You all will excuse me if I feel like I am living in a modern day version of Dodge City. Consider the following story:
An off duty police officer is cruising down a busy city street at 3:30 PM yesterday. To his shock and surprise....I take that back, this is Philly, I am sure he wasn't that surprised. But anyway, right there on a busy street in the Logan section of town, he observed a group of young African Americans jump from a car and proceed to pump bullets into another young African American male who was standing on the sidewalk.
Of course the off duty officer did what any properly trained cop would do, he pursued the perpetrators. He followed them in his car until they jumped out and tried to escape. Then, tragically, one of the young men allegedly reached for a hand gun and was shot and killed.
So field, what's the big deal? You tell us about killings in Philly all the time. Yes, but here is where the story takes a little twist: It seems the perpetrator who was shot and killed is the son of two of Philly's finest, himself. Yes folks, in the city of "Brotherly Love", there just isn't that much love going around these days. Even the sons of those who are paid to protect us allegedly try to play Al. Capone. Sadly, for this family, this son won't be coming home, and they will have to live with the memory that one of their fellow comrades in blue had to take him out.
From all indications it was a justifiable shoot. But, as is always the case with these things, we will have to wait and see. What is it that Danish philosopher said about irony?
" Irony is a disciplinarian feared only by those who do not know it, but cherished by those who do.."?
Irony, I know you well.
Hey field! Happy New Years I just got back to philly yesterday from W.VA after a two week long vacation and I must say after reading this story, there's no place like "home" (sigh) :(
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is the entire time I was away everytime I watched the evening news, it was strange not hearing about the murders that happend 15 min into the broadcast.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they should aim lower and call it brotherly toleration? We need to air drop some air-soles up there.
ReplyDeleteszpork
I don't know about you Field, but many of our clients who are facing serious charges have hard working, decent families, despite the sterotypes to the contrary.
ReplyDeleteThis type of shit didn't even happen in Dodge City man. Only in Philadelphia. The stuff Law And Order dreams of.
ReplyDeleteI was outraged over the BART shooting. Contrary those feelings, I feel nothing for the perpetrator who was shot and killed.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I say kudos to the officer for a good shot. Too bad he couldn't take out all of the perpetrators.
Enough is enough. Sympathy don't live here anymore. Today for me, and today for you too. He was probably going to end up shooting someone else again next week. Sick of them.
ReplyDeleteAs for he irony, I don't even know where to begin to touch that.
"I was outraged over the BART shooting. Contrary those feelings, I feel nothing for the perpetrator who was shot and killed.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I say kudos to the officer for a good shot. Too bad he couldn't take out all of the perpetrators."
Rudy, I agree 100%.
"Irony is a disciplinarian feared only by those who do not know it, but cherished by those who do.."?
ReplyDelete"Quick Karma"...and its 'deliverer' is always a surprise.
'Killadelphia' I like that.
ReplyDeleteI Bullet am sorry
gangsta culture is, and will forever be BULLSHIT. I hope that this idea that carrying a gun and being a failure at life is something that dies out, but I know thats never gonna happen.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the parents of the criminals knew exactly what their progeny was up to. There's really no excuse for this. And truth be told Oscar Grant wouldn't have gotten shot - that time - if he and his friends hadn't been fighting on the train. So there you go.
ReplyDeleteActofFaithBlog, you are mixing apples and oranges.
ReplyDeleteOscar Grant wouldn't have been shot had the officer used good judgment. The facts show that the officer was at least negligent (especially if he said, "Oh, shit." immediately shooting Grant).
Obviously, your comment is indicative of someone who is on the outside looking in, culturally.
The black cross-eyed guy is Lawn Jockey again, eh? Every time I see him on MSNBC, I wonder what kind of salary he gets from Karl Rove to spout that bullshit.
ReplyDeleteThat same philosopher wrote: "At one time my only wish was to be a police official. It seemed to me to be an occupation for my sleepless intriguing mind. I had the idea that there, among criminals, were people to fight: clever, vigorous, crafty fellows. Later I realized that it was good that I did not become one, for most police cases involve misery and wretchedness -- not crimes and scandals."
ReplyDeleteAgain, I have more questions than answers.
ReplyDeleteWho told these young men that it was okay to take another's life--and, from all indications, the life of a defenseless person at that?
Who told them that they could do this and escape punishment?
Who told them that killing someone was the best way to resolve a conflict, provided one actually existed?
Who told them that a life can be snuffed out on the whim of others?
Who told them that this was a crime that had to be committed, damn the consequences?
Who told them that their parents, once learning of this, wouldn't repudiate both them and their actions?
Who told them that they could take life and death into their own hands, and that they could take what they couldn't give back--someone's life?
Who told them that they could gun down someone in broad daylight and get away with it?
Who told them that crime pays, and that the risk of incarceration was minimal.
From whom did they learn these things?
Someone had to teach them.
They didn't come into this world as killers, cutting their teeth on guns, with prior knowledge of how to load and kill.
The default teacher when parental and teacher guidance fails to be given or received- the "streets."
ReplyDeleteThe streets have lessons abound to teach, just not the most desirable ones.
That boy grew up with TWO cops as parents... Philly officers have gone threw HELL the past year and their minset is like I am going home to my FAMILY ! Its like kill or be killed.
ReplyDeleteLET THIS BE A LESSON PEOPLE...IF YOU PULL A GUN OR LOOK LIKE YOU ARE ABOUT TO PULL A GUN ON A PHILADELPHIA POLICE OFFICER....BE PREPARED TO DIE !!!
ReplyDeletebrowngrl77 said...
ReplyDeleteLET THIS BE A LESSON PEOPLE...IF YOU PULL A GUN OR LOOK LIKE YOU ARE ABOUT TO PULL A GUN ON A POLICE OFFICER....BE PREPARED TO DIE !!!
fixed....
oh and Field, did you catch wind of this? About the head of the CIVIL RIGHTS division of Bush's Justice Department letting his racism show in leaked internal e-mails?
Tanner and Schlozman are discussing how they like their coffee, with Tanner writing that he took his “Mary Frances Berry style – black and bitter.”
Berry, an African American, chaired the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights for nearly a decade, ending her service in 2004.
http://www.rollingstone.com/nationalaffairs/index.php/2009/01/13/unabashed-racism-in-the-bush-doj-_civil-rights_-division/
Good GOD. Just 5 days, 19 hours, 6 minutes left, hurry, hurry, hurry....
Both parents are cops?!
ReplyDeleteI can't wrap my head around this.
browngrl77, welcome home. :(
ReplyDeleteSwiff, I heard about that story. But I decided not to catch racism this time. Yep, the "race chaser" made one get away...I think.
Black Diaspora, I see that you and I have the same feelings, or should I say questions.
~
ReplyDeleteWhere he daddy at?
NSangoma
`
Three or four years ago in Cincinnati, Ohio, a 28 year old dope boy was murdered by another dope boy. The murdered dope boy, who was already a multiple felon, was the son of a former black Cincinnati ASSISTANT POLICE CHIEF. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteSeveral months ago (in 2008) a young black man was apparently sold some bad drugs by a dope boy. He went after the dope boy who sold him the bad drugs. They BOTH started shooting at each other and ended up shooting EACH OTHER to death.
This madness is not happening only in Killidelphia. It's happening in black areas everywhere. Get out of those black areas (those of you who haven't already) while you still can.
As I've said before, maybe the dope boys will all kill each other and the rest of us can live in peace. There is no other solution to this problem.
FN,
ReplyDeleteThe New Year has only begun and the news has been filled with nothing but these type of stories. I live in a mixed middle class area and I will see these suburban wannabe thugs out all the time. My husband and I worked so hard to get away from hooded out and under performing areas to have these young assholes trying to be something they know nothing about. What really makes me sick is they think they can go out do their dirt and come home to mommy and daddy to make it all better. I can't stand people who throw their lives away. Happy New Year BTW.
I hear you Kristen, I hate these suburban wannabe Gs,even the suns of cops, who throw away their opportunities being something that doesn't even exist in the first place,who've never been to the real ghetto. Do you think people in the ghetto, if they had your chances, would be trying to act all hard? Hell NO! Dammit, this glorification of all things violent and shallow is present throughout America, and people wonder why this nation is taking a turn for the worst.
ReplyDeleteBeing from Philly, this topic has caused me to blog about it so many times (on other blog pages)and it just seems that no one is listening. I empathize with those parents, as well as the officer who pulled the trigger.
ReplyDeleteLast year 311 killed, of which 292 were of African-American decent - not all killed by other African-Americans either. It's distressing and seemingly without a solution.
Even with such distressing news - Happy New Year to you and yours. Peace.
This typifies two of my worst fears. Either that we'll work our heinies off raising our son, and he'll be taken out by one of these kids that weren't raised. Or, that having all this opportunity he'll squander it trying to be 'hard.' It makes me insane.
ReplyDelete"As I've said before, maybe the dope boys will all kill each other and the rest of us can live in peace. There is no other solution to this problem."
ReplyDeleteI was thinking along those lines, but by the rate they've been going, you’d think they would have died off a long time ago. It seems they multiply or assemble more of each other as one die.
I’ve known about so many law enforcement officers (mostly males) who have drug dealing trigger ready criminal children. Apart from the possible inherited “I’m above the law” complex, you have to wonder if these law enforcement fathers even lived in the same household or played an active role in their children’s lives.
Safe to say none of th players here were white or it would have been the lead paragraph. Now what ? The story kinda fizzled with no caucasians to blame it all on.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I had a problem with what Bill Cosby said. As someone who grew up "low income" I saw plenty of middle class hang in my neighborhood frontin and trying to act hard, doing the same hoodrat stuff, sometimes worse than what the kids from the neighborhood did. And don't get me started on the girls dating the losers, while I am thinking I wish I could get me one those cute catholic school boys.
ReplyDeleteI knew one guy in my neighborhood he always had money and his mom had him dressed in the best clothes in elementary school (he was an only child) and he grew up to be a drug dealer, WTH his family while may have lived in the hood but they weren't cash strapped. This problem had gone beyond class in our community
I forgot to also mention how some of these middle class black folks folks do in college. The don't do better than kids from the hood! This is our talented tenth? They were more ghetto that the poor kids while they flashed their money and designer clothes. If we don't have more doctors and lawyers blame them not poor folk, why did I who went to public school on the same level and sometimes better than someone who grew up in the burbs? A lot of these kids don't even end up doing as well as their parents
ReplyDeleteThis all boils down to choices, that man CHOSE to be a thug!
ReplyDeleteMaybe you ought to install a permanent Lawn Jockey museum...
ReplyDeleteIncluding these thugs.
I think "gangsta" qualifies as Lawn Jockey behavior.
Bianco said...
ReplyDeleteSafe to say none of th players here were white or it would have been the lead paragraph. Now what ? The story kinda fizzled with no caucasians to blame it all on
Safe to say that you are an idiot with a warped view of the circumstances.
It's not getting headlines because it was justifiable shoot.
Stupid idiot!
Field,
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell is going on up there in Philly?
I've got relatives who are scared to come outside in Mount Airy which, I guess until recently, was a solid well kept black middle class neighborhood.
It is going to get harder to hold racist cops accountable for shootings. The gang and gun trotting culture has taken on a life of its own. And the line between a justifyable cop shooting and a racist one is gettting extremely thin.
ReplyDeleteNext time there is a seemingly racist shooting of an innocent black kid, it would be useful to look at all the factors.
Like, how does a cop having to deal with rowdy, seemingly threatening black youth every working day of his life keep his calm in a moment when he is directly confronted by a situation involving the same type he has become accustomed to watching closely? Any shooting in his high strung mind will make sense at that split second instant.
Something is terribly wrong, and cop shootings are going to only increase as long as this culture remains acceptable in the lower BC and romanticized by rap and hip hop.
Grata
ReplyDeleteI don't know.
In the military we were taught to go for cover if there was a threat.
And there is never any excuse for shooting an unarmed non threatening individual as was the case in the Amadou Diallo and Oscar Grant cases.
As a black man from the inner city (the Bronx) with 2 black sons I am frightened to death of out of control trigger happy cops.
Most of the street violence is intramural carnage between thugs and if you aren't a part of that environment most likely it won't affect you.
But Amadou Diallo got shot 19 times from 4 different cops and was doing nothing but standing in his own vestibule.
Oscar Grant's Murderer Arrested
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/14/oscar-grants-killer-bart-_n_157824.html
I've been shouting this for a long to deaf ears that some of the biggest thugs in town come from "nice" families. I'm not a damned bit shocked. Some years ago, a middle aged man, the son of a former mayor/judge father and whose mother was a judge, was a big drug kingpin. I'm sure some slobbering social scientiest will tell us how awful it was for him growing up black, male, and privileged.
ReplyDeleteyah all the Oscar Grunts can act like fools and flex and posture all they want but that asshole stressed out cop better be 100% on his game because he might freak and shoot another Oscar and then he's Reginald denny remember him ya'll ? he stuck his racist head into that poor opressed kid's brick in LA
ReplyDelete~
ReplyDelete"One of my babies is now gone."
Christine Wiggins, founder and chief executive officer
Imhotep Institute Charter High School
This is a part of the problem, too many pussy-assed women in charge of educating young boys.
As an offspring of police officers, very few people would suspect him of being a bad egg; did he sing in the Sunday School Choir, too?
Only speak good of the dead; he is dead, GOOD!
NSangoma
`
Dear Field:
ReplyDeleteI think an excellent House Negro of the Day candidate would be the person who came up with the whole "Stop Snitching" notion.
"This is a part of the problem, too many pussy-assed women in charge of educating young boys."
ReplyDeleteNSangoma: Well sure because black men are doing such a fine job of raising their sons. When they aren't abandoning their kids, their bringing them into a life of crime. So of course it's all the women's fault.
Someone asked why all the thugs haven't killed each other off by now and I figured out why they keep making babies. So they will have somebody to kill and keep this tradition alive. Then they can blame black women for all of it. See how nicely that works out? The brothers get off scott free. It's hard being a black man because the white man prefers black women so brothers are forced to become criminals, and not to feed and clothe their kids, but to let off all the frustration at being born black and male. That's why they abandoned their kids. It's so hard being a brotha. Didn't that song win an academy award?
Uptownsteve said "As a black man from the inner city (the Bronx) with 2 black sons I am frightened to death of out of control trigger happy cops."
ReplyDeleteI hear you, I am a white suburban woman with 3 white sons and I am frightened to death of them getting involved with the police. They were taught to say "Yes, Sir." and "No, Sir." and to avoid anything that would bring them into proximity.
Doesn't "justifiable shooting" just feel like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Happy New Year Field and All.
Lady Cracker said: "I am a white suburban woman with 3 white sons and I am frightened to death of them getting involved with the police."
ReplyDeleteLOL, oh please.
Field, maybe neo lunatics like Nsangoma are carrying a whiff of sense. Yes, we tend to demonstrate and march when a cop...especially a white one...kills a black man. But when black people slaughter each other we refuse to face the music. Now we have kids of cops committing violence. Not anything new--in cities like Detroit, B-morecareful, Charlotte recently young men--black men--who's dads, uncles, brothers and sisters are long serving, often decorated, cops were convicted of drug-related slayings. Prince Georges Co. Md States atty, who was with me at Princeton, laments the rise in crime in so called middle class/affluent black enclaves in this DC suburb. So we have attitude, culture, not povery, playing a role?
ReplyDeleteMaybe something has dropped out of our souls? Help me understand, Field.
Thanks for quoting me on "irony"... hey, fellas, feel free to read my book " The Concept of Irony".
ReplyDeleteWell, I'll be damned... they charged the former transit cop with murder. I am genuinely surprised.
ReplyDelete"But Amadou Diallo got shot 19 times from 4 different cops and was doing nothing but standing in his own vestibule."
ReplyDeleteThere are always going to be innocent by standers that will suffer from the culture of violence that is now very apparent. How many Amadou Diallo compared to the black on black violence that is not as actively campaigned against as other injustices?
Cops that shoot innocent people need to be delt with in absolute terms but part of the problem is in the community that is not aggressively confronting the problems leading to the violence with in. Most of the victims are young males. Yes the system is racist, biased etc. But what is being done with in to bring down the numbers, especially of black on black crime? For the answers to solve these problems, personally I would look to older black males. These are your sons and they are getting killed.
Some suggest that those seeking better lives should leave the communities to those that will wipe themselves out. And this still keeps the cycle of violence moving.
Most of the street violence is intramural carnage between thugs and if you aren't a part of that environment most likely it won't affect you. uptownsteve said...
ReplyDeleteI hear you, but tell that to the family of the four year old who was recently killed in a drive-by shooting, and the thousands of other innocent victims who have died in a similar manner.
Either the four year old was an unintended victim, or he's one of the youngest gang members on record.
I only wish you were right, that what happens in the gang stays in the gang.
But gang violence has a nasty, and not-too-healthy way of spilling over and touching some of the most Innocent in our midst.
"Field,
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell is going on up there in Philly?"
I don't know uptownsteve, must be something in the cheese staeks.
This is a part of the problem, too many pussy-assed women in charge of educating young boys. NSangoma
ReplyDeleteNSangoma, your logic never ceases to amaze me.
I'm assuming that it's not the credentials of this woman, Christine Wiggins, that you're questioning, but the advisability of women teaching young black men.
Your quoting her as saying, "One of my babies is now gone," is justification for suggesting that she and women like her are mollycoddling our black boys, rendering them incapable of coping in the "real" world.
Well, I'm black and male, and I'm going to disqualify myself right now as a teacher using your standard, by agreeing with Christine: "One of my babies is now gone."
I don't think that it's been the "pampering" of young black boys in our modern-day black communities that is the problem--but parental indifference, educational indifference, as well as societal indifference.
And we will only make a difference in the lives of these young black men when we can get across to them that they do make a difference, that they're not seen differently than other youth in our society, despite their being born, and reared in the "hood," and that whether they live or die, grow up to be contributing members of society or not, make a difference to us all.
We live in a "throw-away" society, elevating some in our society, while relegating others to less important and valued positions, discarding them because they're seen as somehow less desirable, less needed.
If we don't get across to these young men that they're a needed, and desirable part of this society, they will continue to behave in ways that say that everyone and everything are as dispensable as they are.
"Cops that shoot innocent people need to be delt with in absolute terms but part of the problem is in the community that is not aggressively confronting the problems leading to the violence with in."
ReplyDeleteWhat do you expect the "community" to do about violent criminals????
This really is the kernel of conservative stupidity.
It addresses "the community" as if it's an independent object rather than a collection of socially isolated poor folks embedded in and struggling to survive in a hostile encompassing environment.
"But what is being done with in to bring down the numbers, especially of black on black crime? For the answers to solve these problems, personally I would look to older black males. These are your sons and they are getting killed."
ReplyDeleteYou don't know much about the 'hood, do ya?
When I was growing up in the Bronx during the 70s, we had men with jobs who protected their families, homes and neighborhoods.
You go to my old neighborhood now and you see hollow eyed young girls sitting on stoops smoking cigarettes and rocking baby carriages.
Frightened women in windows, afraid to come outside.
Young boys on the corners shooting dice or slinging crack.
And no MEN, because the boys don't make it that far.
In neighborhoods like the one I live in now in suburban Maryland, you have men and solid nuclear families.
And little crime. No violence.
The constant rants about "black on black crime" are not addressing the real socio-economic tragedy of the urban ghetto.
Rather it's a fault laying exercise conducted by bigots who seek to demonize black folks who are overwhelmingly law abiding and productive for the problems of the isolated and dysfunctional inner city.
"It addresses "the community" as if it's an independent object rather than a collection of socially isolated poor folks embedded in and struggling to survive in a hostile encompassing environment."
ReplyDelete(Assuming you are black)
I find it interesting when people like you try to argue the non existance of the black community yet when there is a common agenda like this election, the non existent community suddenly exists and is still able to accomplish.
People like you should stop identifying in racial terms since the idea of a black community does not exist. You can't do that now can you?
As long as you have black skin, you are of the community whether you choose to accept that it exists or not. And whatever happens in its lowest rangs will affect you no matter how high you think you have reached.
Even if you don't believe in its existance, good old racism will remind you of your place and you will be running back to the same "community".
Anecdotes of middle class kids getting more gang like should wake up all those who think they jumped the fence and that these problems only affect the poor blacks.
"The constant rants about "black on black crime" are not addressing the real socio-economic tragedy of the urban ghetto."
ReplyDeleteAnd what will you say when these black on black crimes start clearly showing criminals and victims from middle class backgrounds? (as in this particular case) Is that when the Upper Blacks will see it as their problem too?
I am amazad at the indifference Middle class blacks have to the plight of the lower class blacks and attempting to bestow all faults on them.
Is this what the Civil Rights movement was about? You guys think you have arrived? LOL!
If this was a journey, you aren't even a quarter way there and anything can still go terribly wrong and take you back 100 years back to the same communities you so despise.
Well Mr. Field, here we are again with the same old same old. It would be interesting to see just how many times over the years you have done this exact same story. The exact same players, the exact same plot and the same jaded ending. The same posters saying the same things, blaming the same people and making the same excuses.
ReplyDeleteI will return in a few months and read the same story. Some will blame the cops. Some will blame whitey. Some will blame society.
As black people we are ALL to blame. Until we react to a death at the hands of a cop the same way we react to "death by thug" the stories will continue. Until we condemn the single parents and the excuses they always have, the stories will continue.
Is it any wonder whites dont want to live around us?
Grata,
ReplyDelete"I find it interesting when people like you try to argue the non existance of the black community yet when there is a common agenda like this election, the non existent community suddenly exists and is still able to accomplish."
What absolute nonsense.
I took issue with your attempt to make the law abiding citizens of the inner city responsible for dealing with violent criminals.
It's just a very cheap way of racializing crime.
"And whatever happens in its lowest rangs will affect you no matter how high you think you have reached."
No more than it would effect any American.
Another cheap attempt at racializing crime.
You're not even smart enough to be subtle.
"I am amazad at the indifference Middle class blacks have to the plight of the lower class blacks and attempting to bestow all faults on them."
What would you have middle class blacks do about inner city crime?
Seriously.
Do you have any suggestions or are you just ranting?
"And what will you say when these black on black crimes start clearly showing criminals and victims from middle class backgrounds? (as in this particular case) Is that when the Upper Blacks will see it as their problem too?"
ReplyDeleteOh you really are a racist, aren't you?
Crime is black thang, whether you're a Phd or a high school dropout?
Shall provide examples of middle class white boys shooting up schools or going on spree killings?
Is that a white thang?
"Is it any wonder whites dont want to live around us."
ReplyDeleteSpeak for yourself Rastus.
White, brown and asian folks are moving into my previously 90% upper middle class black enclave like lemmings.
Will another "Stop the Violence" march and vigil satisfy you?
People like you never answer this damn question.
What specifically would you have law abiding black folks do about violent criminals that we don't pay the cops to do????
Mr. Uptown, there are MANY things I would do. I would hold BOTH parents responsible for the willful misconduct of their children. I would hold them responsible financially and I would garnish portions of their govt checks for restitution. I would bar from govt housing any family whose member (s) commits a violent crime while in said housing. I would require that the father of the child support that child both financially and spiritually.
ReplyDeleteIt isnt the govts job to raise your child correctly and it isnt the communitys'job either. It is the job of the parent. Clearly we arent doing the job. Perhaps if the parents are faced with sanctions they might just parent their kids.
We have made it FAR too easy for women to push out babies and the men to abandon them. The urban lotharios arent shamed by us, in fact they are celebrated as great lovers. SHAME ON US.
I would adopt the NRA's idea about 10 yrs min/mand for anyone who commits a crime with a gun, 20 yrs if that gun is discharged. I would be FAR tougher on first time violent crime. We do nobody favors by letting slide the first offense.
I would put cops on every corner in high risk neighborhoods. Lets face it, cops arent the terrorists, the thugs are. Dont believe me? Call the local dope boys next time a thug invades your crib.
This is all talk. We all know we will do none of these things because we feel sorry for the poor black boys who terrorize and kill us. We feel too many of us are in jail. From the state of our neighborhoods looks like not enough are in there.
Just my 2 cents. Nothing will change because we dont want to do what is necessary for change.
---SIGH!--
Bill O'Reilly's afterbirth has spoken.
ReplyDeletebarf.
Wonderful comeback steve. Worthy of you to be sure.
ReplyDeleteI can ask you the same question....what would YOU do?
Little tougher huh?
A Marshall Plan for the urban inner city.
ReplyDeleteTax breaks for businesses who relocate into the inner city.
You righties can do all the bootstrap speeches and get tough threats you like but behavior in the ghetto is not going to change until conditions change.
All the crap you're spewing about more cops, getting tough on dysfunctional parents, cutting off welfare checks etc....THEY'RE ALREADY DOING and what has been the result?
Violent crime has been steadily spiking for 5 years now.
We need the schools to actually teach the children.
We need jobs with livable wages (so men can legally support their families).
Mentoring programs so that inner city kids can see, hear and kibbitz with positive role models who look like them.
People like you seem to forget that the US Government financed the white ethnic's flight out of the declining inner city into the suburbs at the exclusion of blacks.
You also seem oblivious to the fact that there is a new Homestead Act being tabled by Congress.
BILLIONS in grants and low interest loans to people in or willing to relocate to depopualting Plains and Rust Belt states.
Why not the same investment to revilatize the inner city?
Might have something to do with the color of the residents.
There was a plan for the urban inner city four decades ago. It was called the Great Society, put into place by President Lyndon Johnson. Some blacks actually took advantage of those programs and "moved on up". Others messed around and let the opportunity pass them by. Whose fault is that?
ReplyDeleteGet real. With the economy the way it is, billions of $ are not going to be wasted on inner city residents.
There are things that inner city residents can do NOW to alleviate their suffering (which is mostly their own fault): a good start would be for inner city black women to stop having babies OUT OF WEDLOCK by "men" who don't want them for anything except sex. In other words, inner city women should stop being cum dumps. That would go a LONG way towards solving the problem. Why any woman would even want to have sex much less a baby by the filthy, deviate (mostly criminal by the way) inner city black men you see standing around on corners in any black area doing nothing of a positve nature is beyond my understanding.
I am too busy living my life, to have any interest in "saving" somebody else. Adults should be able to save themselves with no help from me or my tax dollars. I am not responsible for anybody except me and mine.
Steve, you seem to think that the govt is the only answer. More and more money pumped in does not change the mindset of hopeless unsupervised youth. It does not magically create caring responsible parents. If you build a grand structure that is populated my thugs people will still stay away.
ReplyDeleteIm afraid there is nothing that can be done if the same mindset remains in the head of these people. Only with education will hope come.
"There was a plan for the urban inner city four decades ago. It was called the Great Society, put into place by President Lyndon Johnson. Some blacks actually took advantage of those programs and "moved on up". Others messed around and let the opportunity pass them by. Whose fault is that?"
ReplyDeleteBULL$HIT.
The "Great Society" was derailed almost as soon as it started by the Vietnam War and I challenge you to.....
a. name one Great Society program desined exclusively for blacks that didn't apply to any other poor folks
b. name one government program designed to bring jobs and industry to the inner city.
I'll wait patiently.
BULL$HIT.
ReplyDeleteThe "Great Society" was derailed almost as soon as it started by the Vietnam War and I challenge you to.....
a. name one Great Society program desined exclusively for blacks that didn't apply to any other poor folks
b. name one government program designed to bring jobs and industry to the inner city.
I'll wait patiently.
You've got that right, Uptown Steve.
The War on Poverty was tanked before it even got off the ground, thanks to the Vietnam War.
Furthermore, it just wasn't inner city blacks who were the focus of the War on Poverty, there were plenty of visits by LBJ and RFK to the hills of Appalachia as well.
As black people we are ALL to blame. Until we react to a death at the hands of a cop the same way we react to "death by thug" the stories will continue. Until we condemn the single parents and the excuses they always have, the stories will continue.
ReplyDeleteIs it any wonder whites dont want to live around us?
Tell me, how is it that someone in Philly who doesn't even know this perpetrator...or someone from Wisconsin for that matter is responsible for what some thug is doing??
You are trying to ascribe powers to the black community that even the police do not possess.
Anon 6:23 pm: Adults should be able to save themselves with no help from me or my tax dollars. I am not responsible for anybody except me and mine.
ReplyDeleteBut yet the black community--which pay plenty of income tax, btw (it kills me when some folk act as if they are the sole taxpayers in the nation)--as a whole is supposed to have some control on what goes on in individual households in inner cities.
You can't have it both ways.
Sharon
ReplyDelete"You are trying to ascribe powers to the black community that even the police do not possess."
You gotta luv these rightards.
When a black excells it's an act individualism.
But when one black screws up, the entire is not only tainted but culpable.
"As black people we are ALL to blame. Until we react to a death at the hands of a cop the same way we react to "death by thug" the stories will continue. Until we condemn the single parents and the excuses they always have, the stories will continue."
ReplyDeleteThis is just out and out garbage.
Black conservatives are selling a farce. The black righties "responsibility game" is actually a fault laying exercise, actually arguing for their white massa's IRRESPONSIBILITY (ie the abndonment of the inner city) by blaming the victim.
The conservative philosphy is dependent on racial animosity and the aspersion as a problematic subclass.
So they paint the entire black community with the dysfuntionalities of a distinct and tiny minority.
When a black excells it's an act individualism.
ReplyDeleteBut when one black screws up, the entire is not only tainted but culpable.
Notice that one poster here used this one case of a bad kid from a middle class home and made it into an epidemic that is sweeping black middle class households and communities.
Sure, I'll take personal "responsibility" for the actions of some thug, gangbanger or baby mama solely because he or she is black.
I will control their actions even if I don't know them.
I will do so whether they are across town or thousands of miles away.
I will do so on the day people like this poster take "responsibility" for Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold and all the other white miscreants who shoot up their schools because someone hurt their l'il feelings.
Give me a break.
"name one Great Society program desined exclusively for blacks that didn't apply to any other poor folks"
ReplyDeleteuptownsteve, you should know that TAX PAYER funded programs CANNOT be race specific because it's against the law. It ain't gonna happen.
You admit that the Great Society programs were designed for poor folks. Blacks at the time were (and still are) disproportionately poor. Why didn't those poor blacks take advantage of those Great Society programs (those programs added up to TRILLIONS of dollars in todays money) when they were available regardless of whether other poor folks could participate in the prgrams or not?
You never addressed my other point which is that blacks can fix much of this problem without ANY government intervention at all. That is, poor black women (and I'm a black man myself) should stop having babies out-of-wedlock by unemployed, criminal, loser black men WHO ONLY WANT THEM FOR SEX. Actually, poor black women should stop having sex with these deviant black men. Period. This is something poor black folks can do without ANY help from the government.
Fear not my good friend Filled Negro......after January 20th all of the Thug Drug Kneegrows will receive the magical gravitational pull from their new president and will stop killing each other.
ReplyDeleteJust have Hope man.
[quote]oh and Field, did you catch wind of this? About the head of the CIVIL RIGHTS division of Bush's Justice Department letting his racism show in leaked internal e-mails?[/quote]
ReplyDeleteSwift:
After listening to the various lawyers that were long time members of the Civil Rights division......DO YOU think that there hasn't ALWAYS been BIAS in hiring within that division?
You lefties only have a problem when the bias is against you.
Fear not though - as we enumerate the problems that Black Americans face today - the issues that are solvable by the Civil Rights Division are not in the top 5.
The fact that some of you THINK SO is the reason why Mr. F Negro's murder count ticker for Philly will top last years number despite having a more favorable administration.
Instead of focusing on POLITICS you need to be focusing on the NEGROES WHO ARE KILLING US.
"You lefties only have a problem when the bias is against you."
ReplyDeleteAnd you black righties would let a white racist stick their foot up your ass on the corner of Broadway and 42nd St at high noon and you'd even smile at him afterwards as long as followed up with a pat on the head and telling you how "independent" you were.
"Why didn't those poor blacks take advantage of those Great Society programs (those programs added up to TRILLIONS of dollars in todays money)"
ReplyDeleteLIKE WHAT???
NAME ONE.
One reason why you black righties irritate the shit out of me is that you lie so damn much.
"One reason why you black righties irritate the shit out of me is that you lie so damn much."
ReplyDeleteI am not a "rightie" or a Republican. Why is that blacks like you can't disagree with blacks like me without accusations that we're righties or Republicans?
FYI, I am a progressive Democrat who voted for Obama. I have NEVER voted for a Republican in my entire life.
And you NEVER addressed my basic point which is that blacks don't need government handouts. They need to make better choices. Why can't poor black women stop having babies out-of-wedlock by deviant black men who don't want them for anything except sex? Answer that one question. It's something that can be done WITHOUT A DAMN PROGRAM!
There are black women today who don't even know who their "baby daddy" is. They name a "dude" as the daddy, he takes a paternity test and the test comes back "negative" - meaning he's not the daddy. This is COMMON among black women today. And not just poor black women. What's up with that?
Programs cannot fix this. Black people need to make better choices.
Anonymous: This is COMMON among black women today. And not just poor black women. What's up with that?
ReplyDeleteThis is the first I've heard of this. All black women? Regardless of income and education. Please provide some evidence regarding this incredible phenomenon.
He still won't name them Great Society programs that were just laying and waiting for us po dumb negroes to take advantage of.
ReplyDeleteSharon from WI: I did not say ALL black women? I used the word "common" which in this case means NOT UNUSUAL. It is not unusual for a black women to be in the situation in question.
ReplyDeleteuptownsteve: YOU are the one who seems to think that black people are "po dumb negroes", not me. I happen to think that black people are smart enough to solve their problems WITHOUT ANY HELP FROM the 'gubment'.
I am not going to name any of the Great Society programs because my position is that blacks do not need ANY programs at all. They need to make better life choices. Most of their problems are of their own making. If a woman has multiple children out-of wedlock by multiple men, she's going to be poor but that's HER fault (and the men who got her pregnant) for making bad life choices. I am NOT responsible for her or her children.
This exchange between us is useless because our worldviews are fundamentally different. Clearly you believe in "programs" and I do not.
"If a woman has multiple children out-of wedlock by multiple men, she's going to be poor but that's HER fault (and the men who got her pregnant) for making bad life choices."
ReplyDeleteYOU said that there were all these Great Society programs available to poor folks to relieve their condition, didn't you?
So now it's if they didn't screw everyone in sight and pop out babies every 18 months, they'd have a quality education, a paying job, a decent home and a safe, secure environment in which to live?
And of course that's all po' dumb black folks do, right?
My brotha, you're an idiot.