[KC Burke]

Is the problem social decay, crime, situational ethics, and perverted morals or is it that there are different races in New York? From this article, so charged with race rhetoric, it is hard to tell. If the crimes and eventual stupidity had been done by equally available white cretins would the article be unnessary?

I'm glad I don't live in the big urban East if every curative must be framed in such racially charged terms. While not a sad as the incident it portrays, it is still a disheartening view.

[mrustow]

Is the problem social decay, crime, situational ethics, and perverted morals or is it that there are different races in New York? From this article, so charged with race rhetoric, it is hard to tell.

Racially charged rhetoric, or simply a description of a racially charged reality? My experience in NYC supports the latter interpretation. And things have gotten much worse since 1989.

If the crimes and eventual stupidity had been done by equally available white cretins would the article be unnessary?

Since it is generations since whites in NYC felt they could routinely brutalize blacks, I find it impossible to respond to your hypothetical. What I can say, however, is that blacks commonly lie, in claiming to have been brutalized or viciously discriminated against by whites, and the media always makes the hoaxes front page news. However, when the hoaxes are exposed, the coverage is often meek and mild, or non-existent. In Coloring the News, William McGowan analyzes the media coverage of a number of such hoaxes.

I'm glad I don't live in the big urban East if every curative must be framed in such racially charged terms. While not a sad as the incident it portrays, it is still a disheartening view.

Urban America is sinking into ever deeper doo-doo -- east, west, and in between.