Roving mobs -- they're real and they're not spectacular
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Roving mobs -- they're real and they're not spectacular
Sometimes people -- and when I say people, of course what I really mean is Matt Drudge -- can get over the top about youth violence, especially when there's a racial spin, taking a string of less-than-remarkable episodes that don't have a lot to do wiith each other and making it look like "Days of Rage II.' Indeed, my friends over at Media Matters took Drudge to task today for once again stringing together headlines about racially changed youth incidents, but this one time I have to note that...
a) These incidents -- while perhaps overhyped by Drudge in his usual fashion -- are still all too real.
b) and they're alarming, especially the ones I know the most about, here in Philadelphia. In fact, what I find truly appalling is that a horde of young people assaulting random, innocent people on Spring Garden Street probably wouldn't have even made the news had it not been the case that a current and a former Daily News staffer -- the latter broke her leg in the melee -- were caught up in it. You have to wonder -- how many other incidents like this are taking place that the police aren't bothering to tell us about?
I'll make the same point I've made about urban violence in Philadelphia in the past. Conservatives portray this strictly as a case of personal responsibility, of the perps and the parents who allegedly raised them. Liberals look toward societal causes -- lack of jobs, unequal schools, laws that make it easy to buy guns, etc. For some bizarre reason, this becomes an either/or debate.
But clearly, it's all these things.
Ultimately, people who think it's a good idea to rob and maim innocent people are the ones responsible for their irresponsible and thuggish actions, with -- in the case of the younger perps -- an assist from blase or outright bad parents (like the ones described in this other mob incident, involivng Philly kids in neighboring Upper Darby).
But why is it suddenly worse now? CBS News reported recently that the unemployment rate for kids 16-19 years old is a whopping 24 percent, while as recently as 2000 is was just 13 percent. Aren't you less likely to take part in a mob when you're busy flipping burgers or valet-parking cars in Center City, and why aren't policy makers taking aim at youth unemployment? So school's out, no one has a job but everyone has a cell phone and a Twitter or Facebook account, meaning dozens of bored teenagers can come together in a matter of minutes? That's a recipe for disaster.
It certainly was for Emily Guendelsberger, the fomer DN copy editor. now Philadelphia editor of The Onion's entertainment guide called the AV Club. She's in the hospital with that broken leg (get well soon) and you can follow her tweets about bad hospital breakfasts and morphine here. In fact, you can help Emily get well. You can donate money to pay for her medical care.
Why? Well, it turns out that The Onion/AV Club hired her as "a contractor," a fancy way of saying they don't provide health insurance. You know...that's the kind of 2011 corporate America bull(bleep) I've counted on The Onion to make fun of, not perpetrate. Their campaign to win a Pulitzer Prize just got a lot less funnier -- shame on them.
Nutter just raised property taxes so Arlene has more money to educate these wayward souls. All is well.— RG- This weekend has created an almost palpable change in the Editorial rooms at PNI. Why? Two of their own were caught up in the violence. How out of touch are these people trying to sway opinion? Or how unfeeling? as long as they dont personally know people caught up in the violence, it's business as usual.— tr88
Comment removed.- National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=1743
between 2001 and 2003, blacks were 39 times more likely to commit violent crimes
against whites than the reverse, and 136 times more likely to commit robbery.
There were an average of 15,400 black-on-white rapes every year during this period, 139,000 robberies, 489,000 assaults, and 12,762 sexual assaults. By contrast, there were only 900 “white”-on-black rapes every year, 7,600 robberies, 101,000 assaults, and 3,217 sexual assaults. Of all 768,879 violent interracial crimes involving blacks and whites, blacks committed 85 percent and “whites” 15 percent.
What about interracial murder? The Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR) include the race of the victim and offender, and make it possible to calculate rates of interracial murder. In 2002, blacks were 16 times more likely to murder W&H than the
reverse. SHR statistics from 1976 to 2002 tell us blacks murdered 26,727 W&H during those 26 years, and W&H murdered 10,207 blacks, making the black-on-W&H murder rate 17 times that of the W&H-on-black murder rate.
“whites” commit only a small percentage of their violent crimes against
blacks—only one percent of rapes and three percent of all violent crimes. Since blacks make up 13 percent of the population, this is well below the rate
expected by chance encounter. Furthermore, Figure 22 shows that blacks commit a substantial percentage of all crimes committed against whites—17
percent of all violent crimes against whites, and 45 percent of robberies.
www.amren.com
— makucin - Blaming unemployment is just another attempt to dehumanize the causes of inner-city crime. And blaming a lack of morality is an oversimplification.
We're talking about actual medical pathology, as childhood trauma, both physical and relational (i.e. abandonment) have been shown to have a profound effect on the development of empathy. This is probably childhood and adolescent Conduct Disorder, which, untreated, usually leads to a violent, crime-laden adulthood (with substance abuse and mood disorders as the door prize).
How do you fix the culmination of four generations of physically and emotionally unavailable parents? Behavioral therapy rather than incarceration? Nah. End the drug war and reform entitlements? That's crazy talk. More jobs at the car wash? Now you're talkin'!— UncleCH - Atkins..you are twisted. Obama is a half white geek who was raised in Hawaii and Indonesia. He is not and was never a poor inner city black male (which also happens to be why a chunk of the black community keeps him at arms length). Just because his skin is darker than yours doesn't make him a violent street thug. Look, we are all a little racist (blacks and whites alike), but you are an ignorant, racist clown with no urge to learn or understand anything other than your little reality.— Barry O
- These solutions will not come quickly if at all to the lost generations. The assault by the professional left on personal responsibility and parenting goes back decades. Remember how they attacked Dan Quayle, yes, "stupid" Dan Quayle who cant even spell potato - (amazing how many republicans going back to Eisenhower have been branded "stupid"_, Saul Alinsky-inspired DNC playbook student body right, demonize and define your opponent)For those of you who dont remember, Quayle was excoriated for being anti single-mom 30 years ago for questioning the wisdom of "Murphy Brown" for a glowing advocacy of single motherhood in her TC program and the professional left attacked Qualye mercilessly. Now is it possible for a child to be raise successfully by one parent? No doubt. But probbaly in 9 out of 10 cases, it's destructive. The people who are responsible for advocating society's failures have won, destructive pathology has successfully been drummed into the fabric of society and is today's conventional "wisdom". And amazingly, conventionalize wisdom is usually wrong. Turns out Quayle was right, but what does it matter, the shattered pieces are all over the floor of the inner city.— tr88
- A much more eloquent rendition of the point I was trying to make, and I agree wholeheartedly.
Except Dan Quayle was probably actually stupid. Other than that, spot on.— UncleCH - these are hate crimes, when will they be acknowledged as such?— main liner
- Never main liner. Never, and they shouldn't be. Hate crime legislation is ridiculous. A crime is a crime regardless of the motivation.
Hate crime laws provide special protections based on someone's religion, race, sexual orientation, disability, etc. Where is the special protection for victims who can't run fast away from the threat? Where is the special protection for those who are targeted simply because they are affluent and own what the perpetrator wants? Where is the special protection for someone who is smaller and can't adequetely defend themself?
There aren't any, and that's unfair and unconstitutional.— oot - http://www.scribd.com/full/45641922?access_key=key-1hjnk9vx8y6t7jo2ns21
It is widely believed that
blacks are generally victims rather than perpetra-
tors of hate crimes, but they are actually more likely
than Whites&Hispanics to be offenders. On the basis of offense
rates—number of offenses divided by population—
blacks were 82 percent more likely than W&H to
commit hate crimes of all kinds, including those
based on religion, disability, etc.
Blacks were also considerably more likely to
commit crimes of racial bias against W&H than the
other way around; any given black person was 2.25
times more likely to commit a hate crime against
W&H than the reverse.
The government’s treatment of hate crimes is
misleading in one obvious way: Hispanics are a vic-
tim category but not a perpetrator category. If some-
one attacks a Mexican for racial reasons, he becomes
a Hispanic victim of a hate crime. However, if the
same Mexican commits a hate crime against a black,
he is classified as a “white” perpetrator. Even morabsurdly, if a Mexican commits a hate crime against
a white, both victim and perpetrator are reported as
white. And, in fact, the 2002 FBI figures—the most
recent available—duly report that 130 so-called
whites committed anti-white hate crimes. They are
likely to have been Hispanics...
www.amren.com
— makucin - Wow, shoot the messenger (Drudge). Why isn't the local newspaper doing its job and alerting citizens to these dangers - because they are being too PC! You would rather censor the truth of these problems and their racial undertones. People aren't stupid, but it appears the local reporters are.— NOBO
- They arent being too PC. It's their side vs the evil republicans. They cant admit their responsibility for the policies they've advocated and the enemies they've demonized for 40 years. They need the huge pluralities they get from the monolithic inner-city vote in return for the trillions in hush money and the jobs created in the race hustling industry. And above all, they need to maintain control. So what if the people they've "convinced" only they can help have lost their souls, the DNC machine needs to march on, there is political power to be had. — tr88
- What's sad is that many of you here are trying to apply some sort of logic to madness......liberals vs conservatives, blacks vs white offenders, averages, percentages, unemployment, domestic abuse...what next? Breast feed vs Powdered Formula? Stop regurgitating your textbook theories. Are you kidding me? As if your ideals will save the world. A smart man once said.."the success of ones state rests upon the morality of its members." So...we don't inhabit some Utopian state. You might get attacked while sharing micro-beers with an old chum. Dialogue won't save you. Action will. Treat an "animal" like it should be treated. Don't worry, the 2nd Amendment and a license to carry will protect you.— Tragic
- This comment has been deleted.— dallas68
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