Murder Spike Poses Quandary

Wall Street Journal ^ | May 6, 2008 | Gary Fields

[reaganaut1]

WASHINGTON -- Edward Bedenbaugh III was about to start a job as a youth-violence counselor working in inner-city schools, mediating disputes before they escalated into lethal exchanges. He was celebrating his appointment at a nightspot in an upscale part of the nation's capital when he was shot in the back five times. The 29-year-old man died the next morning, April 17, two days before his oldest daughter's 10th birthday.

He was one of 14 people, all African-Americans, to die in a 13-day spasm of violence. That surge was enough to help make this April, with 18 murders, 20% deadlier than April 2007.

The grim run hasn't been limited to Washington. Several cities around the country, including Chicago and Philadelphia, endured similar mini murder waves during the same period, leading criminologists to worry whether this signifies the beginning of a trend -- or evidence of an unnoticed one.

What is most troubling to people who study crime is that there is no simple explanation for this rise. There are the usual reasons -- the economy, poverty, gangs and crews, and the availability of firearms, but there is one that has been little explored: the migration of the prison culture back to the streets. As nearly 700,000 convicts a year return home, some may be bringing prison culture with them.

"This is part of the price we're paying for 20 years of mass incarceration," said David Kennedy, director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at New York City's John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

[reaganaut1]

Some people quoted in the article say the problem is "mass incarceration" and people become violent criminals in prison. Maybe the problem is letting out some people who should be kept in jail, or executed if they committed murder.

The New York Times recently had a long story on the same problem: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/magazine/04health-t.html

[mtbopfuyn]

This is part of the price we're paying for 20 years of mass incarceration

The death penalty would take care of part of the problem.

[bill1952]

Sooooooooo. hows that total gun ban working out again?

[cowboyway]

nightspot in an upscale part of the nation's capital when he was shot in the back five times. --- He was one of 14 people, all African-Americans, to die in a 13-day spasm of violence.

Good thing they have gun control...............

[stylin19a]

"He was one of 14 people, all African-Americans, to die in a 13-day spasm of violence

killed by who ?

[caseinpoint]

Amish?

[wideawake]

These cities are hollowed-out hulks that incentivize criminals more than they incentivize law-abiding citizens.

High taxes, few jobs, laws against self-defense, etc.

Philadelphia, Washington DC and Chicago have respectively lost 30, 25 and 20 percent of their populations since their peak. These cities were once highly desirable places to live - now only certain neighborhoods are.

[Sooth2222]

These are all Republican-run cities?

I knew it was all George Bush's fault!

[sig226]

I have two problems with this. First is Kennedy's assertion that nearly 700,000 convicts a year return home, some may be bringing prison culture with them. These people did not become thugs in prison. They were sent to prison because they were thugs.

This is also wrong: "The homicides occur in neighborhoods where folks don't finish high school," Mr. Owens (O'Dell Owens, Hamilton County, Ohio medical examiner) said. "If you can't make the transition from learning to read to reading to learn, you're done." This is a false cause and effect relationship. He's saying that people will not want to be thugs if they learn. But that implies that the action causes the volition. That's untrue. They wanted to be thugs and they learned how to be thugs. If they have no use for school, all the school in the world will only anger them. Volition causes action. Maybe the thugs don't want to educate themselves because they are thugs.

[jack_napier]

I’d love it if they would say where that young man’s altercation happened. As a DCite, I’d be able to discern the level of BS. Guess that’s too much to ask.

[blam]

It's a Black thang...I know I wouldn't understand.

[Poison Pill]

celebrating his appointment at a nightspot in an upscale part of the nation's capital

Upscale? I'd be curious to know the address.

[Brilliant]

“Maybe the problem is letting out some people who should be kept in jail...”

Exactly. The libs periodically get up on their high horse and rant about how we’ve got too many people in jail. They open the doors and let a lot of them out. Then this happens, and they scratch their heads trying to figure out why.

Another cause is all the illegal immigrants.

[Redbob]

"This is part of the price we're paying for 20 years of mass incarceration..."

Twenty years that should have been 30, eh?

[The Duke]

"This is part of the price we're paying for 20 years of mass incarceration,"

I knew they should have gone with the "impaling" plan.

[epow]

"This is part of the price we're paying for 20 years of mass incarceration,"

So we shouldn't put murderers and other violent criminals in prison because they may come out worse than when they went in? How about executing them instead of keeping them locked up for a few years at taxpayer expense and then turning them loose so they can kill again? Dead criminals don't commit any more crimes after they assume room temperature.

[ClearCase_guy]

My position is that anything more than a 10 year sentence is foolish. If the crime is bad, execute the criminal. If the crime is not so bad, put them in jail for <10 years and see if they learn a lesson.

This story is one of the many reasons why I support wider use of the death penalty.

[gusopol3]

this is also known as the chickens coming home to roost. And to think, it all happened one night.

[libs_kma]

" There are the usual reasons -- the economy, poverty, gangs and crews, and the availability of firearms, but there is one that has been little explored: the migration of the prison culture back to the streets George Bush.

[EdReform]

BTTT

See also: PROVOCATIVE THOUGHT EXPERIMENT ON GUNS (What would Rev Wright say?)

[AppyPappy]

We should move all the prisons to North Dakota.

[I still care]

I’m always amazed at articles about a crime that start out something like, “the alleged shooter was out on parole for armed robbery, for which he has been incarcerated several times”.

How did we ever come to this place?

Also, they got through a whole article about prison culture rising for the past twenty years without mentioning gansta rap, didn’t they?

[MrB]

I don’t believe this story at all.

There’s no way that anyone could be shot in Washington DC - they have a gun ban.

[andy58-in-nh]

There are the usual reasons -- the economy, poverty, gangs and crews, and the availability of firearms...

Who writes this crap? Try this on for size, nitwit:

The utter destruction of the black family by the Welfare State. A culture of entitlement fed by liberal appeals to race-hatred and class envy. The degeneration of urban public schools from oases of learning to havens for lazy, unionized bureaucrats. The celebration of violence, sexual promiscuity and and trash-as-art by the left-wing entertainment industry.

Any of that ring a bell, Mr. "Gee-We-Can't-Seem-to-Figure-Out-The-Root Causes"?

More proof that Everything Liberals Know Is Wrong.

[The KG9 Kid]

Interesting. I’ll have to think about that idea.

[Joe 6-pack]

"The utter destruction of the black family by the Welfare State. A culture of entitlement fed by liberal appeals to race-hatred and class envy. The degeneration of urban public schools from oases of learning to havens for lazy, unionized bureaucrats. The celebration of violence, sexual promiscuity and and trash-as-art by the left-wing entertainment industry."

Don't forget a Supreme Court that declared all people conceived after 1973, "optional."

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Maybe he voted for Hillary and the other guy took offense at him dissing B. Hussein and his wife A. Hussey.

[epow]

My position is that anything more than a 10 year sentence is foolish. If the crime is bad, execute the criminal.

Sounds sensible to me, but that's the main reason it won't happen. It seems that the people who run everything in this country don't possess a whit of common sense. Their answer to any problem is to pass another law like a gun ban that is impossible to enforce and wouldn't do what was intended even if it could be enforced.

[bill1952]

"The utter destruction of the black family by the Welfare State.
A culture of entitlement fed by liberal appeals to race-hatred and class envy.

The degeneration of urban public schools from oases of learning to havens for lazy, unionized bureaucrats.
The celebration of violence, sexual promiscuity and and trash-as-art by the left-wing entertainment industry."

Ding. Stop FR.
We have the FR post of the day.

Thank you - bill

[arthurus]

“Common sense” is not a part of the left culture. It is one of those useless ornaments of reactionary society like “thought” and “reflection” before Society can advance to the peace and security of artels and collective farms.

[CPOSharky]

Just getting in the licks before the SC rules that law abiding citizens can carry.

[faloi]

Obviously the answer is to ban the thug life mentality. Gun control doesn’t work, the next logical step is to ban the mentality that’s leading to a lot of the crime.

[ROLF of the HILL COUNTRY]

I've got an even better idea:
Let's return to the 18th century concept of criminal justice; where jails were only holding places for those awaiting trial. At the trial, an individual is either found innocent or guilty; if guilty of a minor crime he is punished by spending time in the public stocks, where the citizens may mock, spit at, and otherwise make the convict miserable; or a public flogging. After which the individual would be released. If guilty of a serious crime, or a repeat offender for thievery etc, the punishment was hanging. Recidivism rates were very low!
Plus, the taxpayers did not have to pay for lengthy incarcerations!

[mpackard]

DI TO......and AMEN!!!

[epow]

If guilty of a serious crime, or a repeat offender for thievery etc, the punishment was hanging. Recidivism rates were very low!

No doubt. As I said before, criminals don't usually commit any more crimes after they assume room temperature.

[B4Ranch]

>“Common sense” is not a part of the left culture.<

These days I’m not too sure that “Common sense” is a part of either the left or the right culture.

[andy58-in-nh]

Thanks for the comments, guys. It seems as though I read at least one article every day in which the (invariably liberal) author defines the causes of Problem “X” in such a way that the only possible solution is more money and more government. Old story, I suppose: when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail.

But it's something more than just a failure of imagination that makes liberals blind to the damage they themselves have done: it's the ideology itself. Liberalism comes complete with its own cocoon: an unshakable faith in the transformative power of Good Intentions, as if the nature of reality can be molded by mere desire. Worse, those who deny such possibility are given the Heretic treatment and castigated as enemies of all that is good. And this is the very spirit that dominates white liberal discussion of the state of our inner cities (especially Detroit, Cleveland, Philly, and Baltimore). Within the (black-governed) cities themselves - corruption and cynicism reign supreme. Unless something changes - and soon - it does not bode well for the future happiness of the inhabitants.