Do Black Lives Really Matter? Latest New York City Crime Statistics
I would like to open a thread for civil, cogent, and constructive discussion on racism in America. The topic has been so politically polarized that open , polite discourse in this Forum is difficult. let us encourage open, frank, respectful contributions on the matter. and Frame it in this Way
Question - is the concept of Equality for All under the Law Racist, or are political carveouts, special interest group legislation, and preferential treatment of 'minorities' an answer to 'Racism". Does 'institutional racism ' exist, as a reality in today's America - and are the solutions proposed for 'institutional racism' an answer to Racial issues in America?
let's begin with an article originally from EFF - credit given.
I encourage posting of published articles and refeences/comments to support points of View.
i discourage name-calling, denigration of posters, and non cogent /constructive posting - in line and consistent with the Rules of the Forum..
Do Black Lives Really Matter? Latest New York City Crime Statistics
This has been the year of mass protests over the killings of unarmed black people by the police. Most of the protests were in explicit reaction to a small number of famous incidents. In March it was the death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville; then in May, George Floyd in Minneapolis; and in June, Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta. The protests, often accompanied by violence and looting, continued through the summer and into the fall. The ubiquitous slogan was: Black Lives Matter.
Here in New York, both the state legislature and City government have reacted to the Black Lives Matter protests with a series of measures that have included exempting many crimes from bail requirements, and a reduction of about $1 billion (16%) in the budget of the City Police Department. These are the principal steps that supposedly will demonstrate that yes, black lives do, in fact, matter.
In recent days and weeks the NYPD has released some data as to violent crime in the City as we near the end of 2020. How’s it going? The answer is, it’s an unmitigated disaster, particularly for black and Hispanic crime victims.
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Ben Chapman has a piece with the headline “New York City’s Shooting Surge Hits Black and Hispanic Communities Hardest.” (probably behind pay wall). Chapman reports that, according to the latest data from the NYPD through December 20, the number of shooting incidents in New York City has more than doubled in just the last year, comparing 2020 to 2019:
Between Jan. 1 and Dec. 20, the city recorded 1,824 shooting victims, up nearly 104% from 896 during the same period a year earlier, according to NYPD data. The number of shootings increased to 1,493 for the year so far, compared with 754 for the same time in 2019, the data showed.
Chapman checks in with the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice to see how many of the victims were black or Hispanic. The answer is, almost all of them:
An analysis of NYPD data by that office [Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice] showed that 1,440 of 1,495 shooting victims between Jan. 1 to Oct. 1, or 96%, were either Black or Hispanic. During that period, 29 shooting victims were white.
The shootings turn out to be very heavily concentrated in a handful of neighborhoods that are populated almost entirely by blacks and Hispanics:
Eight low-income neighborhoods, including six in Brooklyn and two in the Bronx, have the highest number of shootings of any neighborhoods in the city, according to the analysis. Gun violence has been a persistent and longstanding problem in those neighborhoods, which include the Brownsville and East New York sections of Brooklyn and parts of the South Bronx.
Chapman doesn’t give statistics for homicides in this piece, but such data for New York City through December 20 can be found here. The number of murders through December 20 for this year is 437, which represents an increase of 39.2% over the 314 at this point last year, and an increase of more than 50% over the low of 290 in 2017.
According to Chapman’s piece, citing the analysis of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, “the racial breakdown of shooting victims follows patterns in previous years.” That would mean that the increase of nearly 1000 shooting victims over last year includes something like 950 blacks and Hispanics; and the increase of 123 murder victims over last year includes about 118 blacks and Hispanics. Considering that New York City contains less than 3% of the nation’s population, these are rather startlingly large numbers.
Chapman’s piece is securely buried on page A10A of today’s print edition, and in a “Greater New York” section that is only distributed regionally. Hey, the news of nearly 2000 black and Hispanic shooting victims, and about 400 black and Hispanic murder victims, all killed in our local area this year, is not nearly so important as the death of one black man in Minneapolis. That one death occupied the front pages for weeks on end.
What is the reaction of the de Blasio administration to this ongoing catastrophe? Chapman goes to one Jessica Mofield, identified as “executive director of New York City’s Office to Prevent Gun Violence.” In other words, this is the person whose specific responsibility was to prevent the catastrophe that has occurred. Here is her reaction:
[Ms. Mofield] said a range of factors related to poverty and racism have made poor and minority neighborhoods particularly vulnerable to gun violence during the coronavirus pandemic. . . . Ms. Mofield said access to health care, education and jobs should be provided in low-income communities as a preventive measure to stop gun violence.
Yes, it’s racism! Undoubtedly, your racism. And her proposed remedy is that somebody should pour more money into the New York City schools, the ones that already spend about triple national norms per student to achieve inferior educational results. In any event, rest assured that neither Mofield, nor de Blasio, nor anyone else associated with his administration, will accept any accountability for the situation.
I should point out that even if the number of homicides in New York reaches 450 this year, that will represent a rate of about 5 per hundred thousand population, compared to rates in the range of 25 to 40 per hundred thousand for cities like Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis and Baltimore. We are still far, far safer than those places. Still, what is currently happening here represents a senseless squandering of the heroic crime reduction efforts in New York going back to the mayoralty of Rudy Giuliani that began in 1994, when there were over 2000 murders per year (about 25 per hundred thousand).
The increase in shootings and murders is a tragedy focused on the black and Hispanic communities. It certainly looks like black lives do not matter to Mayor de Blasio and his progressive allies.
25 Comments New York, Progressivism in Action, Statistics
Posted by Francis Menton.
CapitalistRoader 46 minutes ago · 0 Likes
Stopped watching Law & Order twenty years ago. Even back then Law & Order RWGDI (Rich White Guy Did It) was de rigueur but the worst offenders were Evil White Capitalists, horrible rich white doctors or manufacturing company CEOs, all of whom killed people for profit. You didn't even have to watch it 'till the end to figure out who the bad guy was. It was like watching Soviet propaganda film every week.
E Olson 5 hours ago · 0 Likes
In relation to my comment below about Law and Order TV criminals being mostly white and wealthy, and the reluctance of the media to report racial disparities in crime statistics, it is interesting to speculate an alternative world where entertainment programs and news reporting offered accurate representations of reality. Thus instead of TV shows representing Hispanic illegals as patriotic, hard-working, law-abiding "Americans" and ICE agents as ghouls intent on tearing families apart as they heartlessly enforce "stupid" laws and ship all these good people back to their "hellhole" home countries, what would happen if the shows accurately represented these illegals as being on welfare 60 to 80% of the time, and also accurately portrayed their over-representation among criminals and gang members where every victim of their criminality would not have suffered if a wall had kept the illegals out of the country? What would happen if newspapers reporting on a brutal murder, stabbing, or rape accurately described the assailant as a Somalian immigrant instead of a more innocuous "Minnesota man"?
What would be the result if crime shows reflected reality and 80+% of all violent crimes were show to be committed by blacks, Hispanics, and Muslims? What would be the result if the rape "epidemic" on college campuses was accurately depicted as drunk kids "hooking up" and then changing their minds about how consensual it was after they sober up or get ghosted? What would happen if TV shows reflected reality where white and Asian males from the "wrong side of the tracks" with high test scores and impressive resumes get rejection letters from Ivy League schools, top law firms, and big name Tech companies in favor of lower scoring people of color and/or female applicants with truly privileged backgrounds?
I invite commenters to speculate on what such honesty in TV show scripts and news reporting would do to Leftist agendas and narratives on immigration, welfare, racial/gender affirmative action and quotas, and systemic racism.
Diogenes An hour ago · 0 Likes
It's not a recent phenomena.
I recently visited a developing country. To alleviate boredom in the evenings, I turned on the television. All that was available was American network series programs from the 1950s and '60s— a steady, continuous, repetitious and monotonous fare of "Paladin," "Gunsmoke," and "Bonanza."
I could not help but notice that almost every single episode had a constant theme: a victimized/bullied/oppressed group or individual was saved/rescued/freed from the clutches of villains by the featured series' hero/heroes.
It is a standard formula that has been employed by Hollywood/television script writers for many, many decades.
All that's required is the identification of three groups: (1) victim, (2) oppressor/bad guy and (3) hero/good guy.
Stephen Spielberg and most Hollywood/television writers have always been adept at defining villains; they are variously Nazis, Middle East terrorists, would-be tyrants/dictators, bankers, oil men, et al.
That's how generations of young Americans have been conditioned to accept Hollywood/television script writer's versions of reality.
Greg Stallings 14 hours ago · 0 Likes
Still rummaging in MC's past essays. Here is a directly related item 4 days after Trump's inauguration contradicting the left dialog.
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/...rican-carnage?
This essay has specific stats on the carnage to NYC minority neighborhoods.
After 6 months of the famous Russia collusion fantasy Coup attempt, Trump's cabinet folks & real regulation removal seem to have grown on MC & myself.
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/...pletely-insane
A month later was the Charlottesville totally fake news HOAX 'fine people' where he said the neo-nazi's should be condemned but was 'reported' as the opposite by MSM. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/ar...of_139815.html
Demented Joe Biden said he based his campaign on this hateful delusion.
And then last summer's virtually unreported various urban destruction by BLM & Antifa "protestors". Breaking windows & running off with loot in their "grief".
Steve Walser 14 hours ago · 0 Likes
Why should black lives matter? They vote for dems even when dead!
OP- this is inappropriate and non-constructive type of posting . I believe All Lives matter, and all are Equal under the Law.
And - I believe that my belief posted here - is Not Racist!
Alabaster Mc Gillicuddy 22 hours ago · 0 Likes
It is obvious the statistics presented are in error. New York City and State both have stringent gun control laws and we know the answer to gun violence is gun control laws.
E Olson 22 hours ago · 0 Likes
Enforcing laws is racist.
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JohnTyler A day ago · 0 Likes
Black lives matter ONLY if the individual committing the killing is white; that's it folks.
If 500 inner city, black children were shot dead each year due to black gang violence, nobody would give a flying f**k. And that "nobody" includes the black mayor of Chicago and all other black progressive politicians like Obama, Holder, Winfrey, Sharpton, Jackson, et. al.
Leftists (e.g.,. BLM, ANTIFA, the demokrats, etc) care only about achieving and maintaining power and if that means that the "other"person (i.e., innocent inner city blacks) must pay the ultimate price so that they, the leftist "leaders" can benefit, so be it.
The liberal progressive establishment - black and white - have contributed, if not caused - the deaths of far more black folks than the KKK could ever have hoped to kill.
I still have not figured out why the KKK has not awarded honorary Grand Klaxon distinctions to the mayors of Chicago , Baltimore, Newark, etc., (past and present) and to Sharpton, Jackson, the Congressional Black Caucus, Holder, Obama, the NAACP, BLM, ANTIFA, etc. and to all other liberal progressive organizations.
Just goes to show that the results of policies are of no import; what matters is the message conveyed is the "correct" message.
Ralph A day ago · 0 Likes
Well, as they say you have to break some eggs to make an omelet. The omelet is power for Leftists and the eggs are the people murdered by the violent Leftist criminal mascots.
Of course, black lives don't matter. It's just a bumper sticker or a yard sign for people to show others they are ever so virtuous and ever so much better than the normal people. Murders piling up in the big cities? Just meaningless statistics.
E Olson A day ago · 0 Likes
These crime statistics do lead me to question the accuracy of the long-running Law and Order TV series, which were supposedly based on real life NYC crime cases. I watched the program for years and the only blacks I remember were cops, lawyers, and a few crime victims, while the criminals were almost always whites who were most often well educated professionals or titans of industry living in fancy brownstones and penthouse condos with doormen. I enjoyed the series even though it made me afraid to visit the nice neighborhoods of the city, but it seems some creative license was taken in selecting and portraying the criminal class of NYC - I wonder why?
Francis Menton 16 hours ago · 0 Likes
Dear E,
My wife and kids like to watch old Law & Order episodes. I am aware that there numerous spin-offs, designated by their acronyms: Law & Order LA (Los Angeles), Law & Order CI (Criminal Intent), Law & Order TC (True Crime), Law & Order SVU (Special Victims Unit). I thought that my family was watching the spin-off Law & Order RWGDI (Rich White Guy Did It). Of the twenty most recent episodes they've watched, the rich white guy did it in 19. In the 20th it was the rich white woman; but you knew she had to be the one because she was the richest character by far in the episode, she had blond hair and bright blue eyes, and there was no rich white male character of any kind in the cast. QED. In the real world, of course, the rich white guys commit about 1% of the murders at most. The denial of the reality of the real world is just extraordinary.
KMA 13 hours ago · 0 Likes
I made note of this to my sister about 5 years ago when I called Law and Order "White Guy Did It". I ruined the show for her and now she can't watch without knowing what will happen.
I stopped watching about 8 - 10 years ago but recall one show where an elderly black guy was charged with murder. The reason? He was swindled out of his home in a gentrifying area by a white realtor and killed him!!!
alfred bellows A day ago · 0 Likes
It is obvious that "disparate impact" laws need to be implemented. A lottery among whites in which the "winners" are shot would do the trick.
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E Olson A day ago · 0 Likes
I'm sure the problem will take care of itself with a few more years of decriminalizing crime (especially murder and shootings), and mass indoctrination on white privilege, system racism, and the 1619 project - whites will no doubt volunteer to be victims and blacks without fear of arrest holding them back will be happy to equalize the victim statistics.
Diogenes A day ago · 0 Likes
Will the last person to leave New York City please turn out the lights?
Joseph 23 hours ago · 0 Likes
Diogenes
The power will be off anyway...
Joseph
E Olson A day ago · 0 Likes
Not to worry, the criminals let out bail-free, "peaceful" BLM protesters, and global warming zealots will not doubt steal, knock-out, or ban lights well before the last person leaves.
E Olson A day ago · 0 Likes
This essay raise a number of interesting questions. For example: doesn't NYC already have a lot of "common sense" gun control laws on the books? If so, how do so many criminals of color have guns in which to shoot victims of color? Does a black or Hispanic criminal who commits a crime with an illegal gun get to skip out of court bail-free - do they do extra time because of gun violations? In comparison to black criminals committing crimes with guns, how do the NYC police and courts treat a white or Asian with no criminal record who uses a legal or illegal gun to defend themselves or their property against criminals of color - say for example BLM protesters who are "peacefully" threatening the physical safety of family members or throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at their homes, businesses, or cars (as the police fail to respond)? Which color gun user is more likely to not get off bail-free, who is more likely to not get a sweet plea deal, who is more likely to do time, who is more likely to get a very unsympathetic story of their "crime" on the front page of the NYT? If current "common sense" gun laws are only enforced in an "anti-racism" manner against people who commit virtually no crime, how will having more severe "common sense" gun laws advocated by Democrats that will also not be enforced against criminals of color reduce crime rates and gun violence? I wonder if any NYT's "journalists" or the mayor's office would care to address any of these questions?
Joe Redfield A day ago · 0 Likes
How soon before major cities start solving the problem of soaring crime by making crime statistics classified information not available to the public?
E Olson A day ago · 0 Likes
For about the last 15 years the police in Sweden have been forbidden from keeping statistics on the racial/ethnic background of criminals, and "journalists" have pretty much universally agreed to not report any such information in their crime reporting. It seems that it became embarrassing to the open border advocates to find out that a large number of "refugees" admitted into the country were dangerous thugs committing almost all the violent crime, and the most "humanitarian" way to make it disappear was to stop keeping statistics.
Ralph 23 hours ago · 0 Likes
Embarrassing indeed, when 99% of violent crime in Sweden is committed by Islamic "refugees." That may be an exaggeration, but not much of one.
The press and media in the U.S. do their best to hide the truth about violent crime. Anybody who blows the whistle on the cover-up is a racist, of course.
JohnTyler 19 hours ago · 0 Likes
The situation in Sweden is a PERFECT example that all cultures are equal or that everybody wants the same thing only differing in how to achieve that common goal.
Sweden as ZERO history of slavery and discrimination and have extended a very, very generous hand to "refugees" from various parts of Africa.
In return, these refugees have told the Swedes to F off and drop dead; they refugees have ZERO interest in becoming honest, decent Swedish citizens and instead have brought with them their totally F'd up corrupt, criminal culture that makes their homeland a total piece of sh*t.
The Swedes need to being deporting all these "refugees" and their Swedish born vermin back to the sh*tholes where they and their parents came from.
Much of Africa is a mess because of their culture; it was totally F'd up before any white colonists showed up and once "whitey" left, they simply resorted to living like savages. Their CULTURE is THEIR PROBLEM.
JohnTyler 19 hours ago · 0 Likes
Meant to say that all cultures are NOT equal.
Douglas Proudfoot 22 hours ago · 0 Likes
Socialism can't survive without censoring news, science, literature and history. Deleting honest statistics are just a small start. "Fact checkers" are like the Ministry of Truth.
Democracy dies in censorship. Democrats are busy killing democracy right now.
E Olson 23 hours ago · 0 Likes
The Swedes don't want some whistle blower to destroy their positive self-image as a humanitarian "super-power".
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