Black-on-black murder rates: What are the solutions?
A story today by the Associated Press tells of a study by Northeastern University that black teenagers are killing each other in rising numbers, despite an overall falling crime rate across the nation.
FBI crime statistics show overall decreases in murder and other violent crimes. The a report by criminal justice professors James Alan Fox and Marc Swatt uncovers other disturbing trends within that data. (Related: Updated FBI crime statistic)
Among their findings: an increase of more than 39 percent in the number of black males between the ages of 14 and 17 killed between 2000 and 2007, and an increase of 34 percent in the number of blacks that age group who committed homicide.
The report shows that the increases for white male teens age 14-17 during that same period were nearly 17 percent and 3 percent, respectively.
“The victim and perpetrators of gun crimes are getting younger and younger,” said The Rev. Jeffrey Brown, executive director of the anti-crime Ten Point Coalition in Boston.
Brown says that families and community groups and churches need to do more to help solve the problem.
But with dysfunctional and broken family units in many areas where there are high unemployment rates, high school drop-out rates and preponderance of drugs and guns, how should civic and city leaders better address the high murder rate among young blacks – by young blacks?
Ban guns! They are clearly the blame.
This is sad. Ongoing and sad. How do you make a person care about themselves and others. How do you force someone to respect their neighborhoods? I don’t think you can. We have some young guys in our communities who don’t even think about playing by the rules. It’s pure ignorance. These well armed, “wanna be” gangsters and thugs have seemingly taken over the streets in the city. One must note the effect that crack had on our city. By now, a good deal of the younger population is filled with crack babies who are fatherless and more than likely lack discipline. The school system here is a joke so kids don’t trust the system and rebel. The majority of the kids I speak with say that the jobs aren’t there but without adequate education, the jobs will never be there. No, you can’t force someone to love themselves or love others for that matter. They have no concept of love. They’re confusing with sex which makes for another critical situation. Perpetuating the cycle of the bastard children that are left to fend for themselves. I see panhandlers are getting younger and younger by the day. They say education is the key, but for most, it’s way too late for that. Honestly, I don’t see an end in sight. They need to drop the weapons and deflate those egos that make them pull a gun. But the truth of the matter is this…drugs are being poored into our neighborhoods by you know who…this is the teens view as the only way out…the only way to money…the people who are putting the drugs on the street are aware of the fallout and until the authorities can control the drugs and do more to get the guns and thugs off of the street, this, I’m afraid, is will continue on for many years. AS PART OF THE PLAN CALLS FOR! Wake up. Don’t be coy. This is by design that the black men are killing each other.
Maybe Obama fix it.
Somewhere in here, the gun will be blamed.
Throw money at the problem, they said that would fix the schools. No wait…that didn’t work. Get the government involved, they can fix anything. No wait…that won’t work.
Hummm….this is a tough one.
There really is no answer to this issue-This group of people think they are entitled to what they are doing is justified,and that any kind of punishment won’t deter them from using deadly and leathal force against their perceived enemies.Look at them the wrong way,walk on their turf,diz there life style,that’s enough to get killed.They don’t use logic and reasoning to deal with problems,they use brute force and gun fire to deal with it.
Banning guns is not the answer. It takes a person to pull the trigger. The bad guys already have the guns. It’s the innocent person who typically doesn’t.
The problem is much deeper than this and the solution would need to be long term. I would start with the government issuing free birth control to any people who want it. Other things I would do would be to defend our borders and have a big sweep to expel all illegal aliens from this country to cut our population by about 20 million people and to get rid of the minimum wage laws. These things would help to lower unemployment rates throughout the country. People have to be made accountable for their actions, but the poor teens do not see this happening. They see that there are no consequences for doing something bad and they are correct. I’m not here to tell people how to raise a child. I actually don’t care as long as it doesn’t affect myself or others. The problem is that all of us are paying consequences for someone else’s actions and that’s where I have a problem. If some people say I’m being selfish, then give me all your money. Ahh, you won’t, so you’re selfish, too! This is human nature.
I respect others and their opinions. However, I usually don’t see the same in return. This is why there are problems in this world as there’s not mutual respect.
Teach.Them.Young.To.Respect.Human.Life.
Starting with their own.
(Good luck with that, by the way…)
While the ease of obtaining guns is apparent, I don’t think that they are completely to blame. A gun needs an operator to function. By some standards I am middle aged, by others I am old (49). I grew up in a home, neighborhood, church and school where respect was required and expected. Nothing was perfect, there was divorce, mixed neighborhoods and church was certainly not all made up of white christian families. We respected authority and knew if a teacher called home you knew that you were not only in trouble at school, you could bank on being in bigger trouble at home. Somewhere that ethic has been lost. While these statistics are staggering and very sad I still contend that respect for others needs to be instilled in the next generation. I hope that Obama (and I didn’t vote for him) can be a role model for our next generation to show that education should be the foundation.
For the wanna be gangsters and thugs who just don’t get it, perhaps we should gather that mentality together and just let them shoot each other and keep the innocent out of the way. Regardless, it’s a shame.
The sheer volume of available guns in our society (whether legal, illegal, registered or unregistered) certainly drives the numbers. But guns are not the problem. Diminished respect for others is the cause. This is a cultural and subcultural problem and solutions are to be found in the family, the community, the church, the school and the media. Parents must step up and teach respect for all life forms and perhaps this best starts by showing respect and love for the child.
Right Looney…so let’s make guns readily available. We need more guns on our streets to protect us from all the guns on our streets.
The NRA like the KKK…..who needs ropes and trees?
Brought to you by your local pro-life, pro-family, pro-God Republicans.
I think the biggest contributor is unemployment. The overall rate is 6.5%, but the rate for Blacks is 11.2% - and the rate for teenagers is a whopping 20.4%.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
Keep in mind, once a person’s unemployment benefits run out, there is no reason to continue to go to the office and report your inability to find a job. Once an unemployed worker stops reporting, the Government no longer counts them. This means that real number of unemployed people is unquestionably larger than the already large rate being reported.
People who don’t have a job usually find trouble. If you want to decrease the murder rate amongst black teens, the first step is to lower the unemployment rate of black teens.