Where's the outrage over black-on-black killings?

Unread post by **'X'** » January 3rd, 2007, 8:18 pm

Where's the outrage over black-on-black killings?
By DeWayne Wickham

BALTIMORE - A couple of days before Christmas, I phoned Patricia West, an old friend I hadn't spoken to in years. It was a call I didn't want to make - the kind of call no one should ever have to place.

It was a brief conversation, a few minutes of aimless chatter that quickly went from awkward laughter to muffled crying. I called her to say how devastated I was to hear that her son had been killed. His death was reported in the final paragraph of a short crime story in The (Baltimore) Sun that gave the bare facts of his demise.

"The other homicide victim, Kevin West, 39, of the 9000 block of Meadow Heights Road in Randallstown, was found fatally shot shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday by officers investigating reported gunfire in the 2800 block of Virginia Ave., police said."

Kevin West's murder was the 260th homicide this year in Baltimore - a city in which virtually all of the murder victims and those arrested for murder are black. On the same day that he was gunned down, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched down Fifth Avenue in New York to protest the Nov. 25 killing of another black man. Sean Bell was felled by a hail of police gunfire moments after he and two friends left his bachelor party early on the morning of the day he was to have been married.

Just why the cops fired on the unarmed men is unclear. Bell's death drew the scorn of civil rights leaders and black activists, many of whom took part in the march. West's killing has generated no such attention.

And that makes me made as hell.

As troubling as it is that Bell's life might have been cut short by the unlawful actions of some rogue cops, it bothers me more that most of this nation's black murder victims are killed by other blacks. And despite this chilling fact, nowhere have tens of thousands of people taken to the streets recently to protest this carnage. Not in New York, or Baltimore, or Atlanta, or Detroit, or Chicago. Nowhere.

Of the country's 14,860 homicide victims in 2005, 7,125 were black, according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report. And of the 3,289 cases that year in which a single black was killed by a single assailant, the FBI says, 91% of the killers were black.

Let me put this another way: The number of blacks killed in 2005 in this one homicide category alone approaches the total of all the blacks lynched in this country from 1882 to 1968, according to records maintained by Tuskegee University.

So why aren't black leaders taking up this fight? Why do so many turn out to decry the death of one black man at the hands of some cops, but no mass rallies take on the deaths of thousands of blacks who are slaughtered by other blacks?

"I think it's because we know it's our fault, and we're constantly looking for someone else to blame," says Baltimore City Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm, who, like me, grew up in Cherry Hill, a poor black neighborhood on the city's south side.

Hamm says most black leaders are afraid to address this issue, afraid to confront the apathy, fear and indifference that allow many poor black neighborhoods to become killing fields.

He could be right.

But whatever the reason, it's time for black leaders - activists, preachers, educators, politicians, business and community leaders - to say enough is enough.

It's time for them to be as aggressive, and as demanding, in combating the black murder rate as they are in fighting for an increase in minimum wage or an expansion in health care.

The ripple effects of black-on-black killings have turned many inner city neighborhoods into urban wastelands, chased businesses from those communities, fueled a growth in other crimes and sapped the resources of local governments.

As mad as black folks have a right to be over the killing of Sean Bell, we ought to be angry over the failure of black leaders to be equally outraged over the murder of Kevin West - and the thousands of blacks who are killed each year by other blacks.

Unread post by **se11** » January 3rd, 2007, 8:27 pm

good one ^^

Black Top · Unread post by **Black Top** » January 3rd, 2007, 9:29 pm

i know man. it never should've went down like this anyway. certain things maybe justified, but it's time for something new.

Unread post by **'X'** » January 3rd, 2007, 9:36 pm

se11 wrote:good one ^^

Part of "my motive" right?

Unread post by **BlaKK** » January 3rd, 2007, 9:55 pm

Unread post by **A Ghost** » January 3rd, 2007, 11:24 pm

'X' wrote:
se11 wrote:good one ^^

Part of "my motive" right?

Unread post by **johnnny** » January 4th, 2007, 5:24 am

'X' wrote:
se11 wrote:good one ^^

Part of "my motive" right?

dun dun daaa

Unread post by **se11** » January 4th, 2007, 11:46 am

'X' wrote:
se11 wrote:good one ^^

Part of "my motive" right?

actually this has got to be one of the only articles you've evr posted that doesnt involve how america treats you unfairly or having something to do with americas past.

carltouss619 · Unread post by **carltouss619** » January 4th, 2007, 11:52 am

so tru nice post

Unread post by **perongregory** » January 4th, 2007, 6:24 pm

se11 wrote:
'X' wrote:
se11 wrote:good one ^^

Part of "my motive" right?
actually this has got to be one of the only articles you've evr posted that doesnt involve how america treats you unfairly or having something to do with americas past.

America's past is America's present, and unfortunately future, cuz it takes so much for America to bring closure to and resolve its past.

Unread post by **A Ghost** » June 23rd, 2007, 11:49 pm

Do you have a link for this?

Unread post by **NICKELS** » June 24th, 2007, 2:23 am

SAD , BUT GOOD POST............

Unread post by **Str8UpMenace** » June 27th, 2007, 5:35 pm

yes we are spilling the wrong people's blood instead should start spilling some honky blood to the slaughter

Unread post by **A Ghost** » June 27th, 2007, 6:52 pm

Str8UpMenace wrote:yes we are spilling the wrong people's blood instead should start spilling some honky blood to the slaughter

Unread post by **'X'** » June 27th, 2007, 6:56 pm

A Ghost wrote:
Str8UpMenace wrote:yes we are spilling the wrong people's blood instead should start spilling some honky blood to the slaughter

lol...

MiChuhSuh · Unread post by **MiChuhSuh** » June 27th, 2007, 7:21 pm

Str8UpMenace wrote:yes we are spilling the wrong people's blood instead should start spilling some honky blood to the slaughter

Who says "honky" anymore?

Unread post by **A Ghost** » June 27th, 2007, 7:23 pm

MiChuhSuh wrote:
Str8UpMenace wrote:yes we are spilling the wrong people's blood instead should start spilling some honky blood to the slaughter
Who says "honky" anymore?

<-----

Unread post by **A Ghost** » May 8th, 2008, 7:25 pm

still a good read

Unread post by **whiskeyjack** » May 8th, 2008, 7:44 pm

Str8UpMenace wrote:yes we are spilling the wrong people's blood instead should start spilling some honky blood to the slaughter

wow you sure do show your NOI side

hail farrakan

Unread post by **oXJmAuPs2005Xo** » May 8th, 2008, 10:15 pm

roll with your hood

Unread post by **A Ghost** » May 8th, 2008, 10:20 pm

oXJmAuPs2005Xo wrote:roll with your hood

huh?

YouTube · Unread post by **alexalonso** » May 8th, 2008, 11:23 pm

unfortunately no cares about black on black violence anymore. The media probably thinks it is a boring story

Unread post by **Sentenza** » May 9th, 2008, 4:45 am

alexalonso wrote:unfortunately no cares about black on black violence anymore. The media probably thinks it is a boring story

I remember, in the early 90s there was a wave of reports on crime and Gang related violence in the US over here and people were kind of shocked, but that has completely seized. I think it has also something to do with the popularity that Gangster Rap gained over here among the kids during those times. But now its old news kind of, as sad as it sounds.

Unread post by **A Ghost** » May 9th, 2008, 8:38 am

alexalonso wrote:unfortunately no cares about black on black violence anymore. The media probably thinks it is a boring story

I've heard whites say "I really dont care at all, I hope they all kill each other off."

Unread post by **EmperorPenguin** » May 9th, 2008, 8:57 am

alexalonso wrote:unfortunately no cares about black on black violence anymore. The media probably thinks it is a boring story

The key word "anymore". I remember growing up in the 80's where even on Canadian news we were getting reports of gang violence out of L.A. and how rap artists of the time were coming together trying to stop the violence and this and that. It was big news once upon a time, but the killing never stopped and people just forgot about it. It's like the starving in Africa. They have the Live 8 concert, everyone donates money figures everything is fine and move onto the next cause. No one actually stops to look back and ask if anything got fixed.

Unread post by **whiskeyjack** » May 9th, 2008, 6:12 pm

A Ghost wrote:
alexalonso wrote:unfortunately no cares about black on black violence anymore. The media probably thinks it is a boring story
I've heard whites say "I really dont care at all, I hope they all kill each other off."

-where i lived whites killed whites the most
-where i live now indians kill indians just as much as whites kill whites here

-im sure mexicans in cali kill each other alot also, why aint we talkin about them? they are a visable minority just like blacks? wheres all the threads on here about mexicans offing each other? wheres the outrage in that? Oh right were too worried about them takin jobs from everyone

fact is no one cares anymore, and personally why should people care anymore. Caring about the situation isnt going to solve it.

thats how the earth rotates

Unread post by **Mcminister** » May 9th, 2008, 8:45 pm

black on black crime is a trip

its sad how our leaders worry bout gay shit like THE N WORD, all these other irrelevant shit instead of worrying bout black on black crime.....how buot all those black folks ontop..put a group of men in every high crime black area to improve community involvement and relations

Unread post by **oXJmAuPs2005Xo** » May 10th, 2008, 1:58 am

we had the angels in like 3 or four neigborhoods in my neck of the woods a couple of years ago and it actually got better

Unread post by **oXJmAuPs2005Xo** » May 10th, 2008, 1:59 am

the hood is always gonna be the hood though

Unread post by **Mcminister** » May 11th, 2008, 2:36 pm

^^naaah^^ not at all....u ever heard of gentrification ( and look at harlem )

and besides most hoods werent even hoods 60 years ago.....especially the hoods with homes(houses)

Unread post by **oXJmAuPs2005Xo** » May 11th, 2008, 6:17 pm

yeah i do see what you mean because i was reading on my cities history and foung out that a couple of hoods in the present day actually use to be like the place to be if you were wealthy from like the maybe early to mid 1900's which is kind of weird alot of areas my parents used to live in are now like that which is kinda weird and as fucked up as it sounds when the white people leave then all hell breaks loose

Unread post by **perongregory** » May 11th, 2008, 7:08 pm

oXJmAuPs2005Xo wrote:yeah i do see what you mean because i was reading on my cities history and foung out that a couple of hoods in the present day actually use to be like the place to be if you were wealthy from like the maybe early to mid 1900's which is kind of weird alot of areas my parents used to live in are now like that which is kinda weird and as #%@& up as it sounds when the white people leave then all hell breaks loose

it's a little bit more than white flight, alot of shit happens to turn those neighborhoods into hoods, white flight is just the first step.