime committed by Blacks, why is there relatively so little crime committed by Asians?

We will never come to grips with the problem of crime if policy is driven by woke dogma rather than uncomfortable facts. If imprisonment is to be the method of choice for addressing crime, then we need more imprisonment of Blacks. But are long prison sentences the solution? That is the topic for my next post.