Meanwhile, the local press buries this story and others like it for the much more human-interest-feel-good-fun story about how Dr. King’s Dream has been fulfilled by the election of Obama.
I'm sorry! I promise my next entry will be less cheerful!
Seriously, I think Langston Hughes had it right -- yes, the dream does explode. In the faces of innocents, usually.
Seriously, I hope you don't think I was responding to anything you'd written. Truth be told I've been a terrible LJ friend lately, haven't been reading anything at all on here. I am having some social skill issues.
That being said, it's hard for me to look at this kid's face, in police sketch form, and not see my own kid's face, and then read all this racist lynch mob shit in the comments section of the article. It's terrible that woman got murdered (exactly Elly's age, by the way), but the way our "concerned citizens" are calling for the head of this child is turning my gut.
And all that being said, I just read your brief Coach Thompson post and about busted a gut. This is your new job: busting my gut.
We've had a lot of stabbings by and of young people here in London in the last year or so, and all the government and of course the opposition (well, they are the Conservative Party so I can't expect much from them) keep yelling about longer jail sentences, etc etc. When what these kids really NEED is some kind of rehabilitation, to be TAUGHT properly how to behave in society. All that stuff they should have been taught by their parents but weren't. Also I might add, those photofits look like they took them from 'generic black man' and added wigs.
Stabbings? Well, oviously your rights as a citizen are being abrogated by your repressive government's refusal to allow law abiding citizens to arm themselves in self defense. Make sure everybody's got guns and before you know it you won't be troubled by stabbings anymore, and with luck you can approach New Orleans per-capita homicide rate of 82 per 100,000 population within a couple of years.
I can't remember London's population off the top of my head. What is it, about 6 million? That should give you approximately 5,000 gun murders per year.
Welcome to the big leagues, and God Bless America.
George WilljdquintetteJanuary 20 2009, 14:17:34 UTC
Have you seen George Will's column in the TP today? He argues that the voting rights act is obsolete and should be rescinded, because Obama's election obviously proves that racial discrimination is a thing of the past in America. Expect a lot more of this from these people in the days to come.
Now on the one hand he's got a point. The numerous instances of vote caging and voter supression in ghetto neighborhoods in the last few elections have been less a matter of suppressing black votes as of suppressing democratic ones. On the other hand the notion of attributing magic powers to Obama, such as the ability to reverse centuries of systemic and social discrimination and the effects thereof simply by being elected, seems a bit much.:-P
If a parent allows a gun to fall into the hands of their pre-teen child, and that child commits a murder with that gun, THE PARENTS should be prosecuted for murder.
Make this a law and I think you will find MUCH LESS in the way of gun crimes committed by children.Be careful what you wish for. Plenty
( ... )
I can agree with you up to a point - because it's not just African American kids that we find doing these sorts of things. We have the 17 year-old who murdered his mother and injured his father because they took away his video game. Or the two kids who went on a shooting rampage at Columbine here in Colorado.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that this is a systemic problem that crosses ethnic lines.
Re: George WilljdquintetteJanuary 20 2009, 16:30:07 UTC
Perhaps. Or it might be two different problems masquerading as the same thing, like the variety of mental illnesses that used to be lumped together under the heading "schizophrenia
( ... )
There's also the issue of frequency. Columbine was an anomoly. It was so unusual that it's still used as a kind of iconic symbol of white teen ennui and sociopathy. The very fact that you site it suggests this. Black teen violence is so endemic that it only receives wide reportage on those comparatively rare occasions when white people are victims of it. For instance right around the time Helen Hill was killed, my friend Dinerral Shavers was also murdered. Years later Hill is still eulogized, memorialized, honored in editorials ( usually on the anniversary of her death) and in public television documentaries. Shavers is a footnote, seldom mentioned
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I'm sorry! I promise my next entry will be less cheerful!
Seriously, I think Langston Hughes had it right -- yes, the dream does explode. In the faces of innocents, usually.
Reply
Seriously, I hope you don't think I was responding to anything you'd written. Truth be told I've been a terrible LJ friend lately, haven't been reading anything at all on here. I am having some social skill issues.
That being said, it's hard for me to look at this kid's face, in police sketch form, and not see my own kid's face, and then read all this racist lynch mob shit in the comments section of the article. It's terrible that woman got murdered (exactly Elly's age, by the way), but the way our "concerned citizens" are calling for the head of this child is turning my gut.
And all that being said, I just read your brief Coach Thompson post and about busted a gut. This is your new job: busting my gut.
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I can bust guts with the best of 'em. Or maybe the worst.
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Also I might add, those photofits look like they took them from 'generic black man' and added wigs.
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I can't remember London's population off the top of my head. What is it, about 6 million? That should give you approximately 5,000 gun murders per year.
Welcome to the big leagues, and God Bless America.
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Now on the one hand he's got a point. The numerous instances of vote caging and voter supression in ghetto neighborhoods in the last few elections have been less a matter of suppressing black votes as of suppressing democratic ones. On the other hand the notion of attributing magic powers to Obama, such as the ability to reverse centuries of systemic and social discrimination and the effects thereof simply by being elected, seems a bit much.:-P
If a parent allows a gun to fall into the hands of their pre-teen child, and that child commits a murder with that gun, THE PARENTS should be prosecuted for murder.
Make this a law and I think you will find MUCH LESS in the way of gun crimes committed by children.Be careful what you wish for. Plenty ( ... )
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I guess what I'm trying to say is that this is a systemic problem that crosses ethnic lines.
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