Kim Jong-Un Wonders If Nuclear Threats Distracting Him From Real Goal Of Starving Citizenry...The Onion
- I know for many---especially on the Left---any discussion by a white guy of black-on- black crime is tantamount to racism. So let me put my cards on the table. I'm not one of those guys who will tell you my best friends are black. I can't. Because one of them died last year (he was also a fraternity brother). Another died several years earlier. I do live in an integrated community, but it's mostly white. The border of Chester, PA, is still 50 yards from my front lawn ( The black population of Chester today is almost 75%). Prior to that, I lived less than 1/4 mile from Camden, N.J. I also grew up in the Bronx, NY. Over 90% of my friends were either black or Hispanic. But, hey, that was a lifetime ago. Why even mention it? My bad. Oh, I did live on the border of Detroit for three years. But I only went into the city on business about 2-4 days a week not seven.
- So does my lifetime living in or being associated with the black community give me some street cred on my opinion of black-on-black crime? If you're a progressive, I don't really give a rat's ass what you think considering most of you white progressives never set foot in a black community anyway. If you are a reasonable person, I'll give it a shot.
- Back to my initial question: When will black and white leadership step up to addressing black-on-black crime? (It's done occasionally. And communities gather around have their usual candlelight vigils after someone gets murdered until the next murder. The only people benefiting are those making candles and selling flowers. Oh, don't forget those selling cute little stuffed animals). It's no secret to anyone---it's a major problem that should have been addressed decades ago. But the following data prompted me to ask that question again: In 2012, in NYC alone, there were 419 murders (actually an incredibly low number considering the population of the city is over 8 million. By comparison, Chicago has a population of about 2.7 million. In 2012, the city had over 500 murders. Of those, 62 were school aged children). Astonishingly 60% of those murdered NYC were African-American. African-Americans make up 23% of the population. By contrast, 9% of those murdered where white. That's 38 people out of a total white population of almost 4 million. These statistics are mirrored in many other major cities today. In fact, in some cases, the incidence of black-on-black crime is higher as evidenced in a city like Chicago.
- So where is the outrage? We witness outrage when there is a mass killing like one in Newtown. In fact, Pres. Obama continues to use those dead children as a back-drop to his advocating for gun restrictions. Yet, he rarely talks about black-on-black crime. But where was the outrage when 41 people---mostly black---were shot in one weekend in Chicago in March of 2012? Where was the outrage especially from the black community? A few voices were heard but the usual fake, phony and frauds---like Sharpton and others---were conspicuous by their absence.
- And white leadership should also not get a pass. These crimes affect everyone to some degree regardless of race. For example, we know higher incidence of this type of crime has a detrimental affect on tourism for many major cities. On some occasions, we even witness innocent bystanders being either hurt or killed by crossfire. This year alone several children were killed by crossfire.
- At least in NYC and several other major cities, the police take these crimes very seriously. In NYC, stop-and-frisk has proven to be successful (just look at the numbers). Of course, the progressive crowd continues to accuse the NYPD of profiling even as an estimated 5000 lives have been saved by the use of stop-and-frisk. And they would have been mostly black based on crime data. (NY Post) The CompStat system tracks the location of crime spikes in specific areas and redirects police to those areas.
- But our law enforcement officers can't do it all. This takes leadership---black, white and Hispanic---from the community as well. But, unfortunately, as we've witnessed all too often, many prefer to just ignore it. Instead we continue to rely only on candles, flowers and a few cute stuffed animals until the next shooting or killing.
