By Robert McGreevy
President Joe Biden asked students at Morehouse College in Atlanta what the point of democracy is if cops are killing black men “in the street” during a Sunday commencement address, but a cursory review of police-involved shootings in 2024 showed Biden’s remarks were extremely misleading.
“You started college just as George Floyd was murdered and there was a reckoning on race. It is not to the wonder, democracy you hear about actually works for you. What is democracy? If black men are being killed on the street, what is democracy? A trail of broken promises still leaving black communities behind, what is democracy? You have to be 10 times better than anyone else to get a fair shot. Most of all, what does it mean as we’ve heard before, to be a black man who loves his country, even if it doesn’t love him back in equal measure,” Biden claimed.
Of the 74 black men who died as a result of a police shooting in 2024, only three were identified as being unarmed in The Washington Post’s database for tracking fatal police shootings in America. A study by the black Harvard economist Roland Fryer found that racism does NOT play any significant role in police shootings. Interracial crime in general does not target blacks: In 2023, the number of whites killed by blacks was six times as high as the number of blacks killed by whites.
Raymond Huddleston is listed in the police-shootings database as a 46-year-old unarmed black man who was killed in a vehicle in St. Francisville, Louisiana.
But, according to Louisiana State Police, Huddleston allegedly faked a medical emergency when they were transferring him from Catahoula Correctional Center to a court in Baton Rouge, according to WBRZ.
Huddleston allegedly faked a seizure and attacked guards who were trying to help him, according to the outlet. He then disarmed one officer and attempted to hijack the transport vehicle before at least one additional officer shot and killed him, WBRZ reported. (RELATED: Fox Host Lawrence Jones Rips Into Biden For ‘Talking Like He’s A Black Man’ During Commencement Speech)
Huddleston, a registered sex offender, was being transported for a court appearance in a domestic violence case, according to WBRZ.
The third was 46-year-old Raymond Huddleston, a convicted sex offender. While in the back of a prisoner transport van, he faked a seizure. When the guards tried to intervene, he broke free, assaulted them, disarmed one of them, and hijacked the vehicle. Only then did the police…
— Vince Coglianese (@VinceCoglianese) May 20, 2024
The second unarmed black man identified in the database is Roshod Graham, a 30-year-old who was killed in Lauderhill, Florida.
Graham’s girlfriend had entered a gas station convenience store asking the clerk to hide her from Graham, the clerk told WSVN. When the clerk reportedly locked Graham out, Graham allegedly began driving his vehicle into the building and rammed the door with his car three times. When police showed up Graham initially fled before cops alleged that he grabbed an officer’s gun during the pursuit, WSVN reported.
The final, and most tragic of the unarmed deaths, was four-year-old Terrell Marshawn Miller, who the database says was killed in a house in Macomb, Illinois.
57-year-old Anthony T. George allegedly had a knife to Miller’s throat, a law enforcement review found, according to WGEM.
“While still armed, the male suspect reached into a room, briefly disappearing out of sight of the officers before returning into view,” Macomb Police Chief Jeff Hamer told reporters, WGEM reported. “Fearing for their safety, the Macomb police officer discharged one round from their duty weapon, fatally striking the male suspect.”
The single shot killed both George and, tragically, the young Miller as well, police said, WGEM reported.
Though there are a few cases in the database that list the victims as neither armed nor unarmed, of the three who were listed as unarmed, one was allegedly reaching for an officer’s gun and the other was a convicted sex offender who had allegedly disarmed an officer and was allegedly trying to escape custody.
While Biden tried to make an appeal to black voters, he appeared to blatantly twist the truth and craft a narrative that the data does not support.
So of the three unarmed black Americans killed by cops this year, 2 of them weren’t actually unarmed (one used his car as a battering ram & grabbed a cop’s gun, the other “disarmed” a cop and stole the van with another inmate still inside). The 4-year-old’s death is an awful tragedy — which apparently occurred as an officer was actually trying to save his life.
— Vince Coglianese (@VinceCoglianese) May 20, 2024
Some criminal-justice experts had a negative reaction to the President’s remarks. “What an utterly destructive lie. Shame on you, Mr. President. That you would poison the minds of young graduates in order to serve your political aspirations is appalling,” said Rafael Mangual of the Manhattan Institute. Others noted that Biden had essentially told black graduates at Morehouse College “that they’re victims and America hates them.”
