Crime Wave 2021

 

In the June/July issue of the St. Croix Review, a Midwestern journal of opinion, editor Barry Mac Donald led off with a startling analysis of a crime wave that has swept over some of America’s cities in the past three  years.

 

His editorial, entitled, “The Plight of Black America,” referred to an essay by Heather MacDonald, a renowned Manhattan Institute scholar, that noted that police shootings accounted for only 3% of black homicides. He wrote,

 

“In 2019, according to Statista, there were 7,484 black homicides in America. Who is killing the other 97 percent of black Americans? Are white civilians intruding into black neighborhoods and killing such a huge percentage of blacks?”

 

He then provided a five-page listing of actual homicides derived from the essay by Heather MacDonald, “A Grim—and Ignored—Body Count, the Problem in the American Inner City Is Not Racism but Drive-by Shootings of Blacks by other Blacks,” that appeared in the City Journal on November 2, 2020.

 

Here is a sample of the listings.

 

“On October 13, a 35-year-old probation officer who was eight months pregnant was fatally shot in the back outside of her home on the far South side of Chicago.”

 

“On October 10, a 16-year-old boy turned Lake Shore Drive in Chicago into a ‘shooting gallery,’ according to the police, shooting out the eye of a 19-year-old girl in a nearby car.”

 

“On October 8, a 51-year-old bus driver in Baltimore reprimanded a couple for getting on his bus without paying. The female grabbed the driver’s backpack and ran off. The bus driver gave chase; the male opened fire and continued pumping bullets into the driver as he lay on the ground, killing him.”

 

“In Sacramento, a 9-year-old girl was killed on October 3 during a family gathering in a park. Her six-year-old cousin and aunt were also shot. Two hours later, a 17-year-old crashed into a pole after being fatally shot. Shortly thereafter, a 17-year-old girl was shot.”

 

As I said above there are five full pages listing these horrific killings that occurred in just a few months. So far this year the killings in black neighborhoods have increased to record new levels. Just as alarming is the fact that the great majority of the killers are still on the streets. Very few have been arrested, convicted, or sent to jail.

 

What is the cause of these killings? It can’t be racism, systemic or otherwise, since the killers are black men, who by definition cannot be accused of racism. It might be better to ask, “who are these killers?”

 

Although the great majority of blacks, like everyone else in this country, are decent law-abiding citizens, there is a criminal underclass, made up primarily of young black gang members, who have been terrorizing black neighborhoods for decades. 

 

Young male sociopaths are not unique to the black community. When the Irish and the Italians first came to this country, they also had their gangs that terrorized the members of their own communities and tarnished the image of decent immigrants. More recent immigrant groups have their own gangs that murderously compete for control of the drug trade.

 

Over a hundred years ago, a perceptive novelist described these criminals and their world.

 

You got a sinister impression of a world, sordid, tumultuous, in which these gangsters, dope traffickers, bookies and race-course touts lived their dark and hazardous lives. Dregs of the population of a great city, living on their wits, suspicious of one another, ready to betray their best friends if it could be of advantage to themselves, open-handed, sociable, gaily cynical, even good-humoured, they seemed to enjoy that existence, with all its dangers and vicissitudes, which kept you up to the mark and made you feel that you really were living. Each man’s hand was against his neighbours, but the alertness which this forced upon you was exhilarating. It was a world in which a man would shoot another for a trifle, but was just as ready to take flowers and fruit, bought at no small sacrifice, to a third who was sick in hospital.* 

 

He was writing about the underworld in all-white Paris in the 1930s. It is not the color of one’s skin that makes one a criminal but rather the development of a criminal mentality that starts at a very young age. Teachers in inner city schools notice it in the earliest grades. Even before they get to high school, these children have gone far beyond disrupting classrooms and petty theft. At high school age they join gangs and become heartless murderers.

 

Last year, they were among the vandals, looters, burners, and shooters who took over and trashed neighborhoods without any fear of the official justice system. They suffered no consequences. Some politicians and commentators even praised them. 

Because the victims of these shootings were not killed by a white policeman, their lives really don’t seem to matter to the protestors marching to reform, de-fund, or even eliminate the official criminal justice system. In a June 23 column in the Wall Street Journal, Jason L. Reilly argued that the protestors and their agenda are at variance with the needs and wishes of the black community.

"Current efforts to reduce resources for law enforcement in the name of "social justice" for blacks ignore that blacks have long complained about underpolicing of their communities. In a 1993 Gallup poll, 75% of black respondents said they wanted more cops on the streets, and 82% said that the court system goes too easy on offenders. Blacks today continue to express overwhelming support  for the presence of more police in their neighborhoods, which suggests that, unlike the progressive politicians and activists who claim to speak on their behalf, most blacks are more interested in safe communities than they are in the racial composition of the inmate population."

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*Somerset Maugham: Christmas Holiday. pp. 201-2.

 Quote of the day:

 

Churchill: The truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deny it, malice may distort it, but there it is. 

Alternate Justice System (AJS)

Two weeks ago I posted about Some Lives Don’t Matter (SLDM), a movement that now seems to be growing faster than the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Actually, SLDM has grown so rapidly that it has brought to the public eye an alternate system of justice that prevails in our inner cities.

Let me give an example. On Saturday, June 27, a 21-year-old black man was gunned down by an assailant who pumped a number of bullets into his car. The young man was killed instantly but the three other occupants of the vehicle were only wounded. Predictably, these witnesses refused to cooperate with police representing the official criminal justice system. It would appear that they have more respect for the alternate justice system. 

What makes this story stand out from numerous other murders of this type was the fact that the young man had recently been released from prison to save him from the dreaded coronavirus. For months Progressives have been urging that the prisons be emptied not just for public health reasons, but because they believe that the large numbers of black prisoners are a sign of systemic racism. 

After all, in the official criminal justice system most of the judges, lawyers, jurors, and police are white, while the majority of criminals in prison are people of color. 

So, the young man was released after serving only two years of his eight-year drug trafficking sentence. Whoever ordered his release from the official justice system obviously believed that they were doing him a favor but they did not realize that he was only being thrown into the arms of the Alternate Justice System (AJS).

In that system the arresting officer used a deadly weapon to not only execute the young man but sprayed bullets into the car. He acted as prosecutor, judge, and executioner. The trial was swift and the verdict pre-ordained. The defendant had no rights or attorney to defend him. He could not even enter an appeal. 

We know that in this alternate criminal justice system practically all of the those carrying the guns are people of color. In a state that has some of the strictest gun-control laws in the country, these laws either do not apply or go unenforced in the alternate justice system. 

The state has also banned the death penalty but it is a major and growing part of the alternate justice system. The death of the young man was the ninth case of the death penalty meted out so far this year by the alternate justice system. Bridgeport’s Police Chief stated that the system has a long history. “Violent groups in the city have been targeting each other for years.”

The recent riots and looting in Minneapolis, Seattle, New York and elsewhere have demonstrated the existence of the two systems. On the one hand, we have the great majority of people, white and black, who abide by the laws of the official system. During the coronavirus scare we obeyed like sheep when told by authorities to stay at home, leave work and school, and wear masks.

On the other hand, when vandals, looters, burners, and shooters took over and trashed neighborhoods without any fear of the official justice system, they suffered no consequences. Some even praised them. Inevitably, the alternate criminal justice system took over and shootings and killings increased dramatically.

In the nine days following the rioting in New York City, there were 112 killed or injured in 83 separate shootings. In Chicago, a city where more than 300 black men had been executed by the alternate justice system in the past year, 25 people were killed and another 85 wounded over the last weekend in May.

Because these victims were not killed by a white policeman, their lives really won’t matter to the protestors marching to reform, de-fund, or even eliminate the official criminal justice system. 

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Quote for the day. "The truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deny it, malice may distort it, but there it is." Churchill.

Some Lives Don't Matter

Recently a black writer whose column appears every Sunday in my local newspaper gave a very narrow definition to the term, Black Lives Matter (BLM). I guess readers had been asking why so many black on black crimes don’t seem to matter. He wrote,

That includes the slogan Black Lives Matter, which confuses many people when they witness black on black crime. But one has nothing to do with the other. BLM is about police brutality against blacks. Period.

In other words, some lives don’t matter (SLDM). In Chicago in the last 12 months about 300 black men were murdered in the streets. Why don’t they matter? Is it because their lives were of little consequence? 

Despite all the tributes to George Floyd, I suspect that most of those protesting in the streets after his death would not have even given Floyd the time of day while he was alive. They often live in exclusive, even gated, communities usually off limits to black strip club bouncers.

Or is it the fact that black on black gang murders in cities like Chicago are so common, that they no longer are newsworthy? In comparison, a statistically rare killing of a black man by a white police officer is big news especially after the video goes viral. 

Ultimately, I believe the real reason the deaths of 300 black young men in Chicago did not matter is because their deaths do not fit a convenient racist narrative? Political correctness does not admit that blacks can be racists. Only whites can be racists. Why is the systemic racist narrative so important?

Despite the protests and the outpouring of articles lamenting racism and police brutality, systemic racism has nothing to do with reality. When I was born in 1939 racism was so much more prevalent in the USA than it is today. Any fair minded person should be able to see this obvious fact. 

The lamentable recent removal of “Gone with the Wind,” a 1939 film classic, from the HBO line up harks back to an era when blacks could only portray maids or porters in main line American films. Actually, in 1939 there were separate black theaters showing all black films made by black producers and directors. A similar situation existed in baseball, the American pastime. Only after world War II did the situation begin to change with the result that today blacks play important and lucrative roles in all areas of American life.

In reality neither George Floyd nor Derek Chauvin, the policeman who killed him, matter. The narrative cannot just be about them. It cannot just be about indicting the police officer and bringing him to justice. The whole Minneapolis police force must be indicted as riddled with racism. But it can’t stop there. Police departments all over the country must be seen as permeated with racism and prone to brutality. But more than that, the very idea and need for police must be called into question.

But it must go even further. All blacks must be seen as victims or at least assume the mantle of victimhood. Even privileged whites like Nancy Pelosi must pose as victims. The police are just a sign of systemic racism that has marked America from the beginning and that 70 years of civil rights legislation has failed to eradicate despite the success of the many black Americans who feel the need to complain of racism despite their success.

At dinner the other night a friend of mine who emigrated to this country 25 years ago complained of an incident where she had been bullied by a policeman. When I asked how many times that had happened to her, she admitted that it was the only incident. She had lived in this country for 25 years and 99.9% of the time, she, like most law-abiding citizens, black or white, had not been bothered by the police. 

Today, the papers are full of people offering such anecdotes but these anecdotes do not come close to systemic racism. Nevertheless, protestors call for structural reforms not only in the police but throughout society. Some are even demanded de-funding or even eliminating police. 

The recent riots and looting in Minneapolis and elsewhere demonstrate vividly what happens when that occurs. When police stand down, the looters and the burners turn out to pillage and destroy. 

They say one picture is worth a thousand words but this short video from the end of the 1950 film classic, the Asphalt Jungle, is worth a million. It is as relevant today as it was then. Like many of the films of that era it is a story of a crime by a gang that eventually goes deadly wrong. A corrupt police lieutenant was involved in the crime, and in this scene reporters ask the Commissioner what will happen to the bad cop. It is as good a summary of the role and importance of the police as I have ever seen. Click on this link or view the clip below.

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