Will someone speak honestly about race and crime?

Even the left-wing Mother Jones called out Tuesday's South Carolina Democratic debate for what it was, namely a "Festival of White Democrats Pandering to Black Voters."

In this regards, the debate was nothing new. Every Democratic Party convention since 1964 could be described as a festival of pandering to black voter.

Occasional Democrat Mike Bloomberg set the tone. "I've apologized and asked for forgiveness," said the strategically contrite Bloomberg. "I've met with black leaders to try to get an understanding of how I can better position myself and what I should've done and what I should do next time."

Bloomberg was apologizing for saving more black lives during his 12 years as mayor of New York City than even the doctors in the city's hospitals.

In the four years David Dinkins, a black Democrat, served as mayor of New York City – 1990-1994 – 9,993 people were murdered in the city, an average of 2,498 a year.

Rudy Giuliani's administration broke the back of the murder epidemic, but Bloomberg largely continued Giuliani's policies. As a result there were fewer murders in Bloomberg's 12 years as mayor than in Dinkins' four, an average of 826 per year.

"The greatest beneficiaries of that crime drop have been minorities," observed Heather Mac Donald in 2015. "More than 10,000 minority males are alive today in New York who would have been dead if the city's homicide rate had remained at its early 1990s levels."

Among minorities, African Americans were the greatest beneficiaries of the decline in homicide. In New York City, as elsewhere in the nation, blacks are killed at six times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined.

Whites and Hispanics are rarely the ones responsible for black murders. "That black death-by-homicide rate is a function of the black crime rate," wrote Mac Donald. "The national rate of homicides committed by blacks is eight times that of whites and Hispanics combined."

Eight times higher? Were the Democratic candidates unaware of that information or were they suppressing it? Someone should have explained those numbers to the frighteningly pious Mayor Pete.

"None of us," said the pronoun-challenged Buttigieg, "have the experience, the lived experience, of, for example, of walking down the street or in a mall and feeling eyes on us regarding us as dangerous without knowing the first thing about us, just 'cause of the color of their skin."

As Mac Donald pointed out, "Black males between the ages of 14 and 17 commit homicide at 10 times the rate of white and Hispanic male teens combined."

People walking down the street would be imprudent not to look at black teens suspiciously. Black people look at young black men suspiciously.

"There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps," said Jesse Jackson in a rare honest moment, "then turn around and see somebody white and feel relieved."

Politicians who stoke black anger by reminding blacks that others look at them suspiciously should direct that anger at the people responsible for this phenomenon – black criminals.

"Martin Luther King once said we are all tied in a single garment of destiny," preached Amy Klobuchar. "What affects one of us directly affects all of us indirectly. So when there is racism in the criminal justice system, we need to fix it."

To those on stage, "racism" explains the fact that blacks are disproportionally represented in all phases of the criminal justice system.

But there is nothing arbitrary about murder. All homicides are investigated. The truth is, though, that homicides of black victims are solved less frequently than those of white victims.

There are many reasons why this is true. For instance, you are not likely to see "Snitches get stitches" spray painted on a wall in a white neighborhood.

Democrats see the low clearance rate for black victims as further proof of racism in the system. They fail to acknowledge the flip side of the argument, namely that the perpetrator, who is almost always black, is less likely to be apprehended than a non-black for murder, for any crime for that matter.

If there were an award given for the most creative solution to the specter of racial injustice, Bernie Sanders would have won hands down.

First thing, Sanders would legalize marijuana. Weed, of course, would provide a huge moral boost to those confused young men of color struggling to find their way in the world.

Then, in a rare nod to capitalism, Bernie Warbucks would "provide help to the African American, Latino and Native American community to start businesses to sell legal marijuana."

What with Tom Steyer handing out reparation dollars, these could be some flourishing new markets.