Saturday, November 30, 2013

USA Today Invokes Trayvon Martin in Decrying Racial Profiling of Black NFL Players

It was a joke, right?

The newsstand contained only one copy of the USA Today, but it was only this one copy necessary to induce a quizzical look from me.
National Felon League... all because of profiling, right?

The perfect front-page headline for "Black Friday," but it still seemed a joke.

It wasn't. [Black NFL players arrested nearly 10 times as often as whites, USA Today, 11-29-13]:
A police officer in Cincinnati watched a large black man get into his car and turn on the engine after being told it was illegally parked.
The officer thought the man was trying to avoid a parking ticket and told him to stop. So the man — Matthias Askew, at the time an NFL player — stopped his Cadillac Escalade, got out and was arrested in a scuffle with several officers. Police used a stun gun on Askew four times, alleging he resisted arrest.
A judge rejected the police account and cleared Askew of all charges.
"They tased him simply because he was a big black man, not because he did anything to make them fear for their safety," Askew's former attorney, Ken Lawson, told USA TODAY Sports about the 2006 incident.
For many black players in the NFL, it's a familiar scene. Of 687 NFL player arrests since January 2000, Askew's was one of 294 that came in a traffic stop, according to a USA TODAY Sports investigation. In a league in which 66% of the players are black and 31% are white, black players were arrested nearly 10 times as often as white players (260 to 28), accounting for 88% of those NFL traffic-stop arrests.
That percentage is consistent with the overall NFL arrest numbers: Of the 687 total player arrests in the USA TODAY Sports database that spans 14 seasons, 607 involved black players — 88%, a disproportionate rate sociologists attribute to several social factors in the black population at large, including a disproportionate rate of poverty and single-parent backgrounds. Those factors also include profiling, civil rights experts and NFL players say.

"We get looked at a lot more than the average Joe Blow because of what kind of car we drive or how we look," said Washington Redskins wide receiver Santana Moss, who was not one of the arrestees. "You see a young, black kid in a nice ride, and chances are he's an athlete. Sometimes you get labeled."
It's not just an NFL issue. The national debate erupted anew this year with the Trayvon Martin case in Florida and the stop-and-frisk police policy in New York City.

The overall numbers on traffic stops continue to show differences along racial lines: A study released this year by the Justice Department showed a higher percentage of black drivers (13%) than white drivers (10%) reported their most recent contact with police came from being pulled over in a traffic stop. In a similar survey released in 2011, a greater percentage of black drivers (4.7%) than white drivers (2.4%) were arrested during a traffic stop.
A forgotten classic from 1998
The challenge with racial profiling is that whites and blacks generally perceive the issue much differently because white people have not experienced it, said Cyrus Mehri, a Washington, D.C., attorney who has studied racial stereotypes and worked on big race and gender cases.
"It's very, very painful to the African-American community, and the white community is not fully sensitized to how big of an issue this is," Mehri said. "The best thing we can do as a country is to talk about it and deal with it than to sweep it under the rug."
Police advocates argue that profiling is not the reason players get stopped and arrested. Rich Roberts, a spokesman for the International Union of Police Associations, says when police decide to pull over a motorist they often can't see the skin color of the vehicle's occupants. He also says the decision to make a stop comes down to a simple question that does not involve race: Did the driver violate traffic laws or give police a reasonable suspicion to stop the car?
"Racial profiling is bad police work," Roberts said. "Situational profiling is good police work."
The American Civil Liberties Union defines racial profiling as "law enforcement and private security practices that disproportionately target people of color for investigation and enforcement."
"It's safe to say that goes on," Tennessee Titans wide receiver Kenny Britt said. "Because people are human, and it is not just policemen. You can't just say it's cops. But they make their own judgments, and some of them use their power. ... It definitely makes you leery about where you go and who is watching for you. "
Britt has been arrested or faced charges in four traffic stops since 2010 — two for license issues, one drunken-driving case and one case of eluding police. He paid fines in two of those cases, was acquitted of the DUI charge and saw one license case get dismissed. Two of those incidents were in his home state of New Jersey, where the state police were embroiled in a scandal in the 1990s that resulted in authorities agreeing to a consent decree that expressly barred racial profiling in traffic stops. The decree was dissolved in 2009.
"I don't bring ... my (expensive) cars to New Jersey anymore," Britt said.

Reason for stop
To civil rights activists, another question should be asked first: Did the officer have reasonable suspicion to make the stop? If he didn't, they point out, there should be no questioning of the motorist and no search of the car without probable cause.
Mehri, the attorney, says racial profiling and guilt are not mutually exclusive — both can happen in the same incident and in the same pool of arrests.
Mehri says he thinks two factors are affecting the traffic-stop arrest rate for black NFL players. First, he says, an officer might see a situation he thinks is out of place — a young black man in an expensive car. Secondly, Mehri says some white officers might harbor prejudice against young black athletes. "There's no doubt in my mind these NFL players are being subjected to some level of discrimination," he said.
The USA TODAY Sports investigation found other differences in how authorities handled black players vs. white players during traffic stops:
About 6% of traffic-stop arrests for black players resulted only from charges related to their driver's license, such as driving with a suspended license. The records showed no white players arrested on such license charges.
Black players were pulled over at least 13 times for playing music too loud or having window tint that was too dark. By contrast, USA TODAY Sports found no examples of white players stopped for those offenses during the period studied.
Critics rejected the law enforcement claim that window tint prevents officers from knowing the race of a car's occupants.
"To heck with the window tint, all they (officers) have to do is put a license plate in a computer and they know exactly who it is," said Harry Edwards, a sociologist and consultant to the San Francisco 49ers.
Rarely were white players arrested on charges that resulted from a search of the vehicle. Twenty-three of their 28 traffic-stop arrests, 82%, were because of suspected intoxicated driving. For black players, 56% of traffic-stop arrests were because of suspected drunken or reckless driving. Another 26% were arrested or cited mainly because of alleged gun or drug possession, often discovered in a car search.
 Why do laws, devised by evil white men, even apply to black people? Especially black NFL players?

We live in a age where the criminal is the individual (or group) the media, academia, and the ruling elite automatically align - and sympathize - with, believing some malicious, shadowy white supremacist organization is still calling the shots from some hidden bunker.

Such is not the case.

Alas, without sports, it's hard to imagine where positive images of black males would manifest, outside of television programming and movies. Thus, it's no curiosity why the USA Today did not reach out to Jeff Benedict, who (with Don Yaeger) wrote Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL.  Published in 1998, the best chapter of Benedict's work is titled, The Elephant in the Room.

It's this chapter that Brent Schrotenboer (who wrote the cover story on the NFL black players arrest rates for USA Today) should have consulted:
The Race Card. 
As Johnnie Cochran so dramatically proved, it can trump DNA evidence, outpoint any statistics, or be used to bluff any jury. It is the card that can make businesses, politicians, researchers, and even journalists fold when it is pulled. So daunting are the race card's consequences that the mere threat of its use can make important subjects seemingly disappear from our collective radar screens. 
Why, then, should it be a surprise when the NFL, faced with mounting criticism of its players' off-the-field conduct, reaches for the bottom of the deck and plays the race card? (p. 165)

To examine this issue from a statistical standpoint, it is first necessary to look at the racial composition of the NFL. Over the past three season (from 1996 to 1998) the percentage of the players in the league who are black has ranged between 67 percent and 71 percent. Of the 509 players whose criminal histories were researched by the authors, 79 percent of them were black, 18 percent were white, 2 percent were of other races, and 1 percent of the players were unidentifiable in terms of racial composition due to the incompleteness of the public record. 
The research revealed that of the 109 players who were found to have a serious criminal history, 96 (or 88 percent ) were black, 8 percent (7 percent) were white, 2 (nearly 2 percent) were of other races, 3 were unknown. The tendency here is to want to focus exclusively on the glaring discrepancy between the percentage of black players who had a record and white players who had a record. Without considering other factors, this produces very misleading conclusions. 

For example, while blacks represented 88 percent of the players who had been arrested, they also compromised 72 percent of the survey population. The authors turned their findings over to Professor Blumstein and asked him to compare arrest rates for black players in the NFL to black males in the general population. Based solely on racial comparisons (in other words, no account was taken here for income, education obtained, background, and so forth), Blumstein determined that blacks in the NFL are arrested at rates lower than black males in general population.

More important, since 38 of the 509 players in the survey were black and only ninety-six of the black players were charged with a serious crime, that indicated that the vast majority of black players were found not to have a criminal record. Put another way, the majority of the law-abiding citizens in the league are black, a point of paramount importance that seldom if ever gets emphasized. 

The bottom line here is that there is no basis for framing the issue surrounding criminals in the NFL as a race issue. It is a crime issue. NFL players who are committing crimes are not being singled out because they are black, but rather simply because they are criminals. If the NFL were truly concerned about cutting down negative racial stereotyping in this area, it would simply rid itself of criminal players. This would not only cut down on the misleading images that get promoted through the media, but it would largely do away with the league's public relations problems associated with criminal conduct. (p. 168 - 169)
But remember: anything that disproportionately harms black people (though almost all of the harm is because of individual choices by black people that aggregate to showcase an undeniable dysfunction among this racial group) is an obvious result of this shadowy, malicious white supremacist group, calling shots from some destination located in parts unknown.

The NFL should lose its non-profit status immediately.

Friday, November 29, 2013

Gun Confiscation in New York City? A City Where, since 2008, 97 percent or more of Gun-Crime Has Been By Non-Whites?

 Gun confiscation?
Why is this alarming? These same statistics are confirmed as a yearly fact (SBPDL analyzed the Crime and Enforcement Activity Report in New York City from 2008-2012)

What, that stuff is made in New York City! [The Gun Confiscation Notice an NYC Resident Reportedly Received Will Likely Send Chills Down Your Spine, The Blaze, 11-28-13]:
New York City has reportedly started sending out confiscation notices ordering gun owners to “immediately surrender” rifles and/or shotguns capable of holding more than five rounds of ammunition. It is illegal to possess a rifle or shotgun with the capacity to hold more than five rounds in the city, according to NYC Administrative Code 10-306 (b).
An alleged notice sent to an NYC resident, dated Nov. 18, offers the gun owner the following options:
1. Immediately surrender your Rifle and/or Shotgun to your local police precinct, and notify this office of the invoice number. The firearm may be sold or permanently removed from the City of New York thereafter.
2. Permanently remove your Rifle and/or Shotgun from New York City…
[…]
3. You may call to discuss the matter if you believe your firearm is in compliance, or you may request the option to bring your firearm to a licensed gunsmith for a permanent modification and certification proving that it is permanently modified and in compliance.
 Why might the New York City Police Department be issuing notices declaring they plan to confiscate privately owned (legally-owned) weapons?

Black people. [NYPD stats: 70% of shooting suspects in first half of 2013 were black: Data collected during the first six months of the year also reveal that 74% of the city's shooting victims were black, and an additional 21.5% were Hispanic. NYPD top cop Raymond Kelly has used similar numbers to justify stop-and-frisk, while black community activists say the frustrating statistics reflect the stark reality of economics in poorer neighborhoods., New York Daily News, 11-19-2013]:
If you're black, you are almost 25 times more likely to be shot in New York City than a white person — and you are also more likely to be arrested for pulling a trigger, alarming new NYPD statistics show.
Data collected during the first six months of the year reveal 74% of the city’s 567 shooting victims were black. An additional 21.5% were Hispanic. Less than 3% of shooting victims were white, according to the report.

Blacks also accounted for the majority — about 70% — of the 222 people arrested for shooting someone during the first half of 2013, according to the NYPD’s Crime and Enforcement Activity report.
Black community activists said the frustrating statistics, which have barely fluctuated since 2009, tell the stark stories of economics in poorer neighborhoods and the NYPD’s laser-like focus on communities of color.

“It’s all a battle between the haves and the have-nots,” said Tony Herbert, president of the National Action Network’s Brooklyn East Chapter. “In the end, it’s survival of the fittest, and there are some who want to bring weapons into the mix. That’s what it comes down to.”
Alarming?

The gun-crime statistics (fatal and non-fatal shootings) in New York City would be alarming if they weren't replicated in cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark, Camden, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Memphis.

Oh, and New Orleans, Indianapolis, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Birmingham, Charleston (South Carolina), Tulsa, and Lincoln, Nebraska.

 Our friends at the New York City Police Department put out a yearly guide to homicide and non-fatal shootings in the city (Crime and Enforcement Activity in New York City), which should provide sufficient information into just which racial demographic needs to be disarmed in the city.

Let's start with 2008:
Shootings 
Shooting victims are most frequently Black (75.8%) or Hispanic (20.6%). 
Whitevictims account for an additional 2.2% of all Shooting victims while Asian/Pacific Islandersvictims account for less than 1.4% of all Shooting Victims. 
The race/ethnicity of known Shooting suspects is most frequently Black (78.3%).
Hispanic suspects accounted for an additional 19.9% of all suspects. White suspects (1.3%) accounted for the remaining significant portionof suspects while Asian/Pacific Islander suspects accounted for less than 0.5% of the known Shooting suspects. 
The Shooting arrest population is similarly distributed. 
Black arrestees (73.5%) and Hispanic arrestees (24.1%) account for the majority of Shooting arrest population. White arrestees account for the remaining 1.7% of the Shooting arrest population.
 How about 2009?:
Shootings
Shooting victims are most frequently Black (72.8%) or Hispanic (23.0%). White victims account for an additional (3.1%) of all Shooting victims while Asian/Pacific Islanders victims account for (0.9%) of all Shooting Victims. 
The race/ethnicity of known Shooting suspects is most frequently Black (79.8%). 
Hispanic suspects accounted for an additional (18.3%) of all suspects. White suspects (1.4%) accounted for the remaining significant portion of suspects while Asian/Pacific Islander suspects accounted for (0.4%) of the known Shooting suspects. 
The Shooting arrest population is similarly distributed. Black arrestees (74.3%) and Hispanic arrestees 
(23.6%) account for the majority of Shooting arrest population. White arrestees (1.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (0.4%) account for the remaining portion of the Shooting arrest population.
Hmmm... not too alarming, are these statistics? A pattern has emerged, for those gifted with an eye for discernment.

What about 2010?:
Shootings 
Shooting victims are most frequently Black (73.7%) or Hispanic (22.3%). White victims account for an additional (2.6%) of all Shooting victims while Asian/Pacific Islanders victims account for (1.1%) of all Shooting Victims. 
The race/ethnicity of known Shooting suspects is most frequently Black (74.2%). Hispanic suspects accounted for an additional (23.3%) of all suspects. 
White suspects (1.4%) accounted for the remaining significant portion of suspects while Asian/Pacific Islander suspects accounted for (1.2%) of the known Shooting suspects. 
The Shooting arrest population is similarly distributed. 
Black arrestees (69.2%) and Hispanic arrestees (26.3%) account for the majority of Shooting arrest population. White arrestees (2.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.5%) account for the remaining portion of the Shooting arrest population.
Wait a second... an alarming pattern is emerging: white people commit virtually no gun crime in New York City! What about 2011?:
Shootings 
Shooting victims are most frequently Black (74.3%) or Hispanic (21.7%). White victims account for an additional (2.6%) of all Shooting victims while Asian/Pacific Islanders victims account for (1.4%) of all Shooting Victims. 
The race/ethnicity of known Shooting suspects is most frequently Black (72.5%). Hispanic suspects accounted for an additional (23.9%) of all suspects. 
White suspects (2.5%) accounted for the remaining significant portion of suspects while Asian/Pacific Islander suspects accounted for (1.1%) of the known Shooting suspects. 
The Shooting arrest population is similarly distributed. 
Black arrestees (67.1%) and Hispanic arrestees (27.9%) account for the majority of Shooting arrest population. White arrestees (3.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.7%) account for the remaining portion of the Shooting arrest population. 
 
 Was 2012 any different? Did white people buck the trend? Nope:
Shootings 
Shooting victims are most frequently Black (74.1%) or Hispanic (22.2%). White victims account for an additional (2.8%) of all Shooting victims while Asian/Pacific Islanders victims account for (0.8%) of all Shooting Victims. 
The race/ethnicity of known Shooting suspects is most frequently Black (78.2%). Hispanic suspects accounted for an additional (18.9%) of all suspects. White suspects (2.4%) accounted for the remaining significant portion of suspects while Asian/Pacific Islander suspects accounted for (0.5%) of the known Shooting suspects. 
The Shooting arrest population is similarly distributed. Black arrestees (75.0%) and Hispanic arrestees (22.0%) account for the majority of Shooting arrest population. 
White arrestees (2.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (0.6%) account for the remaining portion of the Shooting arrest population.
 So, 1.3 percent (2008);1.4 percent (2009); 1.4 (2010); 2.5 (2011); and 2.4 (2012) of the arrested suspects in shootings (defined as any crime where victim struck with bullet) in New York City were white. 

For blacks during that same time, it was 78.3 percent (2008);79.8 percent (2009); 74.2 (2010); 72.5 (2011); and 78.2 (2012) of the arrested suspects in shootings.
 
For Hispanics during that same time, it was 18.3 percent (2008);19.9 percent (2009); 23.3 (2010); 23.9 (2011); and 18.9 (2012) of the arrested suspects in shootings. 

What is alarming is that law-abiding white people will see their guns confiscated; guns used by law-abiding white people to protect their property and families in New York City from black and brown people.
 
Oh, and of 8.3 million people, New York City is 33.3 percent white, 28.6 percent Hispanic, and 25.5 percent black. 

And suspects in gun crimes (since 2008) are almost exclusively non-white.

If you disarm non-whites in New York City and actively prosecute - meaning, the state executes - those who have illegal guns, there would be virtually no gun crime in the Big Apple. 

That is the alarming fact.

Thursday, November 28, 2013

GunCrisis.org won't save 'Kila-delphia'; Addressing the Black Crisis in Philadelphia Will



You have to love the Philadelphia Inquirer. It has broken down homicide in the city in an easily accessible online database, allowing the reader to break down murder in the city between 1988-2012 by date, race, age, sex, and weapon used. [Homicides in Philadelphia, Philly.com]:
Since 1988, over 9,000 people have been slain on the streets of Philadelphia, affecting every neighborhood in the city. To put that deadly toll in perspective, during the length of U.S. combat operations in the Iraq war, 3,517 American troops were killed in action - and 3,113 people were killed in Philadelphia.




From the Philadelphia Inquirer: A map detailing where homicides took place between 1988-2012 
So, 9,325 homicides from 1988-2012, with 7,303 of these victims being black. But this is nothing new:


Areport titled “Murder Is No Mystery: An Analysis of Philadelphia Homicide, 1996-1999,” which was released in 2001 and provocatively asked:
If this went on in your own neighborhood, would you stay? Would you go out at night? Would you consider leaving the neighborhood, or even the city, if you could? Of course you would.

In the late 1990s, blacks were 43 percent of Philadelphia’s population and 76 percent of the alleged murderers . Whites were 52 percent of the population but just 5 percent of alleged murderers.

Historically, racial disparities in crime are not simply products of the 1960s. In 1950, Philadelphia was predominantly white, with blacks comprising roughly 20 percent of the population. Even then, disproportionate levels of criminal offending existed. “Patterns in Criminal Homicide,” written by renowned criminologist Marvin Wolfgang, was hailed as the most thorough study of homicide at the time. Wolfgang studied every homicide in Philadelphia between 1948 and 1952, and concluded that many were caused by trivial insults and petty arguments (162).
 
Wolfgang showed that the white murder rate in Philadelphia between 1948 and 1952 was 1.8 per 100,000 people, while the black rate was 25.6, or 14 times the white rate. By the mid-1970s, the white murder rate increased to 2.8 per 100,000. The black murder rate, meanwhile, increased to 64.2, 23 times the white rate.



That same Philadelphia Inquirer map: 78 percent of homicide victims have been black between 1978-2012 (1,501 have been white)


Philadelphia doesn't have a gun-crisis; it has a black crisis.[Shaking up 'Kila-delphia' with cameras, CNN.com, 8-9-2012]:

Joe Kaczmarek's police scanner pops to life with chatter just before midnight.
Moments later, "Kaz," as he's known, is rushing to the scene of a robbery near the Temple University campus alongside fellow veteran photojournalist Jim MacMillan.
By the time they arrive, the 20-year-old robbery victim has been taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the back.
Kaz snatches two cameras from the back seat of his car and jumps into the street. He is roving around the crime tape like a caged lion, snapping photographs as police take away two men in handcuffs.
Standing nearby, MacMillan thumbs away at his smartphone, updating Twitter: "On shooting scene at 17 & C.B.Moore in North Philadelphia now."
Kaz and MacMillan co-founded GunCrisis.org to help curb gun violence plaguing what is supposed to be the City of Brotherly Love.
"I want to put the audience out there in the streets," Kaz said. "I want them to see what I'm seeing every night in this city: The children watching crime scene investigations night after night, day after day. Anything to disrupt this, marginally disrupt this, we consider a success."
Philadelphia had 324 homicides last year. Arguments are the leading motive for murder, and blacks make up 85% of the homicide victims, according to police data.
Blaming a weak economy, a crumbling public school system and dysfunctional family units, Chuck Williams, director of the Center for the Prevention of School-Aged Violence at Drexel University, said residents are desperate and come from a culture where they learn the way to handle an argument is with a gun.
"This is a people problem, not a government problem," said Williams, a Drexel education professor who works with educators and youth to prevent school fights, shootings and cyberbullying. "I see so much hopelessness and despair. A broken child comes from a broken home, with few exceptions."
The Knockout Game is bad in Philly; the black gun-crime is even worse. Let's start addressing that, if we are to see Philadelphia move toward a different future than that of 2013 Detroit. 

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Myth Busters Time: White St. Louis Native Matt Quain, a victim of the 'mythical' Knockout Game

There is no ‘knockout game.’

Slate has spoken. [I Was a Victim of the Fake "Knockout Game" Trend, Slate.com, 11-25-13]
Matt Quain: Back in 2011, the mythical black 'knockout game' struck in St. Louis

There is no ‘knockout game’ attacks, where a white individual is attacked by either a black individual or a gang of black people (many times labeled teens or youths in news stories).

Slate has spoken, twice. [Sorry, Right-Wing Media: The "Knockout Game" TrendIs a Myth, Slate.com, 11-25-13]

The panic by those daring to notice black people are attacking white people is the real threat.
Think Progress has spoken. [Media Feeding Panic Over The So-Called ‘Knockout Game’ That Might Not Even Exist, ThinkProgress.com, 11-25-13]
Police, completely dominated throughout their ranks by those professing loyalty to Black-Run America (BRA), understand the idea of the ‘knockout game’ is an urban myth.
Using the combined reporting of the previously cited articles, a black reporter from “the nations newspaper” assures us no such as an epidemic of ‘knockout game’ plagues the nation.
So say it three times, loud and proud (if you want to, click your heels together and throw confetti in the air too!): there is no ‘knockout game’.
There is no ‘knockout game’.
There is no… wait, what?
Of course the game exists!
Back in late 2011, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorialized on the subject, noting the attacks on white people – and Asians - by gangs of black people (“the blacks,” right Donald Trump?) was just “the spirit of the times,” comparing the game to a foreclosure on a mortgage or the lack of universal healthcare. [Editorial: The 'knockout game' and the spirit of the times, 11-1-11]:
It's hard to judge how bad a problem the so-called "knockout game"
really is. But because it has resulted in the death of 72-year-old man, left at least a half a dozen other people injured and reinforced fears about the safety of city neighborhoods, it's bad enough.

Roving bands of teenagers slugging people just for the hell of it? That takes us into "A Clockwork Orange" territory.
Then you've got the city's mayor and his police bodyguard happening upon one victim lying on a sidewalk outside a public library branch and the mayor suggesting that 13- and 14-year-old kids arrested for the crime be charged as adults.

You've got a police captain talking about a "trend of sub-human behavior [that] defies predictive analysis because the attacks happen in different places, on different days and at different times."
In the last 15 months, police said, seven such attacks have taken place in neighborhoods around Tower Grove Park and South Grand. There were incidents in 2006 and 2007 in Carr Square and Dutchtown. There may well have been other assaults not tagged as "knockout" incidents or that went unreported.
Predictably, some people who work with young people point to a lack of recreational opportunities and quality education programs. Mayor Francis Slay, who rolled up on one victim on Oct. 21 just in time to see his attackers saunter away, is enraged at the thought.
"You can provide all the recreational programs and quality educational programs every day," he said, "but ultimately each and every individual has a personal responsibility to respect each other and saying they're bored is not an excuse, it's a cop-out, and that's a problem in and of itself."
Reporter Denise Hollinshed of the Post-Dispatch talked to some kids outside of Roosevelt High School, one of whom acknowledged that he'd taken part in the "knockout king" game.
"Knockout king is a thrill," the kid told her. "It makes you want to keep doing it every day."
Sure, the kid said, he knew he could hurt somebody. But he added, "You don't know them, so why care about hurting them?"
That's a chilling statement. It reflects an almost sociopathic lack of empathy.
On the other hand, the more you think about it, it perfectly captures today's zeitgeist, the spirit of the times.

The above editorial was from November 1, 2011.  Two years later, the major news organs protecting (and charged with promoting) the concept of Black-Run America act as if the game is still in Loch Ness Monster territory. Perhaps it’s time to hire those two white guys from the Discovery Channel’s popular MythBusters program to walk those mean streets of black St. Louis, where life is valued about as much as the latest version of Nike’s Air Jordan is worth.
Remember: any community that has to “march” for peace is one that will spawn a generation of individuals who have no problem attacking white individuals [Black marchers protest St. Louis crime, violence, USA Today, 6-1-2008]:
Black ministers, businessmen and community leaders have been working since February on a plan dubbed "Call to Oneness" to reduce crime and violence and resurrect struggling neighborhoods in St. Louis.
They have called it nothing short of a "state of emergency" that demands immediate attention.
"It's really awesome to see the black community come together for a peaceful purpose," said Shannon Malone, 27, of suburban University City as she held her toddler. "There's an urgency to stop all these homicides."
As the march neared Tandy Park, where organizers challenged the crowd to be accountable to one another, 56-year-old retired carpenter James Bailey said the solution is simple.
"We need to show young people we have to learn to love one another," he said. "We need more community activities. We need to take back our society as men. And we need to pray a little more for one another. There's only one race, the human race."
Funny: those black participants in the march against violence from 2006 were merely protesting their own community, for St. Louis’ crime and violence problem is an exclusively black problem. What is life like in a homogeneous black community in St. Louis, where many of these “knockout game” participants have their roots [In Places Like North St. Louis, Gunfire Still Rules the Night, New York Times, 11-19-2013]:
The unmistakable pop of a gunshot ricocheted through the park in the humid air, and Montez Wayne could only hope that the bullet did not have his name on it. He sprang from his seat beneath a sprawling bald cypress, ready to make his move.
Was today the day?
He had seen it play out too many times before: the blast of gunfire, the blood, the body. In Mr. Wayne’s neighborhood and others on the North Side of St. Louis, drugs, poverty and struggle go hand in hand with gun violence. He barely knows his father. His mother died when he was 14, around the time he started selling drugs. His list of dead friends grows each year.
Mr. Wayne lives in a poor, mostly black community, where, as in similar neighborhoods across America, residents are fed up with persistent gun violence. Victims die one by one, or in clusters. In Chicago, 23 people were shot in a matter of hours in September, 13 of them in a park in a gang-related attack. Three died.
Some communities have begun their own initiatives. The 21st Ward was the first to install street surveillance cameras, spending $600,000 out of the ward’s capital improvement budget on 25 of them. A 46-inch flat-screen television in a community center shows footage from every camera, but no one currently monitors them full time. Shortly after they went up two years ago, one camera caught a drive-by shooting. The police caught the assailants a short time later, said Antonio French, the ward’s alderman.
Guns don't kill people, dangerous minorities do in St. Louis (map courtesy of the New York Times)

George Orwell may have written 1984 to describe the horrors of a total surveillance society, but Big Brother technology is needed to document the horrific life black individuals create in their communities. 
Only such a community as this could birth the Knockout Game. [Knockout King: Kids call it a game. Academics call it a bogus trend. Cops call it murder., RiverFrontTimes.com, 6-9-2011]:
City officials have begun to recognize the problem. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce acknowledges the existence of Knockout King, based on admissions by five defendants. Most of those defendants were charged with misdemeanor assaults, Joyce says. One incident transpired in Tower Grove Park, another in Carondelet. A third involved a kid riding a skateboard who attacked a woman in the Central West End. "He just blindsided her," says Joyce. "She was seriously injured."
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, too, knows of the violent ritual. "The 'knockout game' is played by a group of kids who, as outrageous as it sounds, go around with the goal of knocking people out, for apparently no reason," says Chief Daniel Isom. The department came to that determination about a year ago, says Isom, who adds that he doesn't consider the violent activity to be widespread. "Based on our intelligence, we believe it's an isolated group of maybe five to nine kids," he says.
Local teens say it's far more popular than that.
"I'd say maybe ten to fifteen percent of kids play Knockout King," says Aaron Davis, who's eighteen and lives in south city, adding that he never took part. "It's not a whole school, but it's a nice percentage."
Some former participants maintain Davis' estimate is too low.
"Everybody plays," says eighteen-year-old Brandon Demond, a former participant who provided only his first and middle names for publication.
"It's a game for groups of teens to see who can hit a person the hardest," explains Brandon, who's standing with a group of friends on Grand Boulevard as a police officer listens nearby. "It's a bunch of stupid-ass little dudes in a group, like we are now. See this dude walkin' up behind me?" — Brandon gestures to a longhaired man walking toward him on the sidewalk — "we could just knock him out right now."

Much of the city's violent crime is associated with rougher pockets of north city; for example, 111 of the 144 homicides in the city last year — roughly 77 percent — occurred north of Delmar Boulevard. But Knockout King goes on more frequently in south city, as well as in other neighborhoods that see heavy foot traffic, such as downtown and the Delmar Loop.
But Slate.com, Think Progress, the New York Times, and the USA Today are correct in claiming the Knockout Game is just a figment of the imagination of neo-racists. It’s a myth, plain and simple.
 Right? [Teen claims to have knocked out more than 300 people in 'game', KMOV.com CBS St. Louis, 12-1-11]
Wrong.
Just ask Matt Quain. His face bares the scars and the invisible memory of the veracity of a Knockout Game the New York Times dares not print.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Exhibit A in Theodore Wafer's Defense: 83 percent Black Detroit Celebrates 36 Hours With No Homicides or Non-Fatal Shootings

The story of Theodore Wafer is a tale of woe, an instructive lesson as to why you must separate entirely from living any where near a majority black city. [Pictured in court: The 54-year-old white homeowner charged with MURDER after shooting dead black girl, 19, who knocked on his door asking for help after crash, Daily Mail, 11-15-13]
In the end, the black undertow will find you. For Theodore Wafer, it came knocking at 4 a.m. in the night, courtesy of an incredibly inebriated, drugged-out of her mind 19-year-old black female named Renisha McBride. 
The city of Detroit is celebrating 36-hours without a homicide or non-fatal shooting; this story alone should be sufficient evidence in exonerating Theodore Wafer form the second degree murder charge of Renisha McBride.

Charged with  murder in the second degree, manslaughter and possession of a firearm during a felony, Mr. Wafer's real crime was living in Wayne County (home to Detroit) and positioning his family just a tad too close to an unstable, unsafe black population.

Just how bad is it? Well, how about Exhibit A in his defense case. [Detroit police tout a first in months: No killings in 36 hours, Detroit Free Press, 11-26-13]:
Detroit police are touting an achievement the department says is the first of its kind in months: No homicides or non-fatal shootings in 36 hours.
In a news release, police also said the city is experiencing a year-to-date decrease in homicides and non-fatal shootings compared to 2012.
Today’s announcement came after several weeks of bloodshed in the city.
According to police, 308 homicides have occurred so far this year, which officials say is a 13% decrease from the same time last year. Likewise, police say there have been 1,084 non-fatal shootings, down nearly 6% compared to last year.
“We can directly attribute this decline to the dedication of the hardworking men and women of this department and the continuing assistance of the citizens of this great city,” the news release said.
Police also released statistics from specialized units. According to police:
The Gang Intelligence Surveillance Transit unit, which began operations Oct. 28, has made 20 felony and 11 misdemeanor arrests and confiscated two long guns, five handguns and 169 grams of marijuana.
The Vice squad, which became fully operational Nov. 4, has made four felony and 34 misdemeanor arrests and recovered one AK-47, one shot gun and 247 grams of marijuana.
The Tactical Response Unit, which was deployed to the Northwestern District on Monday, has made five felony arrests and recovered five handguns.
 Celebrating a day and a half without a homicide or a non-fatal shooting is a step in a positive direction for the overwhelmingly black city of Detroit; actually, it's a step in the direction of civilization. 

This story is representative of the type of society the 19-year-old black female Renisha McBride calls home; this story, celebrating the type of civil behavior required for society to properly function, should be the only evidence required to exonerate Mr. Wafer from his charges

Abandoning Turner Field: Blacks, Crime, and the Visible Black Hand of Economics Push the Atlanta Braves to Cobb County


Well, you should have known the person who wrote Black Mecca Down would have a thing or two to say about the Atlanta Braves abandoning Turner Field in downtown Atlanta for suburban Cobb County. In the latest VDare.com piece, PK writes. [Not So Fast, Atlanta Braves! Obama’s DOJ Could Nix Flight To Cobb County, 11-26-13]:
The Atlanta Braves are leaving downtown Atlanta because of black crime. It's that simple.  
Like millions of Americans, the Atlanta Braves major league baseball franchise want to flee vibrant black diversity to move to a whiter, wealthier neighborhood. But will Eric Holder’s Justice Department let them? 
The Braves have just announced they will abandon central-Atlanta Turner Field. [Braves will move to Cobb County in shocking move,  MLB.com, November 12, 2013]Various reasons have been given, but that fact is that Turner Field is located in one of the worst neighborhoods in America. [Turner Field in a 'dangerous' neighborhood, by C. Trent Rosecrans, CBS Sports, October 4, 2010] 
Instead, starting in the 2017 season, the Braves plan to move to Cobb County, GA.. Cobb County is one of the country’s most conservative areas, having once been represented by Newt Gingrich. 
It is also home to the region’s largest concentration of Braves fans, so a new stadium will put them closer to the “geographic center” of their fan base, i.e. white, middle-class suburbanites. [The Atlanta Braves are moving to Cobb County and everyone is kind of stunned by Rebecca Burns, Atlanta Magazine, November 11, 2013]The team’s proposed new home has an almost $40,000 household income and a poverty rate over 30% lower than the neighborhood surrounding Turner field. [Braves planning new suburban stadium in 2017, by Paul Newberry, AJC.com, November 11, 2013] 
It’s about class. But it’s also about race. The team’s ticket-buying fan base (as illustrated in this ‘heat-map’ of ticket-sales released by the Braves) is in the areas of Metro Atlanta that are demographically the whitest. Coincidentally, many of these areas also wish to secede from majority black Atlanta and Fulton County. In contrast, Turner Field is located in the heart of zip code 30315, which boasts a population that is 78 percent black and only 13 percent white. In early 2013, NeighborhoodScout.com rated one of the communities within this zip code the 9th most dangerous neighborhood in all of America. 
Additionally, part of the cost of doing business in a black neighborhood is the shakedown money to the “community,” in this case, a non-profit called Summerhill Neighborhood Development Corporation. The Corporation received millions of dollars, but no one can seem to figure out where the money went in a neighborhood which has an abundance of nothing but vacant lots and decaying homes. [Questions raised about millions spent in troubled Turner Field neighborhood, by Doug Richards, 11 Alive, November 13, 2013]
Read the rest at VDare.com, but be sure to comment on it here.

This story is, as all metro Atlanta readers know, fundamentally about race and crime. Former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker, no stranger to controversy, put it succinctly in a column lauding the organization for leaving Turner Field:
An article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, with the headline “Stadium move angers its neighbors” perfectly described the type of community the citizens who live near Turner Field have created, a neighborhood fans of the Braves must endure when they venture to a game. 
It’s a story that sums up more accurately the real reason the Braves are moving.Bill Torpy reported: 
"It was a busy morning at Joe’s Laundry & Cleaners, a forlorn, fortress-like business in the shadow of the now-doomed Turner Field. 
Proprietor Paul Kwan was doing what his family has done since 1945 – making folks in the Summerhill neighborhood look sharp. And customers like Herman Lawson flowed in and out, still reeling from the news their beloved Braves were abandoning them to move north to Cobb County. 
“It’s going to hurt; it’s going to take a lot of money out of the neighborhood,” said Lawson, who played ball on a field where The Ted now sits. “We’ll miss the revenue, the excitement, the activity, the fireworks, the pride. It’s the Atlanta Braves in our neighborhood.” 
But, he added, “We have to face reality; they’re moving because of crime.”Kwan nodded from behind the heavy metal screen at his counter that makes him look like a jailbird. …"
A heavy metal screen at the counter of a laundry/cleaning business, to protect the owner and his employees from both his customers and the residents of the community surrounding Turner Field? That is the environment Atlanta Braves’ fans must endure before and most notably AFTER an evening of cheering on their hometown heroes. 
Does any more reasoning need be explained to detail why the Braves are leaving Turner Field and downtown Atlanta and heading off to the affluence and safety of Cobb County than the precautions and security a business owner must take to protect his property and employees? At the end of the day the Atlanta Braves organization and Joe’s Laundry and Cleaners are not too dissimilar.
No. 

No more reasoning is necessary, Mr. Rocker. 

Like it or not, the Black Mecca is going down. The key to the unraveling of Black-Run America (BRA) still rests in a city the Union forces burnt to the ground more than 150 years ago. 

Monday, November 25, 2013

Black Knockout Game Attacks (Flash Mob Violence) are Politics by Other Means


Lost in all the ‘white noise’ of hysteria over the black flash mob and black knockout game violence, is a simple, direct, and honest question about why black individuals are attacking whites in urban areas across the nation.
Black Flash Mob and Black Knockout Game attacks, per Jim Goad: "a highly political act of establishing dominance and marking one's territory."

Jim Goad answers that question. [Hunting the Domestic Polar Bear, TakiMag.com, 11-25-13]:
Throughout history, those who rule the streets have often served as the shock troops and enforcers for those who rule the nation. This isn’t some empty nihilistic ritual—it’s a highly political act of establishing dominance and marking one’s territory.
In some version of American history - swallowed hook, line and sinker by conservatives – a “color-blind” society was established on this land, where individuals are judged by the “content of their character.”

Fanciful language for a society (and people) foolish enough to believe that it’s a good thing to label anything with the word “blind” in it as a positive indicator for progress; those who profess to being “color-blind” will see history pass their individualistic mandate behind.

For true progress is on display in the city of Philadelphia, where Black flash mob and Black knockout game violence is a continuation of politics by another means.

It’s the same type of collectivist (believing such a word is synonymous with evil is the primary reason America is no longer a real country) mentality behind the massive support from the black community for the memory of Trayvon Martin.

The first black District Attorney of Philadelphia, Seth Williams, took to Twitter to showcase to his followers just where he stood on the issue. The individual charged with prosecuting criminals (as an agent of the state) in Philadelphia sided with a black youth by wearing a hoodie and Tweeting it out for the world to see his racial solidarity. [Philadelphia DA releases photo of himself in a hoodie, Twitchy.com, 3-23-12]

Remember, as John Street – a former black mayor of Philadelphia – said in 2002, the brothers and sisters are running Philadelphia now, thus the interests of the black District Attorney are a mirror of the black population. [Street's remarks on race in flyer His comments - "The brothers and sisters are in charge" - were sent by the GOP to homes in N.E. Phila. Flyer highlights Street's race comments, Philadelphia Inquirer, 9-17-2002]

Individuals will demand for a “color-blind” society. Isn’t that what Martin Luther King wanted? How dare those elected (or appointed) black officials in Philadelphia soil his legacy!

Hoodie Solidarity: The black District Attorney of Philadelphia, Seth Williams, Tweeted this photo out in the early stages of the George Zimmerman/ Trayvon Martin affair
If you voluntarily become “blind” to anything, you are suspect to the involuntary result of the concept of racial democracy; Philadelphia is a perfect example of this, with white people having no elected voice to represent their interests, while every elected black official is beholden to improving some aspect of the black community. [U.K. violence raises questions about American unrest, Telegraph, 8-13-11]:
But Michael Coard, a black lawyer and self-proclaimed "agitator" in Philadelphia, sees no possibility of rioting there, despite the crimes that prompted the new curfew. 
"In the United States, and certainly in Philadelphia, there is a buffer. We have a lot of black police officers, a black police commissioner, black city council members, a black mayor, and ultimately a black president," Coard said. 
"And it's a buffer that might be open to solving the problem," he continued. "I don't have to burn this building down, I can go and talk to the mayor ... When our parents and grandparents fought for black political representation, this is essentially what they were fighting for." 
Philadelphia also has a black district attorney, Seth Williams. He said that unlike the youths in London, many who engage in mob violence in the City of Brotherly Love simply think it's fun to hurt people. He is prosecuting those who have been caught.
Control.

Political control.

Domination.

That's what they were fighting for against a world built by white people; that's what they have now in a city governed for the benefit of black people.

When the black District Attorney publicly sides with Trayvon Martin (by Tweeting a photo of himself in a hoodie) what form of justice do you think black knockout game attackers/black flash mobbers will receive?

Those black individuals participating in black flash mobs or black knockout game attacks are engaging in an animalistic urge to protect their territory and intimidate those who get in their way; they ensure ‘white flight’ will continue from Philadelphia, and whatever opposition “color-blind” white people left in the city can muster at the polls will be easily defeated by a collectivist, black mentality.

To further illustrate this point, let’s look at the curious case of Wayne Bennett, a black lawyer in Philadelphia who also serves “as special master in Family Court, presiding over custody and child support cases when not attending to his criminal law practice.”

He runs “The Field Negro” blog, a highly respected black-centric web site, which allows him to speak his mind on a litany of issues pertaining his community. In a post from 10-26-13 (White Girls Bleed A lot. A so do black boys), Bennett wrote this about a Thomas Sowell column discussing black-on-white violence:
Here is the deal, no matter how violent some young black punks act and wild out towards groups of white people--or a single white individual, it will never make up for all the violence that was practiced against people of color throughout this nation's history. So spare me the isolated (and high profile) incidents of horror.
Translation: No matter what happens to you now, nothing we do to you can make up for what someone looking like you did to us in the past. 

Interracial crime has been almost entirely black-on-white for decades; racial violence in the past – grossly exaggerated by contemporary historians hoping to play upon white guilt -  existed as a means of ensuring the civilization white people created was protected from the very type of attacks Bennett is excusing away today (what role did Jim Crow play in working to ensure concepts such as monogamy and marriage were respected in the black community, with freedom from such a world birthing high illegitimate rates?)

Yes, white people long ago realized that protecting their civilization in cities like Philadelphia was more important than granting some form of black suffrage to ensure the Philadelphia of 2013 could come about.
Animals mark their territory in nature; why would people be any different? 

It's a city dominated politically by “color-aware” black people, while “color-blind” white people moan and cry over their displacement (“collectivism is racism,” they’ll shout, on their way to Galt’s Gulch); demand 'justice' and 'fairness' all you want, but the black District Attorney is shopping for his next hoodie.   

Black mob violence, be it in the form of a black flash mob stealing items at a store or a black knockout game attack, is just the continuation of politics by other means (some could argue black-on-black crime/homicide is nothing short of a continuation of this concept, with white people fearing to step foot into any urban area classified as a ghetto, thereby ceding more territory over in the process).

“Color-blinded” into oblivion, doomed to walk a country their ancestors created without a territory to call home; A fitting epitaph for white Americans.

Worse, beaten into such a state of submission they still believe their aggressors need some form of ‘empowerment’ [Girl who got punched in head gives lame liberal speech humanizing her attackers, DailyCaller.com, 11-20-13]:
Phoebe Connolly, who was punched in the face and laughed at by a group of teenagers playing the random and sometimes fatal “Knockout” game in my own obscenely terrible neighborhood of Columbia Heights in Washington, D.C., appeared with Greta Van Susteren Wednesday night to describe her ordeal. 
At the end of her segment, Connolly used her platform to ramble on in a ridiculous, naive and distinctly Gen-Y speech about the importance of youth programs. 
“I ultimately, I’ve moved past it and I really have no hard feelings about what has happened. And I just see it as another reason why we need to better support our youth with activities and youth programs, which is actually what I do for work, and it’s great to see teenagers do incredible things when they’re supported and empowered,” Connolly said.
Empowered.

Emboldened.

So continue “judging by the content of character,” which serves as nothing but empty rhetoric to those black individuals who collectively find themselves ensconced in the halls of power in Philadelphia; ask your black knockout game attackers “why are you hitting me?” a question with a simple racial answer your ‘color-blind’ mind can’t comprehend.