Posted on 08/30/2007 9:52:19 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Last year, among the nation’s 10 largest cities, Philadelphia had the highest murder rate, with 406 victims. This year could easily top last year’s, with 240 murders so far.
Other cities such as Baltimore, Detroit and Washington, D.C., with large black populations, experience the nation’s highest rates of murder and violent crime. This high murder rate is, and has been, predominantly a black problem.
According to Bureau of Justice statistics, between 1976 and 2005, blacks, although 13 percent of the population, committed more than 52 percent of the nation’s homicides and were 46 percent of the homicide victims. Ninety-four percent of black homicide victims had a black as their murderer.
Blacks are not only the major victims of homicide; blacks suffer high rates of all categories of serious violent crime, and another black is most often the perpetrator.
Liberals and their allies say the problem is the easy accessibility of guns and greater gun control is the solution. That is nonsense. Guns do not commit crimes; people do.
Until 1979, the FBI reported homicide arrests sorted by racial breakdowns that included Japanese. Between 1976 and 1978, 21 of 48,695 arrests for murder and non-negligent manslaughter were Japanese-Americans. That translates to an annual murder rate of 1 per 100,000 of the Japanese-American population. Would anyone advance the argument that the reason why homicide is virtually nonexistent among Japanese-Americans is because they can’t find guns?
The high victimization rate experienced by the overwhelmingly law-abiding black community is mostly the result of predators not having to pay a heavy enough price for their behavior. They benefit from all kinds of asinine excuses, such as poverty, racial discrimination and few job opportunities.
During the 1940s and ’50s, I grew up in north Philadelphia, where many of today’s murders occur. It was a time when blacks were much poorer, there was far more racial discrimination, and fewer job opportunities and other opportunities for upward socioeconomic mobility were available. There was nowhere near the level of crime and wanton destruction that exists today. Behavior accepted today wasn’t accepted then by either black adults or policemen.
Police often know who the local criminals and drug lords are and where crack houses are located, but various legal technicalities hamper their ability to make arrests and raids. Law-abiding citizens are often afraid to assist police or testify against criminals for fear of retaliation. The level of criminal activity not only puts residents in physical jeopardy but represents a heavy tax on people least able to bear it. That heavy tax includes higher prices for goods and services and fewer shopping opportunities because supermarkets and other large retailers are reluctant to bear the costs of doing business in high-crime areas.
So here’s the question: Should black people accept government’s dereliction of its first basic function, that of providing protection? My answer is no. One of our basic rights is the right to defend oneself against predators. If the government can’t or won’t protect people, people have a right to protect themselves.
You say, "Hey, Williams, you’re not talking about vigilantism, are you?" Yes, I am. Webster’s Dictionary defines vigilantism as: a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily as when the processes of law are viewed as inadequate.
Example: Years ago, Black Muslims began to patrol Mayfair, a drug-infested, gang-ridden D.C. housing project. The gangs and drug lords left, likely because the Muslims didn’t issue Miranda warnings. Black men should set up neighborhood patrols, armed if necessary, and if politicians and police don’t like it, they should do their jobs. No one should have to live in daily fear for their lives and safety.
Game. Set. Match.
I admire Walter Williams, and find it a treat when he subs for Rush. He often has his friend Thomas Sowell on when he does.
Amen. Walter Williams is a man of distinction, highly educated and a sweet, likable human being.
WOW!
Good observation. UN fair comparison.
Its history,education, pride and opportunity at work!
IMO this represents Japanese wanting to be good educated Americans. Good people are good people wherever they are.
As a people,the Japanese are and have been far more civilized whereas these Africans are still too close to the earth, but worse, choosing NOT to elevate themselves.
Its an issue of culture based choice
yet it's all whitey's fault.
Same thing has been going on for decades in African countries under Black rule. Yet the silence from the black leaders is deafening on these stats....
except for a very few, like Bill Cosby, who try to educate the blacks to take responsibility for their lives and their actions - to help their youth understand that education is one of the major roads to success =- and escape from the vicious cycle. These black leaders are attacked by the blacks who want to keep their power over their people by keeping them in poverty, ignorance and a "whitey is to blame for everything" mantra.
Fat chance!
Definately, and I neglected to mention how indispensible he is to me when gift shopping for Mrs. VR-21.
I know I covered this on a thread yesterday so please tell me to shut up if you want but a friend of mine from church is the publicist for Tony Dungy’s memoir, Quiet Strength. He’s done a great job but Oprah won’t have him on the show and that’s kind of the holy grail for book publicists.
With that said, Bill Cosby is doing two shows gratis next Saturday in Jackson, Mich., for the endowment of Tony’s dad, who was a professor at Jackson Community College. My friend pitched Oprah about getting tape of the two together in Jackson and then having them on the show together to discuss this very topic. He got a thanks but no thanks response that they really weren’t interested in the story. He’s been trying to get Dungy on for months and they just won’t bite, not even with Cosby as part of the bait.
You were spot on with your assessment.
I listen to Walter on Rush’s show more than I listen to Rush.
He’s a pedantic, supercilious, stinking tobacco addict who so desperately wants to be white that he has turned his back on his own brothers-in-race and gets rich from mocking their carefree ways and the small enjoyment that only truly free, unmarried or unencumbered men running form the jackboot of the Man can seek for small solace.
Or so I’ve been told.
Oh, the horror of transposition — “FROM,” not FORM.
Blacks or anyone else in America will never stand against anything that makes them money. Victimhood pays well.
With all due respect, how about being a bit more specific Mr. Williams? All people, black or white or whatever, should stand against “UNWARRANTED VIOLENCE.” There’s a big difference. People who make the statement that violence never solved anything are whistling in the dark. Don’t believe me? Just ask the government.
A real shame = for someone with her adoring legions, she could be using her influence to make a sea-change difference in the black community - and the country
I don’t think I’ve ever met a finer gentleman than Walter Williams. But, I’m afraid this column could soon get him “cosbyized” — i.e., ostracized by the dominant black culture for being far too honest, upright, and rational.
I agree. One of the most tragic things in our society is the way so many of our black countrymen are manipulated by moneyed interests to admire who they do, and disdain the likes of Sowell, Williams, Connerly and Thomas.
I don’t agree but respect your right to do so. I will stay with my assessment of dignified Mr. Williams which is as I stated.
:) He is humorous isn’t he? Must love his wife very, very much. He’s just a good man. :)
Oh.
I guess the sarcasm tag is necessary.
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