I wanted to follow my man Wayne over at Electronic Villages' lead, and post on some shit that's seriously relevant to black folks tonight. My man is asking the Afrospear to focus on this lamentable and deplorable shit that's going on in our neighborhoods. The same shit that is wiping out our young men in a genocidal fashion. It's called black on black violence.
In truth, I felt like Jessie Jackson today. I remembered his feeling apprehensive at the ATM comment while I was driving into West Philly to get some eats at my favorite Jamaican spot. There I was at 52nd and Market, a fucking sea of humanity around me; everyone hustling and bustling while they get their day to day grind on. And then, I did the Jessie move. I noticed my door wasn't locked and I locked it. Someone standing on the corner peeped me do it, and I was ashamed for about two seconds. I mean I wouldn't have done that shit in Chestnut Hill, or in Somerton would I? But fuck that, my feelings along those lines were fleeting. These little knuckle heads out here don't care who they are jacking. "Yeah field Negro, why don't you give me that nice field Negro ass whip you are pushing? Don't mind this cannon in your face, this is just what I use for protection around here. And every now and then, to convince some fucking field Negro, that he will be a dead Negro, if he doesn't comply with my wishes." So click! The field is down with his people, but he ain't stupid.
Damn I hated feeling that shit. But this is what people live with every day out here. And it ain't white folks living with it, it's us. Shit, over 250 murders and counting don't lie. Unless you are the mail man, the po po, or a bill collector; if you are white, you ain't seeing 52nd and Market anytime soon. When you pass that shit on the El., you don't even want to look down , because you are afraid of what you might see. And you know what; I can't blame you white people, this is our problem. When you want to eat some authentic Jamaican food, you just pack up the family for a vacation, and go down to Jamaica. I shouldn't have to do that, I should be able to go and eat some authentic Jamaican among my peeps without worrying about getting jacked.
But I have an immediate solution for all this shit. (Notice I said, immediate solution, the long terms solutions are too complex and involved. That's another post) More cameras, more cameras, and more cameras. Swamp the city with cameras like they do in London, and some other European cities. (And make sure the shit works) Cops, get out of your squad cars and start walking the beat again. Learn more about the people in the neighborhood you are patrolling. Know which one of Mrs. Johnson's grandsons is good and which one is bad. Use discretion when you pop these kids out here. Not every street crime is a major felony. Please, please, please, go after these straw purchasers of guns who buy hundreds of guns legitimately, and then sell them illegally on the streets. (I swear Pennsylvania is a backwards ass state) And finally, clamp down on suburban, and college kids who come into the hood to buy drugs. If you take away the demand for it, I guarantee you the money on these corners will dry up, and you want have knuckle heads killing to protect their turf.
Hey, just a few suggestions from the field. So that the next time I want some Jamaican Patti and co co bread; I won't have to feel like I am driving through a war zone to get it.
31 comments:
I hope it took even less than two minutes to get over that bad feeling, lol. Being black does not mean we should feel comfortable with crime.
We have a lot of problems and they can't all be blamed on the white man. It seems weird to me that "black leaders" are those who grew up in the age of "personal responsibility, you have to be twice as good, take care of community, etc" want to look everywhere except inward when talking about our problems.
And I know the more I type the less black I am to some. So be it.
Just found your great blog.
Do you lock the door to your crib at night? Yeah? Then don't feel ashamed about locking the door to your ride... that won't stop a jacking anyway, but it might slow them down, and it will certainly lessen the surprise factor of having some fool jump in your ride while you're fiddling with your Ipod...
First off, thanks for the love on the side. I appreciate it, honestly. Secondly, I'm completely with you on this post. To quote JJ, "Brothers and sistas! I don't know what this world is coming to!" When we can't trust our own "brethren" when we're in the same field, it makes me wonder a lot. For one it makes me wonder if we'll ever get to the point where we feel safe in our hoods ever again. It also makes me wonder if people in the hood will differentiate between snitching and protecting our communities. The "Stop Snitching" Campaign has made it awful hard to build communities.
It's like being in a room full of bright students, and one ass. When the teacher looks at the kids, he / she doesn't know who to trust because everyone's afraid of the ass, nevermind that the teacher's about to lay down serious punishments if the students don't get it together.
I swear the mentality around these here parts is backwards.
not that I would know anything about the teaching profession, but ... you know ...
"And I know the more I type the less black I am to some. So be it. "
symphony, you should always spesk your mind, don't worry aobut how that shit sounds, you are speaking from the heart.
Thanks bob.
Paul, I do not listen to my ipod when I am in my car. I save that shit for the gym :)
Jose, if anyone can speak to kids in a classroom, I know it's you.
Don't feel bad about locking the door Field, like you said I am for my people but I am not a dummy either. The problem is that black men have cross-hairs on the chest and their back, both by the police and our own brother. Hell I want to lock the door just as quick when I see the police as when I am in the hood.
There is no shame in the survival instinct.
The cameras are a little too Orwellian for my taste (especially the ones in some parts of the UK that shout orders at you) but walking the beat helps a lot. Before we moved to Maryland there was MS-13 all over the place. The cops stepped up their presence, got to know the people, and MS-13's been gone for more than 10 years.
In St. Louis 1969, the year my parents first bought the house my mother still lives in today. The neighborhood was a neighborhood were you did not have to worry about you children playing outside. That atmosphere start changing in the eighties and today it is like going into a war zone. I begged and I am still begging my mother to move, but you know how it is with older people once they are set in there ways. I hate to go visit the neighborhood I once grew up in, crime is all around my mother’s neighborhood. I am not going to stop visiting my mother, I just have to continue to pray for her safety and mine when I go and visit.
Therefore, your immediate solution is a start because it pisses me off to be afraid of going around my own people. This black on black shit must stop, but how do you reach a generation that is effing lost.
I am venting because I have plans to visit my mother next month and you post reminded me of my mother's neighborhood.
The camera idea is a good one, especially to help dry up the demand. But it doesn't have to be law enforcement who carries the cameras.
In the midwest, there is a guy who cracks down on street prostitution by taking pictures of offenders and posting those who have been arrested on his website.
You could take cameras into these neighborhoods, and discreetly take pictures of those suburbanites who come in and buy drugs. Then you could use online databases to lookup the license numbers. On a website, you could post these names and numbers online. Finally, if enough information from the plates could be garnered, you could invade their neighborhoods, and request that they don't buy drugs in yours again. Go right up to their front doors camera in hand, or post fliers all over the neighborhood.
I'll pitch in the first camera.
Field, I was walking in your shoes on this one. I no longer trip when folks lock their doors on me. It's crazy. On some cars the dealer can program your doors to automatically lock. Makes sense.
@ field Negro
In the early 1990s Rev. Jesee Jackson Sr. said It is sad, I look over his shoulder, and see that it is a white man walking behind him he fells releaved. Even Jackson admit that crime is a problem in certain black neighborhoods. The Camera thing is a very good Idea, I know some people will feel like it is a big brother watching but it has gotten to that point. Moving to other neighborhoods is a temporary solution -- because once the number of trouble makers who moved from the poor areas increase in that neighborhood the same problems will start over again. So Cameras would be a good idea too.
I wold like to see many high school children both black and other ethnicities that when they graduate from high school -- they should be taken to a foreign country or travel to grand tour around Europe or Asia parts of Africa or south America or something. This will inspire them to see the world differently.
Like the grand tour that many Europeans kids from elite private schools were given long ago.
You did the right thing Field Negro by locking doors, making sure you got your wallet with you, not left in your car, etc you can help people but still acknowledge that some of them will rob or commit violent acts against you or anyone else. Some people use guilt trips as weapons to disable common sense. Field Negro you are very honest about how you feel about certain things, and that is a good quality. You admit what some will never admit, this shows you are strong mentally.
Look man, the immediate solutions are all things that will work as long as you have the will to use them. For some reason, be it ignorance or not wanting to throw the sons of the church lady voters in jail, to not having the systems in place to actually MONITOR these cameras, to cops too lazy to walk beats or too fat to ride a bike (or a Segway) to white pols scared their sons and daughters will be targeted. But the biggest failure of will is in our community. I think we are going to have to surrender this notion that all of our bad kids would be Bill Gates "but-for." No. Nada. Time to stop reinventing the wheel for countless mentoring programs etc etc blah blah. Time to clean up our own act in sports, entertainment, politics...look man, a friend of mine noted that there are countless online and print magazines patronized by whites that feed various technical, business and economic pursuits. We have Ebony and Jet and Essence (the latter of which is even more dumbed down for sistas who seemingly have nothing better to do but worship Jill Scotts hairdo and ain't even black owned anymore). Not good.
Field, the cultural-psychological shift must go hand in hand. As a Yardie in America, you know damn well that there is a difference between the Jamaicans who endeavored and with intrepidness left the little island for NY or Toronto or London to better themselves (yes, we need to stop thinking of that as a bad word) and/or find a better life for their kids...and the folk who are laid up in the country waiting for care packages from that first group of Jamaicans, drinking overproof white rum and making more illegitmate kids. Cruel as that sounds, sue me if I'm not speaking the truth! We have to transform ourselves and frankly I don't see an impetus to do this unless we start publicly declaring ourselves officially through with knuckleheaded negroes. let the Klan and Karl Rove have them. let the Nazi cops mow them down. It'll take that kind of shocking, mean toughness to wake us up. Of course I'm not advocating a lot of this, but we need to do something to shake the
yo- we kill eachother like drinking water. i'm feeling your blog. I got tons of catch up reading on here..
respect.
IT's funny you mention cameras because today's SF Chronicle says they've not made a difference in San Francisco. BUt that's because no one monitors them.
In Oakland, the weak willed black survivor guilt raises HELL when the issue of cameras comes up. It's an invasion of our privacy, they say. Apparently they want to pick their nose in public and not get caught.
I don't understand how anyone can have a reasonable expectation of privacy in public. In fact, if you get on elevators in privately owned buildings, or stroll through a privately owned mall or casino, or department store, there are cameras everywhere. Even some convenience stores are installing cameras. But when the city wants to do it, we hear shit like "gestapo" and "big brother".
Keeping the world a safer place for criminals, brought to you by the ACLU. I know, I sound like a right wing crazy but the ACLU actually sued Oakland schools when they instituted uniform requirements in order to keep kids from killing each other over tennis shoes. But I digress...
Dig this. Last night I go to my neighborhood crime prevention council meeting and we have a discussion about the new smoking ordinance that includes making it illegal (an infraction, actually) to smoke at bus stops (believe it or not, the kids asked for that). Remember, this is California and several cities have either passed or considering incredibly tight restrictions on where you can smoke. Some young dame in the back of the room fatally bleeding from her heart, drug us through a 10 minute discussion asking about how the bus stop enforcement would work and if it would be used by cops to profile people of color. And she wouldn't let it go. Here we are in the midst of murder hell Oakland, I have gang bangers all over my block, violent crime of all sorts is drowning us, and this dizzy chick is worrying about smokers at bus stops getting profiled. This is the kind of stupidity that allows crime to thrive. Sweat all the small dumb stuff, don't try to figure out how to keep people from killing and maiming each other.
I'm sorry, was I ranting again? :-)
Believe it or not, I'm a lefty. I'm a 60's leftie who is tooooo sick and tired of people who are worrying about not offending anyone and not worrying about what is destroying our communities. I am opposed to the Patriot Act and left the Democratic party when those fools supported it. But cameras in public places that are high crime areas and that are reviewed by cops ARE O-FUCKING-K with me.
Haven't read the responses yet. I had to vent about this though because it makes me insane.
Cameras don't deter crime; they shift it. People quickly learn where the cameras are. They also move cops off the streets (since you need cops to watch the cameras). In some fairly rare cases, they're worthwhile for forensic reasons (after the crime was already committed). Overall, I don't think they're worth the cost.
?
Other than that, though, I agree with you.
P.S. 52nd and Market is west of the Schuylkill, right?
CC,
Don't forget about Black Enterprise and the Networker.
I don't know about the "final solution", though. May affect some of my family.
Field it may be your problem, in your neighborhoods, but it needs to be remembered who and what it is that created this problem for you....
The White Man.
If accepted into our world rather than forced into it and subsequently KICKED OUT, there would be no segregation of neighborhoods, and blacks would be living anywhere.
I went to the air port and was singled out by the TSA who asked what I was doing there, waiting for my sister.
I look a certain attire, now if I were wearing a t-shirt ( pre stained with food ) cargo shorts and flip flops I would have blended right in. But that isn't me, I wear Johnny Cash black and have a Tobkin twitch, the o'le foot a starts to movin.
But you know I was cordial, no one way tickets to Guitmo for me. But I am not lost on something Field, this single out of a crowd is basically what happens to every black in every hood that isn't, every store that isn't and so on.
Francis was on to something with the psychological part. But blacks need to be mass hypnotized so they can ignore the scrutiny of the common white.
But this boys in the Hood black on black thing, that is something so in the frame of visual metaphor that it is nearly impossible to out down in words.
Correct if I am wrong though, but I believe "Boys in the Hood" covers this visual metaphor rather well.
Black on black crime and North East Minneapolis, same as Philly Field. You see a few cop cars and an ambulance and you know where you are.
I;ll get burned for this by my white counterparts, but black on black crime is a symptom from wont of nothing else to do.
White people blame blacks for there own short comings.
Many whites say that black keep themselves from succeeding, never taking into account that it has been white people all along that have stood in the way of that success.
-=t=-
i swear, i love your blog.
this story reminds me of a time when i was in college. going to spelman, it is surrounded by one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in atlanta..the west end. well, i was walking back to campus, it was getting dark..and i really only saw a few other people walking..but much further ahead of me. i see this young black guy..but he didn't look like a student...he was what we called a 'local'. he started walking behind me really fast and i got scared.
i grabbed my purse tighter, kept glancing over my shoulder every few minutes until he yelled out "damn sista, you treating me just like the white lady treats me, grabbing your purse and stuff. i'm not gonna hurt you, sista. i'm walking just like you are."
i was so embarrassed. but when i told the story to my friends...they all said they would have felt the same way.
it's terrible that we have to be scared of our own people. the thing is, how do we reverse the mindset of these young knuckleheads who think it's okay to steal from a black man, but won't go near a white man's property? geesh.
The purpose of more cameras and police would be to catch more criminals and put them in jail, right? But the United States already has the highest incarceration rate in the world. At Mother Jones, there's a great report on incarceration in the United States, and the statistics prove conclusively that increasing incarceration has been an utter failure.
Percentage of U.S. prisoners incarcerated for drug offenses in 1980: 8
Percentage of U.S. prisoners incarcerated for drug offenses in 1998: 23
That's because rampant criminality is a SYMPTOM of a sick society, not a primary cause of it.
The real problem is that there are too few alternatives for Black men to participate meaningfully in US society. Knowing this, and knowing that their futures holding nothing good, they are committing suicide, and also being murdered by the police.
If incarcerating people was the solution, and the US has the highest incarceration internationally, then violent crime should be lower here than elsewhere, right?
Why is it that the societies that have a stronger social network, national health care and laws against gun ownership are also the societies that have lower incarceration, longer life expectancies and safer streets?
The conservatives know that when all opportunities are foreclosed for Black men, then Black men will turn to criminality, and then conservatives can make a great industry from putting all of us in jail.
Let's not join the conservatives in this insane thinking. Let's insist that a ban on guns and greater emphasis on education and health care are the solutions to our national crisis.
Ranking of the U.S. in world's highest incarceration rates: 1
U.S. incarceration rates of Caucasians per 100,000 residents:
235
U.S. incarceration rates of African-Americans per 100,000 residents: 1815
Minnesota's ranking among U.S. highest incarceration rates: 51
Minnesota's ranking among U.S. highest education spending per capita: 1
District of Columbia's ranking among U.S. highest incarceration rates: 1
District of Columbia's ranking among U.S. highest education spending per
capita: 51
Percent change from 1980 to 2000 in U.S.'s per capita spending on schools:
+ 32
Percent change from 1980 to 2000 in U.S.'s per capita spending on prisons:+ 189
Percent change from 1980 to 2000 in Texas' per capita spending on prisons: + 401
That's all from the Mother Jones report linked above.
Please keep reporting on this but lets keep insisting that when government focuses its attention on building and supporting the infrastructure of a health society, like roads, schools, universities, daycare, health care, etc, then THAT's what makes for a healthy society.
When government shirks these responsibilities, then civil order breaks down and you end up with what we have right now.
Topper, I'm white so I know I'm going to ignite a shitstorm by saying this, but I want to know what I, as a white, can do to fix the problems of the world that we are in.
You say that whites created the situation that urban black America is in. I totally agree, though it's not fair to leave out extrinsic factors like the flight of manufacturing jobs overseas in the 60's that left blacks unemployed and unemployable in the inner cities afterwards. Believe me, that same issue was/is affecting us whites. I just lived in the rural South, the whites down there are livid about NAFTA and what they perceive as the cause for the collapse of the furniture and textile industries down there.
Anyways, I digress. If whites made and perpetuated the mess that you/we are in now, then what can we do?
I'm ethnic white; my family didn't come to this country until the 50's, but I know every day that I benefit from a system that puts me higher and you and yours relatively lower.
Do whites blame blacks for your shortcomings? Honestly, yes. Alot of us, especially those who feel we get lumped in by you with the "crackers" whose descendants actually enslaved you, feel powerless to change anything, and frustrated by the urban blight. It's not like I see any way I can make things better.
But I think it's important, since I'm telling the truth, to say that it's not an and/or thing. We blame you for the "victim mentality" that alot of us truly think holds you back, while secretly acknowledging to ourselves (when you're not around, of course) that you are victims to a large extent to.
So, blame aside, FN put out possible solutions. What in your opinion can we whites do? I agree there's a moral imperative.
Hate me, but talk to me.
Jimbo
Shoot, I live in Northern Virginia and I lock the doors to my car and my house. And I live in an area of NoVA where people average $80K a year in salary.
I might have felt like you did for less than 30 seconds.
What? You think only Black people are capable of committing crime? Just because I live in a fairly diverse neighborhood, we are still only five minutes from DC, and 10 minutes from the Anacostia section of DC.
Even if DC is getting gentrified (whites aren't that afraid of Blacks if it means shorter commutes and less stress - use good ol' emminent domain to snatch up property), Blacks still make up enough of the population for it to still have the nickname "Chocolate City".
As for the "Stop Snitching" campaign, many of the fools who started that crap needed to be introduced to Madea or Big Momma: "I wish you would try to keep that information from the po-po regarding Ray-Ray. Do you want to feel that extension cord now or after you get out of jail for not talking?"
Big Momma didn't play. You cooperated with the cops because her strap or extension cord was more fearful than not snitching, especially if keeping quiet meant your ass was going to jail for obstructing justice.
"ARE O-FUCKING-K with me."
WCS, you should have been a poet?
Welcome "brooklyn teaching fellow", hang out all you like, and don't be afraid tom engage.Honestly, the best writing on this site is in the comments section. I should put the shit together and wrtie a book.
zimbel, you are right, 52nd and Market is west of the Schuykill. (A Philly guy huh?)
Seems most people are on board with a reduction of civil liberties, at least in these cases. Mmmm, might affect my bottom line, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
I have a question; where the fuck are white people like Jimbo and Topper? Damn we could use some like you two in government. "what can we whites do"? I would say influencing other white people to think like you would be a nice start.
Chris and Topper, I swear they should give you two your own T.V. show. (Do some CNN Crossfire type shit) The ratings would be through the roof!
Francis, we need to talk my man. (Shoot me an e-mail). Looks like they banned you at MLW. Are yopu trying to get banned by every major white liberal blog in America? :)
But I love it! The hardest working man in the blog business is really becoming a pain.
I remember the news saying that Philly already has cameras in place in a lot of areas but they don't work. Also I miss the "Operation Safe Streets" program that we had in the city. The cops were posted at almost every corner and some of them were getting to know the neighbors. They claim they couldn't afford it anymore, the extra cops. Shit,I'll pay extra taxes to see that my son is safe out here on these streets.
On the real - black or white - anytime I feel uncomfortable about anyone near me, I'm locking my doors without a moments thought to how they feel. First off, maybe it's the New York in me but no one should be all up in my personal space, even if it means coming too close to my car. But I do have to say this. Since I've moved to Arizona, I've learned that as much shyt that some backwoods I-didn't-know-that-the-war-was-over White person has to say about us, there's just as many OF THEM that will rob THEM or ME and then politely walk back to their trailer park with all my shyt without a second thought about who they got it from! Sadly enough, I've even heard of situations where a white guy was actually jacking a Black man and because the cops were/are so narrowminded and racist, the split-second it took for them to apprehend the attacker, they chose to believe that the attacker was the Black man instead of the white guy!! If it wasn't for the fact that it was during rush hour and there was someone around to quickly yell out that they got the wrong guy, the white dude would have gotten away!!! So when it comes down to it, I'll act that way towards anyone that gives me the wrong vibe no matter what color they are wrapped in!
But I do have a guilty pleasure though. It seems that Black men aren't the only ones that fall victim to women clutching their pocketbooks or taking nervous sideways glances at them when they are near. There are plenty of black women who experience this kind of behavior from white women as well. What I love to do is watch a white woman see me coming and once she starts becoming nervous and starts looking for a way to dodge me, I start looking equally suspicious of her, start darting my eyes around, grabbing my own pocketbook and take great pains to avoid her as if she was going to rob me. It's priceless! They go from unreasonable fear, to confusion, to being insulted within the matter of seconds! LOL!!! This is just my way of holding a mirror up to them so that they can see their own ignorance!! Just as foolish as it must look for me to think that they're going to rob me, I want them to know that it's something that could be on my mind as well and they aren't above as much as they think. If anyone is really going to think that a well dressed black women is even thinking about robbing them, then they've already got problems and my guilty pleasure is showing them! But I digress.....I guess my point is that you shouldn't feel bad for even for second if you being precautious because you didn't feel "right" but hopefully, Black or White, you can draw that same feeling about anyone who seems like a potential mugger/robber - no matter what color he's wrapped in.***
@field negro-
Briefly, a long time ago. I was trying to rectify my hazy memory of the area you describe with your more recent account. It sound like things have gone downhill since I was last around there (or, perhaps, I didn't realize how bad they were).
@francis-
I agree with you, too. Unfortunately, these tend to be longer-term solutions; it takes years just to build a new hospital and months just to build a school. Field is trying to come up with things that can be implemented really fast, to cut down the murder rates.
I think that the real problem is that Philadelphia (like many cities) is underfunded. This is in part because of Pennsylvania's state constitution, which makes it nearly impossible for Philadelphia to change its legal limits. With a lot of the richer people who use the city outside of the city (who gain most of its benefits and pay little of its costs), and limited resources, many of those resources end up going to those that are most politically powerful (which tend not to be dark-skinned and poor).
In short, it's a funding problem. political fights matter a lot less when there's enough pie for everyone. An expansion to health care and/or education funding at the federal or state levels would help a lot (of course, the state has funding issues too, but that's another story).
@ blinders off:
My grandmother's nhood was the SAME way in KC, MO. Someone broke in, scared her and she fell and broke her hip. After she passed we came to collect her things and found that the house had been broken into again. I still tear up when I think about that. A 90+ (age unknown!) black, widow of a minister, Zeta, cared about the "community" AND that's what happens. Of course, she didn't want to move b/c of her church activities. After that, I can give 2 fs about what you look like. Those scumbags victimized an old black lady. As far as I'm concerned, that makes them an enemy of MY people.
@woozie: The cameras freak me out too! I live in DC. There's an MS tag behind my building. I.do.not.care about these little assholes running around. The city needs to clamp the fuck down on them.
@ghostface: I studied abroad and it changed my worldview. I'm with you on that. I'm thinking about starting a foundation that sends youth abroad.
@cchambers: I was laughing at the "Bill Gates" line 2 days ago. The next time I hear that excuse for why "college aint for everybody" (funny, Asians don't say that...)
@nmuze: ahhhh Lee Street (memories)...I used to park on Greensferry when the empty PJs were there. There were bullet holes in Abby and a man broke into HH!! Don't forget the parking lot...
@jimbo: I'm from NC & you are preaching to the choir. I'm educated but the thought of our textile and furniture...shit I'm w/ "my" rednecks on that one.
****"snitching" some thoughts:
Snitching = offering any old info on any old person for some benefit. Huggy Bear?
Witness/testifying = personal observation of an event
Stop snitching = circling wagons, protecting our own. Everyone does that Italians, Wasps (Skakel/Kennedys), Chinese.
Some of "us" don't make the distinction b/t snitching and cooperating with a legal process that is to your benefit. I will say that witness protection needs to be beefed up ($$$, infrastructure). Combine witness intimidation with the unwillingness to come forward and you have a vicious cycle.
Lajane,
I think that foundation idea to send youth abroad is good one. If you want to get it off the ground, contact me.
caged
will do from HOME!
Nobody, irrespective of gender or race, is going to guilt me into not acting paranoid when someone is walking on my heels down a lonely stretch of real estate or stepping onto an elevator. Brothers need to knock off that crap. Women in particular have every reason to be paranoid. Hell, I don't know you. When I feel threatened, I listen to my instincts. You can be street smart or worry about offending the bad guys and be a victim. Human beings are the only animals that will sense fear and ignore it. I've gotten off an elevator with women when it felt squirrely.
Second, I am all for sending black, white, Asian, Native Americans, Latinos, anyfreakingbody to prison for violent crime. I don't support murder so I am thrilled with the prospect of taping gang bangers terrorizing neighborhoods. Let's call this what it is: Terrorism. Believe me, if white people were coming into black neighborhoods and dispatching black men with the efficiency carried out by black folks, we wouldn't be worried about sending them to prison. It's insane to suggest that because a bunch of black folks are already locked up, we shouldn't be sending any more to prison.
I'm sick of reading about innocent people getting killed by thugs and having people more concerned about the thug than the loss of an innocent life. I don't support the death penalty but the idea of publicly beating the living crap out of someone found guilty of accidentally shooting someone's grandmother is very appealing.
After the nonsense I've gone through in the past couple of weeks, my patience is gone. Zippo, phhhhttttt! Tired of all this madness and tired of people making excuses for it.
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