The “black-on-black” crime narrative as an explanation for police excessive use of force disregards the structural and historical issues that formed these neigh

The “black-on-black” crime narrative as an explanation for police excessive use of force disregards the structural and historical issues that formed these neighborhoods, as well as the social and economic factors that currently sustain them. Paul Butler explains that the violence in black communities is a symptom of historic discrimination, brutal policing practices, and mass incarceration. Thus, if we want to decrease “black-on-black crime” we first need to address the systemic issues that maintain it. This passage starts by discussing an explanation for police excessive use of force and ends by discussing an explanation for crime within the black community. It seems like the authors are saying that we can’t use crime within the black community to explain police brutality until (unless? because?) we use systemic issues to explain this crime. This seems fuzzy. It’s likely that black-on-black crime is a symptom of something; but that doesn’t prevent it from having symptoms, too.