Trayvon Martin and Black on Black Violence
The killing of Trayvon Martin with impunity and the implicit blessing of the Sanford police department has brought to light some genuine ugliness in the American public in its discussion on race and justice.
Apologists for George Zimmerman invariably bring up the recent St Patrick's Day killings in Chicago as an argument that black folks kill people too. No-one is disputing that. But unless the Chicago PD stood around, looked at all the dead bodies and the guilty with their smoking guns, pulled their thumbs out of their butts, sniffed them then said "Duhhh...okay. Nothing to see here. You can all go..." Then the situations are not nearly the same. The culpability for the crime is not for George Zimmerman alone, but even more for the police department for
1. Not arresting George Zimmerman.
2. Not even subjecting George Zimmerman to a background check, drug/alcohol test.
Even though all of the above were preformed on the dead black kid.
3. Not even bothering to collect evidence. If George Zimmerman was being pummeled, as many sources allege, then he had to have shot Trayvon at point-blank range. He would have been covered in evidence which any REAL law enforcement official would have been obligated to collect, even if there was no culpability for the attack to assign. Either all of the cops involved were as professional as George Zimmerman himself, or they wanted to make the case disappear. It would have been a cover-up, but they were either too sloppy or lazy to manufacture evidence in place of what they failed to collect.
"What about black on black violence?" Zimmerman's apologists respond. "Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are always there when a non-black is accused to killing someone black, but they never have anything to say about black on black crime."
Zimmerman's cheerleaders should not pretend that you give a rat's about the horror of black on black crime. The NRA is wrong. It is politicians who make firearms more plentiful than opportunities in depressed neighborhoods that kill people. It solves a multitude of problems...it shrinks the population of the black, the poor and the dispossessed through sheer attrition of casualties, the survivors who pulled the triggers are culled from their natural environment where they are kept out of harm's way in one of many fine penitentiaries where they are stripped of any future politically representative voice, even if they DO walk as free men and women once more. High body counts and rates of incarceration means less weight of the public dime in public assistance and education. Blacks with guns scare whites and the middle class, upping support for tough on crime legislation which is always a winner for both Conservatives and the gun lobby in particular.Black on black crime is not a social ailment. It is a SOLUTION. Why should the pro-gun lobby and their pet politicians interfere with a policy that has worked so well for them?
Do you REALLY want to get real about black on black crime? Black on black crime is social dysfunction caused by the same policies that Reagan instituted back in the '80s. Bust up the unions, ship out the jobs, replace former union workers with scabs from Mexico in those jobs that can't be exported, gut public assistance to the now swelling ranks of unemployed, and gut public education because the only people who go public schools are those who are going to prison anyway so it's a waste of the tax payer's money [in truth four or five white kids attend public schools for every black child...but let's not confuse the issue with FACTS!]
By the '80s a nice little Crack Epidemic sprouted up like a malignant poisonious mushroom, and why not? No jobs no future no security. But you don't need to have an education to make money. All you need is a supplier and a gun. Don't even need a GED. Besides you're are as likely to be killed by other fools making money or by the cops just by stepping foot out your door, so WHY NOT?
It didn't always used to be this way. (Dave Chappel inside the Actor's Studio, after the 2 minute mark.)
And it doesn't have to be this way. Crack is yesterdays news. The underlying causes are still intact however. Widespread unemployment, anemic public education, a skewed if not broken justice system, a gutted public assistance program.
Now we have houses cars and apartment buildings exploding from numbnuts making meth, which is really hardly a strictly black problem, face it. Why else is anyone not hollering for mandatory minimum sentences for meth cooks and dealers and users? Similar to gun violence, the crime isn't that people USE meth, or crack. The problem is that they honestly view making or selling meth as a viable alternative to ALL the other choices they have to choose from to make their way in the world. It speaks to a wealth of really crappy options. It, along with all the other crimes that involve money goods or property, are the economies of last resort.
You want to DO something about black on black crime? Shut up, pay your taxes, bring back manufacturing from overseas even if it means trade wars to do it, allow tax cuts to job creators ONLY IF all of their factories and customer service is right here in America, roll back Right to Work and other union busting laws, make sure that schools are well funded, and tell the NRA to back off. All of that all by itself will take weight of of the public dime in public assistance and provide more opportunities than those found in drug dealing, prostitution, theft and the moving of stolen merchandise - all of which will lighten the weight on the tax payers for the back-door institutional welfare of incarceration. Further, more legitimate employment means they become tax-payers as well.
But then, I doubt Conservatives REALLY view black on black crime as a problem. It's just nice to talk about because it makes blacks look like savages and that gives them a warm glow inside.
Apologists for George Zimmerman invariably bring up the recent St Patrick's Day killings in Chicago as an argument that black folks kill people too. No-one is disputing that. But unless the Chicago PD stood around, looked at all the dead bodies and the guilty with their smoking guns, pulled their thumbs out of their butts, sniffed them then said "Duhhh...okay. Nothing to see here. You can all go..." Then the situations are not nearly the same. The culpability for the crime is not for George Zimmerman alone, but even more for the police department for
1. Not arresting George Zimmerman.
2. Not even subjecting George Zimmerman to a background check, drug/alcohol test.
Even though all of the above were preformed on the dead black kid.
3. Not even bothering to collect evidence. If George Zimmerman was being pummeled, as many sources allege, then he had to have shot Trayvon at point-blank range. He would have been covered in evidence which any REAL law enforcement official would have been obligated to collect, even if there was no culpability for the attack to assign. Either all of the cops involved were as professional as George Zimmerman himself, or they wanted to make the case disappear. It would have been a cover-up, but they were either too sloppy or lazy to manufacture evidence in place of what they failed to collect.
"What about black on black violence?" Zimmerman's apologists respond. "Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are always there when a non-black is accused to killing someone black, but they never have anything to say about black on black crime."
Zimmerman's cheerleaders should not pretend that you give a rat's about the horror of black on black crime. The NRA is wrong. It is politicians who make firearms more plentiful than opportunities in depressed neighborhoods that kill people. It solves a multitude of problems...it shrinks the population of the black, the poor and the dispossessed through sheer attrition of casualties, the survivors who pulled the triggers are culled from their natural environment where they are kept out of harm's way in one of many fine penitentiaries where they are stripped of any future politically representative voice, even if they DO walk as free men and women once more. High body counts and rates of incarceration means less weight of the public dime in public assistance and education. Blacks with guns scare whites and the middle class, upping support for tough on crime legislation which is always a winner for both Conservatives and the gun lobby in particular.Black on black crime is not a social ailment. It is a SOLUTION. Why should the pro-gun lobby and their pet politicians interfere with a policy that has worked so well for them?
Do you REALLY want to get real about black on black crime? Black on black crime is social dysfunction caused by the same policies that Reagan instituted back in the '80s. Bust up the unions, ship out the jobs, replace former union workers with scabs from Mexico in those jobs that can't be exported, gut public assistance to the now swelling ranks of unemployed, and gut public education because the only people who go public schools are those who are going to prison anyway so it's a waste of the tax payer's money [in truth four or five white kids attend public schools for every black child...but let's not confuse the issue with FACTS!]
By the '80s a nice little Crack Epidemic sprouted up like a malignant poisonious mushroom, and why not? No jobs no future no security. But you don't need to have an education to make money. All you need is a supplier and a gun. Don't even need a GED. Besides you're are as likely to be killed by other fools making money or by the cops just by stepping foot out your door, so WHY NOT?
And it doesn't have to be this way. Crack is yesterdays news. The underlying causes are still intact however. Widespread unemployment, anemic public education, a skewed if not broken justice system, a gutted public assistance program.
Now we have houses cars and apartment buildings exploding from numbnuts making meth, which is really hardly a strictly black problem, face it. Why else is anyone not hollering for mandatory minimum sentences for meth cooks and dealers and users? Similar to gun violence, the crime isn't that people USE meth, or crack. The problem is that they honestly view making or selling meth as a viable alternative to ALL the other choices they have to choose from to make their way in the world. It speaks to a wealth of really crappy options. It, along with all the other crimes that involve money goods or property, are the economies of last resort.
You want to DO something about black on black crime? Shut up, pay your taxes, bring back manufacturing from overseas even if it means trade wars to do it, allow tax cuts to job creators ONLY IF all of their factories and customer service is right here in America, roll back Right to Work and other union busting laws, make sure that schools are well funded, and tell the NRA to back off. All of that all by itself will take weight of of the public dime in public assistance and provide more opportunities than those found in drug dealing, prostitution, theft and the moving of stolen merchandise - all of which will lighten the weight on the tax payers for the back-door institutional welfare of incarceration. Further, more legitimate employment means they become tax-payers as well.
But then, I doubt Conservatives REALLY view black on black crime as a problem. It's just nice to talk about because it makes blacks look like savages and that gives them a warm glow inside.
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