Posted on 11/24/2013 3:42:06 AM PST by Berlin_Freeper
On Nov. 5, the Times Free Press published a front-page story about the arrests of 32 men charged with gun and drug crimes after a four-year local and federal investigation. Chattanooga Police Chief Bobby Dodd called the suspects the "worst of the worst" in Chattanooga's criminals.
We heard no reaction from readers. Not a peep.
On Nov. 17, the newspaper published a second front-page story about the suspects and their criminal histories. This time, we were barraged with feedback. Some of the words used to describe the report: irresponsible, distasteful, racist.
The difference? The second story included the mugshots of all 32 suspects. And the photos highlighted something: All 32 suspects are black men.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesfreepress.com ...
This newspaper was very daring, brave, and dare I say it, “journalistic”, for reporting the truth that others are too timid to print.
If they really want to hit a home run, and accomplish some good in the process, they might consider resurrecting the old newspaper tradition of a “crime beat”. Have a page, or two, if there is something particularly interesting, devoted to crime, criminals, courts and the police.
Like the sports section or the comics, some people will buy a newspaper just for the crime beat page(s). It is generally easy copy to fill, and can result in positive social change.
Were I in their shoes, I would subcontract a group of very conservative black reverends and commentators to editorialize and rail against crime and criminals. Publishing what are, in effect, pulpit pounding sermons exhorting the black community (without coming out and saying so) to reform and redeem their young people, and to again become moral and honest citizens.
Of course newspapers have long had “sob sister” editorialists, whose job it was to offend the public and get hate mail. Often they could only keep their job as long as the hate mail flowed in, to the point where some would send themselves hate mail from random people in the phone book.
And so there is a perpetual fight there, between the liberal sob sister, who snivels that black people should be able to break the law and not get punished, or something equally ludicrous, as a counterpoint to the pulpit pounding. Turn it into a snarling paper brawl. The public loves such things.
You might scratcj Minneapolis off that list. Still fits your theory, but not nearly as ivory and safe as you imagine.
I have family members who live around there. They're huge libs. But when they talk about where their children will be going to school, they're making sure they go to schools in safe areas. But overall, despite the high crime rate in north Minneapolis, it still has a relatively low crime rate compared to many other cities its size.
p.s. I was recently in St. Paul for the state fair.
Bad, EVIL societal conditions! Racist, WHITE societal conditions! You FORCED these poor black men--victims, one and all--to choose crime. They didn't WANT to choose crime, but you forced them to do it! You, white societal conditions, YOU are the worst of the worst!
Why do most of them look like their family tree only has one branch?
All of my extended family lives in the Minneapolis area...and I’ve been there many times. Perhaps because I only visit periodically, I notice changes more. Per Citydata, Minneapolis is 61 percent white and has a crime rate roughly double the national average. I haven’t checked, but I suspect the ascendancy of the Third City of Bloomington is because of white flight out of Minneapolis. I see what is happening to Minneapolis as a copy of what happened to my hometown of Birmingham. Birmingham area is beautiful, with lots of great places to live. But if you look at the demographics of the actual Birmingham city limits, its twenty percent white, crime infested, and broke. In other words it trails Detroit by 25 years. I’d say Minneapolis trailsBirmingham by 15 years. But its definitely not a mecca like Seattle, where the money constantly infused by new young employees working for one if the most successful capitalist ventures in the world masks the underlying problems with liberal policies. Instead people leave. Every one of my relatives used to live in Minneapolis...now they live ‘around’ minneapolis, having decided to bug out. I don’t see that pattern changing.
My father and his brothers used to walk to school when they were growing up there. Last time I was in that neighborhood, I couldn’t even fathom it. Sadly the nighborhood was going downhill fast.
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