Violent Death in America is an Equal Opportunity Crime

By Alan Caruba

I have had an interest in demography, the study of populations and trends within populations, for a long time. Racial animosities in America have been a factor from the moment white colonists stepped off the boat and were greeted by Native Americans and, not that long after, when the first blacks arrived from Africa where slavery had flourished for centuries.

I lived in the South when Jim Crow laws were on the books and public facilities were segregated. I was a young reporter during the Civil Rights era of the 1960s and even met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on one occasion. I have seen the best and worst of what race represents in America.

I would count the initial reporting on the killing of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, as among the worst media coverage in a while because, as the facts begin to emerge after a month, it turns out that there was an eye witness to the incident in which George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, suffered a broken nose and injuries to the back of his head consistent with an attack.

The Black Panther Party issued a reward for Zimmerman’s “capture.” In the meantime, Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev. Jesse Jackson, have been out doing what they always do, stirring up black anger and blaming all whites for what occurred.

Let’s look at the demographic facts. In 2007 the Associated Press reported that “Nearly half of the nation’s murder victims were black and the number of black men who were slain is on the rise.” The other half were murdered white victims.

Murder in America is an equal opportunity crime.

The article went on to note that black people represented an estimated 13 percent of the U.S. population in 2005, the latest data then available, but were the victims of 49 percent of all murders and 15 percent of rapes, assaults and other nonfatal violent crimes nationwide.”

The U.S. Justice Department study found that “Most of the black murder victims—93 percent—were killed by other black people.”

The study also found that 85 percent of white victims were slain by other white people. Of the black victims, 51 percent were in their late teens and twenties.

More recent statistics from 2009, posted on the website of the U.S. Department of Justice show pretty much the same trend. That year, 2,604 blacks were killed by blacks, along with 454 whites, but whites managed to kill each other to the tune of 2,963 victims, while killing 209 black victims.

Nationally by 2010, homicide was the leading cause of death for black young men ages 10-24 and the second leading cause of death for black women ages 15-24.

Overall, between 1974 and 2004, 52 percent of murderers were black, 48 percent were white, while 51 percent of the victims were white and 47 percent were black. If one can spin these statistics to suggest that the killing of Trayvon Martin was racial, be my guest.

Appearing on the Sean Hannity program Monday evening, Zimmerman’s friend, Joe Oliver, calmly defended him saying “he is not a racist.” Oliver is black.

Why Barack Obama felt it necessary to insert himself into the situation before the facts are established was a reminder of an earlier situation in 2009 when he took issue with an incident between Cambridge, Massachusetts police and a black professor who was hauled off to jail for failing to cooperate with them. Always assuming the police are to blame or inferring that Trayvon Martin was killed because he could have looked like Obama’s son, if he had one, is a serious breach of judgment. To say it out loud is even worse.

Finally, lost in all the hasty assumptions and accusations is the fact that Zimmerman was, as previously noted, a neighborhood watch volunteer and this suggests the Sanford, Florida neighborhood had crime problems. Trayvon, we’re learning, had some earlier experiences with the local police, so he was on that evening a subject of concern to Zimmerman who reported his presence to the police and was returning to his car when the shooting occurred.

No one takes any pleasure in the death of Trayvon Martin or any other young black man. It is a tragedy, but it is also one that is repeated far too many times in too many American cities for reasons that cannot be passed off as racism. His death reflects the pathologies that plague too many of America’s black population.

We should be celebrating the black men and women that escape their cultural bondage, embrace middle class values, and ennoble their lives through their personal achievements.

Exploiting his death is a disservice to both America’s black and white population.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

Flash Mobs: Being Young, Black, and Male in America Today

By Alan Caruba

Those who follow my commentaries know that I rarely discuss race in America. I find it an unhappy topic at best and, from my readings in U.S. history, I feel safe in saying there was never a good time to be Black in America.

Slavery before, during and after the American Revolution was a stain on the nation and, though some were slave owners, the Founding Fathers knew it. To get the new Constitution ratified among the thirteen States, they had to trim their sails to the point where Article One, Section Two refers to “those bound to service” and, for the purpose of taxation of “free persons”, the slaves were counted as “three fifths of all other Persons.” Ugh.

It would, of course, take a Civil War to end slavery, though Lincoln’s preferred solution was to put the slaves on a ship back to Africa. That was not likely because by 1861 when the war began, there were 3,954,000 slaves, the majority of whom lived on plantations where, from Virginia to Texas, they often outnumbered whites by 13 to 1.

My awareness of Blacks was limited in my youth, growing up in an upscale New Jersey suburban community where they were quite scarce. You could count the number of Black students in my high school on one hand. When I was drafted in the Army most of my service in the early 1960s was on a base in the Deep South. It gave me a close up view of segregation. When I was discharged, I became a journalist on a weekly serving a small New Jersey city neighboring Newark. I was there when the city’s first Black mayor was elected.

It was the time of the Civil Rights movement, filled with marches and tumult. I met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1967 Newark erupted in rioting, the result of poverty, and of sense of being powerless and disenfranchised. The Italians who had run the city gave way to Black politicians and, five decades later, they still are in charge, but the social problems remain.

If anyone would have told me that America would elect a Black President, I would have said that was impossible. I was wrong and so were the many Blacks who rejoiced in the election of Barack Obama, confident that he would take the lead, representing them, paying particular attention to their issues. Obama proved to be more concerned with Islam.

I got to thinking about that when several commentators, referring to how he would be remembered, said that Obama would no longer be remembered as the first Black President, but rather as the first Downgrade President. When he addressed the nation on August 8, his cool detachment seemed alarmingly at odds with the tumult on Wall Street and around the world that had been triggered by Standard & Poor’s decision.

How do Blacks perceive Obama, I wondered.

A friend, Milton, a retired Black corporate executive, attorney, business owner who edits and writes for BlackQuillandInk.com, a website for Black conservatives, responded to my question noting that Black support for Obama’s candidacy was about 98%, but has slipped since to around 86%.

It was his view that the Blacks “have been poisoned to dislike non-Blacks” and to see themselves “as victims.” I understand the victim part, but was surprised by his observation regarding the animosity, if only because White America has gone to fairly extraordinary lengths to redress the ills of the past.

As America’s most famous minority, Blacks are now outnumbered by Hispanics and are being by-passed by virtually all other minority in America in terms of achievement and upward mobility. The chains may have been removed, but, as the syndicated columnist. Walter E. Williams, noted in July 2010, “The pathology seen among a large segment of the Black population is not likely to change because it is not seen for what it is. It has little to do with slavery, poverty and racial discrimination.”

“Today’s black illegitimacy rate is about 70%,” said Williams. “When I was a youngster, during the 1940s, illegitimacy was around 15%...Today, only 35% of black children are raised in two-parent households.”

And it gets worse. In an August 2010 Washington Post article by columnist George Will, he wrote that “By the early 2000s, more than a third of all young black non-college men were under the supervision of the corrections system. More than 60% of black high school dropouts born since the mid-1960s go to prison. Mass incarceration blights the prospects of black women.”

In recent weeks, from the Wisconsin State Fair to Philadelphia, from Milwaukee to Los Angeles, reports of flash mobs of young Blacks attacking whites are stirring racial fears. The most dangerous factor in Black cities and neighborhoods are the hordes of young males, raised by one parent, dropouts from school, no skills, no jobs, no prospects, and lots of angry energy that is too often diverted into crime and violence.

Barack Obama’s economic policies have failed the nation, but they have been especially adverse on Blacks. Black unemployment and foreclosures, for example, have skyrocketed under Obama and remain disproportionately high as compared to other communities. In short, Obama has done nothing for Blacks in America either on the macro and micro level to improve their opportunities or attitudes.

He has nothing in common with them; a half-white Columbia University graduate and Harvard educated lawyer, former instructor at the University of Chicago, married to a Princeton and Harvard graduate, herself an attorney. They have two girls that go to private school and their inner circle of friends, Black and white, are dedicated Marxists.

The editor of BlackQuillandInk.com says. “The Black community refuses to admit how wrong they were in voting for Obama.”

© Alan Caruba, 2011

Boredom

By Alan Caruba

I have this theory about boredom. I think it is the cause of a great deal of mischief in people’s lives and even may underlie why nations go to war. Even the current turmoil throughout the Maghreb and the Middle East may have an element of boredom as people grow tired of their current despots and seek to overthrow them.

In 1984 I created a media spoof called The Boring Institute© and it was tremendously popular. I averaged a thousand radio interviews a year, learning in the process that American cultural figures were well known worldwide. Through films and television, foreigners followed our homegrown personalities and, of course, both provide an escape from boredom.

After 9/11, I put the Institute on hiatus and, not until 2010 did I revive its popular list of “The Most Boring Celebrities of the Year”, but my absence of nearly a decade ensured a limited media response. I had, however, learned a lot about boredom’s impact on our lives.

Peter Toohey is a professor of classics in the Department of Greek and Roman Studies at the University of Calgary. He might be deemed an unlikely author of “Boredom, A Lively History” ($26.00, Yale University Press), but the subject, but the book jacket says he “has long been bemused by boredom”, i.e. “lost in thought” by definition.

The result is an exhaustive study of boredom; an intellectual exercise that ultimately tests the reader’s willingness to explore every novel, every painting, every cultural and historical artifact regarding the subject. This is the nature of intellectuals and not really a criticism of Prof. Toohey who has done a masterful job.

“To my mind, existential boredom is a hotchpotch of a category, and one whose basis is more intellectual than experiential—it is a condition which seems to me to be more read about and discussed than actually experienced. This book will unapologetically give simple boredom an equal billing,” said Prof. Toohey in his preface.

As to what makes something boring, Prof. Toohey says it is “predictability, monotony, and confinement.” This is as good a definition as any, but my interest in boredom has been what results from this universal mind-numbing experience.

Over the many years I maintained the “Institute” I collected all manner of data in order to respond to serious questions about boredom. I probably should have written a book about and am glad that Prof. Toohey has.

Boredom and Social Problems

Criminal behavior provides a frisson of excitement in the same way that gambling does. A great deal of crime is committed by people in their teens and twenties. Desperately bored, it becomes an outlet for their energy and may well account for why communities deliberately sponsor athletic and volunteer activities to soak up that energy.

Boredom lies at the heart of why marriages grow stale and partners cheat on one another and often seek divorce. Sex with the same partner reflects Prof. Toohey’s identification of predictability and, to an extent, confinement. So boredom carries with it some real challenges for any society.

Entertainment media and even news is a major escape mechanism. Those that hold an audience’s attention thrive. Those that don’t fail. I suspect that, in the run-up to the 2012 elections, many will find the endless analysis and speculation boring enough to “turn off” and wait, as many do until the days just prior to the election to make up their mind.

For myself, boredom is your mind demanding to be “fed”, “stimulated”, fulfilled in the same way the body must be fed and for the same reason we explore different foods as opposed to eating the same thing every day. My late Mother taught haute cuisine, gourmet preparation and dining for three decades. She was never bored and neither were those in her classes. Dinner time at the Caruba home was always a treat.

It is an irony and a tragedy of our school system that education has been turned into a dreadful “teach to the test” exercise in boredom when learning new things should at its heart be one of the most exciting things youngsters (and adults) can do. It is the ultimate “food for thought.”

Boredom is such a danger to individuals and societies that we have created all manner of ways to avoid it. Sports, either as a participant or a spectator, are a valuable escape from boredom. Travel is another. All manner of community or business related organizations provide valuable outlets. Politics, a blood sport in America, is another.

Finally, as a longtime book reviewer, I cannot fail to say that reading is absolutely essential to avoid boredom. There are few pleasures that can rival a good book whether it is fiction or non-fiction. They shine a light in the dark and empty places of the mind.

Short periods of boredom are to be expected, but extended boredom is a good definition of depression. When the mind is deprived it turns in on itself and literally punishes an individual for starving it of activity. People do a lot of foolish things to escape boredom and that applies to entire nations as well.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

New Jersey, We're Number One (Again)

By Alan Caruba

Having been born in New Jersey and lived here most of my life with time out for college and the U.S. army, I must confess I was a bit out of sorts over all the attention that Illinois and former Governor Rod Blagojevitch was receiving or the constant references in the press to that state’s record of corrupt political officials.

I was upset, too, when South Carolina’s governor grabbed all the headlines because he had a paramour in Argentina and, upon discovery, concluded it was just one of those teaching moments in one’s life to learn from while continuing to be governor.

So, naturally, I was delighted to see that New Jersey has once again reclaimed its title as the most corrupt State in the Union. This is a distinction that our elected and appointed officials do not take lightly.

I am pretty sure that, upon election to any office in the state, the FBI immediately opens up a file and then waits for the first informant to walk in the door, usually in response to having been cheated of his bribe money.

According to news reports, various federal officials participated in the arrest of forty people in early morning raids across New Jersey on Thursday, July 23. What caught my eye, however, was that it took ten years to achieve this coup and all of the cases were held together like a string of pearls by a single “cooperating witness”, a failed real estate developer named Solomon Dwek.

Using taxpayer money, Dwek trawled for politicians as well as some rabbis from Brooklyn, offering bribes for fictitious real estate and money laundering deals, netting the mayors of Hoboken, Secaucus and Ridgefield, among others charged with alleged criminal behavior.

A longtime columnist for the state’s largest daily newspaper, Bob Braun, opined that “if what the prosecutors are charging holds up in court, this case will go down in the crowded annals of New Jersey prosecutions as the moment when our politicians—and others—were proven, not just to be corrupt, but breathtakingly stupid.”

This raises the question of whether being stupid hasn’t become a de rigueur part of the resume of anyone running for office in New Jersey or anywhere else in the nation these days?

Corruption, greed, I can understand, but let it be said that the Mafia functioned quite well in its earliest days (and probably still) by spotting the kind of talent that avoided calling attention to themselves while reaping fortunes in ill-gotten gains. It wasn’t until flashy characters decided that the money wasn’t enough that they began to attract unwanted attention. This begot mobsters like “the dapper don”, John Gotti, who died in jail as the result of too much publicity and a pal who ratted on him. That’s what happens when you hang out with people of poor character.

The equation is reversed for politicians who thrive on publicity and then use their office to line their pockets.

Braun may have been a bit hasty in pronouncing the guilt of stupidity because, as we all know, people are presumed innocent until sent directly to jail without passing “Go” and picking up $200. That said, he's probably right.

A headline of one sidebar article on the arrests declared New Jersey “The Most Politically Corrupt Place on Earth.” That is pure hyperbole. There are nations in Africa, not to mention, Russia, and much of Asia and South America, that are far more corrupt than the Garden State.

Still, as states go, New Jersey has at last reclaimed its title as probably the most corrupt in the nation. The Republican candidate running for governor, Chris Christie, made his reputation as a district attorney who sent dozens of New Jersey politicians to jail. His opponent, Jon Corzine, the present governor is so rich he had no need to be corrupt although some observers think his former employer, Goldman Sachs, operates in a fashion that Don Corleone and Tony Soprano would admire.

Let me close by saying that New Jersey is home to millions of law-abiding citizens. It is, however, one of the great mysteries why they keep electing people of such poor character, judgment, and probity.

The Lunatics Among Us

By Alan Caruba

Whether it was the lunatic who killed several people in a mall, the ones who killed students on the Virginia Tech and the North Illinois University campus, or news of the capture of the alleged meat cleaver killer of a New York psychiatrist, the simple fact is that there are lunatics who live among us every day.

I suspect that if we knew how many of these people are out there, we would be demanding that laws be changed to lock them up for just about any reason. This is one of those areas of tension that exist between the right against being arbitrarily arrested and held without “due process” and the need to protect the public.

The greatest mystery in our lives is the question we ask when we wonder what someone else is thinking. Even acts of kindness make us wonder, though a threat is frequently intuited instantly.

How many murdered wives have told their friends and relatives that their husband is going to kill them some day? How many husbands are killed by wives that “snap”? Police will tell you that your chances of being murdered by someone you know are far higher than being killed by a stranger.

The mental institutions and the jails of America are filled with people who have either a tenuous grip on reality or who regard the laws that we respect and obey to be an obstacle to their wishes.

Whether they are hearing voices in their head or just yielding to their own demented desires, they are a threat to everyone. We rarely, however, know it until we are directly confronted by the threat.

This is the primary and most compelling argument to permit law-abiding citizens the right to carry concealed weapons. These are ordinary people with no criminal record who have demonstrated competency with a handgun. They save lives. In States where it is known that the general population can legally carry concealed weapons, the numbers of murders and other crimes are reduced.

I’m not sure how many people defend their lives daily with guns, but it is in the hundreds and more. In a population of 310 million and climbing, the odds you will encounter a threat are climbing too. The mere presence of a gun, however, is often sufficient to deter further trouble.

It seems to me, though I have no statistics to prove it, that these murderous incidents where people are known to gather in numbers and to be defenseless, whether it’s a mall or a campus, are increasing.

I have always found it interesting that we will watch a Western movie where all the men walk around with guns in holsters or carrying rifles and accept the normality of it. Often the only law in town was a sheriff and that was no guarantee against a bad guy. So men routinely carried weapons. We understand the need, but we shy from today’s citizens having the same level of personal protection. It doesn’t make sense, does it?

In the last John Wayne movie, “The Shootist”, the old gunfighter explained, “I won’t be wronged. I won’t be insulted. I won’t be laid a-hand on. I don’t do these things to other people and I require the same from them.”

That makes a lot of sense to me.

What doesn’t make any sense and never will are the actions of deranged people who kill complete strangers. As often as not, they kill themselves too. Why don’t they do that before harming others? It has something to do with the absolute evil that lurks in the dark places of the soul.

Greens Try to Cash in on Valentine's Day

By Alan Caruba

Below is the actual text of an email received today. It is one more example of the way Greens cannot resist cashing in on every aspect of our lives by laying a guilt trip on us. I have put the especially obnoxious aspects in italics.

"We thought that your readers would be interested how this year their Valentine’s Day gifts can not only woo their loved ones, but also care for the planet. At EarthMoment.com, your readers can find both traditional and ‘green’ gift ideas for their Valentine’s. And no matter which they choose, they can make a difference by reducing their carbon footprint.

EarthMoment.com searches millions of products from top retailers such as Apple, Barnes & Noble, Guitar Center and 1-800-Flowers, among thousands of others. And whether the Valentine’s gift is a box of chocolate (organic, even) a dozen roses, or a book of poetry, half of the commission-based revenue that EarthMoment receives from the vendor goes to CarbonFund.org , the leading nonprofit climate change solutions organization that supports third-party verified carbon offset projects.

As shoppers show their love this Valentine’s day, they can give a little extra without even trying - giving back to their favorite planet to really make a difference. Please let me know if you would be interested in speaking to anyone at EarthMoment for insider gift ideas."

Carbon offsets are the bogus indulgences that permit Al Gore to live in a home that uses, in a year's time, energy equal to twenty ordinary homes. They are being pimped as the new way that "polluting" industries that produce greenhouse gas, i.e. carbon dioxide, emissions can buy or sell the offsets so they can continue to do what they have always done...without any harm to the earth. CO2 is a good gas. Part of CO2 is OXYGEN. It is not bad for the planet because every single piece of vegetation on earth depends on CO2.

All chocolate is organic. It starts with a chocolate BEAN that grows from the earth. The same holds true for FLOWERS, except for the ones made from silk or plastic. Plastic is a derivative of OIL which comes from the earth and fuels our modern civilization.

The Earth is my favorite planet because there is no life on any other planet in our solar system. It's not like I have a choice.

Turning Valentine's Day into yet another excuse to fleece people to get money for phony, non-existent threats to the planet should be deemed a bunko crime.

Real Murderers Cry A Lot

By Alan Caruba

I don’t watch television like other people do. When you spend your days writing, your mind needs to relax to a point where it is not processing a lot of information. I can’t remember the last time I watched an entire football game or even a movie. I want television to teach me something while, frankly, entertaining me.

I tend, therefore, to watch the History Channel, Animal Planet, Discovery, and C-Span on the weekends when they feature authors. I have been a book reviewer for over four decades and I read a lot. Like I said, I like learning things.

Lately I have become addicted to “The First 48” a reality show on A&E. If you are not familiar with it, in Memphis, Phoenix, Dallas or Miami, a camera team follows around real detectives from the minute a call comes in regarding a murder. There are no staged events. We merely get to watch as they attempt to solve the murder and, in their world, the first 48 hours after a killing is crucial to finding the killer.

I have also been a fan of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and what is most striking is the vast difference between the fictional show—which is well written and well acted—and real life is how little forensics, other than the most obvious such as the fortuitous fingerprint or shell casings, play a role in finding killers in the real world.

Things like eye witnesses, license plate numbers, descriptions of automobiles, and especially cell phones and the records they leave behind, play a key role, but almost inevitably, the suspects are already in the crime records, their photos instantly staring back from the computer screen and their “rap sheets” carefully documenting a life of bad decisions when their names are typed into the system.

Another factor common to almost every murder is drugs. And, finally, virtually all the victims are either Black or Hispanic. They live in bad neighborhoods, often home to gangs. Their killers are also Black or Hispanic. White people kill each other, too, of course, but the week-to-week program reveals a world that those of us raised in nice, white, middle, and upper class suburban neighborhoods never see.

How are the killers found? As often as not their family members give them up, providing the information necessary to find them. Sometimes it’s their girl friends or guys with whom they hang out. They are often in their teens or twenties. It is the rare old man who kills anyone, though the show had shown one such case.

Finally, killers tend to cry a lot when they are caught. I found that surprising. In the fictional world of killers, they’re tough as nails, but in the real world, they tend to cry before and during the interrogation. The questions detectives ask are almost too simple. “Tell me what happened?” The lies are so pathetic one understands why these people are unable to envision going to jail for decades. Confronted, they just spill the beans.

The detectives are an eclectic group, both men and women, but they have one thing in common. As difficult and demanding as the job is, they just love it. Their client is the victim. I never watch the show without being very thankful for cops.

In America’s big cities, somebody is killing somebody all the time. That’s the nature of cities. People feel anonymous, but they’re not. They have family and friends. Until they kill somebody and then nobody wants them around.