Black Violence

I’ve been contemplating about writing a blog about killings for a while now, but I never got the courage to do so until today. The majority of Black Americans have suffered a loss of a loved one or friend to a violent attack by a gun. The sad thing is the gun is only part of the problem; the person who is holding the gun is the other problem. From generation to generation Blacks have continued to kill each other over gang colors, turfs, respect, money, and girls (among other things).

On Sunday August 5, at 7:30 am EST, I got a call form a close friend back home in Oakland, California. I knew once I picked up the phone it would probably be bad news, but I wanted to stay positive so I picked up phone. “What’s up Patrick?” I said.
“They killed Khatari!” Patrick said.

At that point I didn’t have any emotions at all. I couldn’t cry. I couldn’t do anything but stare at the phone in disbelief that I had lost another friend to a violent ignorant gun attack.

Since I left home for college in 2000, I have lost a friend every year to senseless violence and it hurts. I ask myself everyday - when will this stop? When will young black men stop killing each other? This has become an epidemic within the black community and it needs to stop. WE can stop this epidemic through family involvement, community outreach, summer jobs for youth, after school programs, efficient rehab programs (i.e.,. prisoners make 30 cents per hour working for corporate companies in prison, but once they are released can’t get an efficient job to take care of their needs and their families) for juveniles and ex felons, etc. How is this possible?

Lack of family guidance has been a large part of the demise of the Black community. Before the Civil Rights era the black community believed in togetherness and community involvement. Post-Civil Rights, we saw the black community split. Everyone wanted the “American Dream” but forgot about each other and forgot about the principles we stood on.

It is imperative, now more than ever, that young parents act like parents and not like friends to their children. Young parents have to be more involved with their children’s education, become a part of their daily activities, talk about safe sex, talk to them about violence, tell them they are loved, and support them and their dreams.

I know this can be hard for a single parent with multiple jobs who is busy trying to stay above the poverty line in America, but that’s why it’s so important to have the community and family involvement. This epidemic of violence and murders will never be cured unless we start with the younger generation and help them out before they contract these violent diseases.

Society always says education is the key to a successful life. I believe that; however, if education isn’t equal across the board, how can we expect to succeed? According to the California education system, within the next 10 years more than one million students will qualify to attend a state university in California. Unfortunately, California does not have a place to put these prospective students, but they do have enough jails to lock them up. The Bush Administration has cut more than one billion dollars in student loans, which could have made it easier for a student who grew up in a lower-income family to attend college. New jobs created every month require a college degree and the majority of Blacks in America don’t have college degrees. If society can make a conscious effort and really make education a priority for every child no matter their social or economic background, we would see an increase of high school completion, college degrees, and less Blacks in the criminal system.

There are over two million people in prison in the United States. Half of those prisoners are Black Americans, which is amazing because Blacks are only around 13 percent of America’s total population. The problem with the prison system is the lack of rehabilitation programs that are offered for those who commit crimes. We need to especially look at the juvenile system and offer youth employment once a juvenile is released. Juvenile offenders should be taught a trade while in jail. There should also be job fairs for those juveniles who are going to be released within the month. The majority of those who are released from prisons or juvenile facilities tend to become repeat offenders because of the lack of opportunities available to them as a result of their criminal record. In addition to few job opportunities, if a person commits a crime, and that crime is a felony, that person has completely lost eligibility to receive financial aid for college

Nearly half the people murdered in the United States each year are black. This is part of a unrelenting pattern in which African Americans are disproportionately victimized by violent crime, according to a new Justice Department study released yesterday.

The study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics also found that from 2001 to 2005, more than nine out of 10 black murder victims were killed by other blacks, and three out of four were slain with a gun. Blacks, who make up 13 percent of the population, were victims in 15 percent of nonfatal violent crimes.
The new findings underline the enduring problem of crime that plagues many African American communities, even during a period when the incidence of violent crime dropped or held steady overall, according to criminologists and other experts.
In 2005, the study found, blacks were victims of an estimated 8,000 homicides and 805,000 other violent crimes, including rape and aggravated assault.
The study found that black males were more likely to be crime victims than black females; that black murder victims tended to be younger than white or Hispanic homicide victims; and that blacks in poor or urban households were more likely to be victimized than those in higher-income or rural areas.
Blacks were still more likely than whites, Hispanics or Asians to be victims of violent crime from 2001 to 2005. "American Indians were the only group that had rates higher than blacks," according to the study written by Justice Statistician Erika Harrell. We can solve a lot of these criminal problems in the black community by actually holding our elected officials responsible by advocating for efficient rehabilitation for those who are in juvenile facilities or in prison. Society thinks incarcerating someone will be their therapy or rehabilitation. This is a false assumption; however, if we can give inmates the opportunity to learn a trade, bring in former inmates who are successful upon their release to do motivational speaking, provide self-esteem coaches, present felons with the opportunity to attend college by assisting them financially (in America, if you have a felony offense on your record, you are not qualified for financial aid to attend college) and coordinate job fairs for those offenders who are reentering society, these offenders can truly be rehabilitated.

These additional programs are imperative in the prison system and, if instituted, I anticipate a decrease in repeat offenders, the national murder rate, and a decline in drug convictions. However, since the prison system in the United States is privatized and runs like a business, it will be difficult to create these programs since prisons want inmates to continue to commit crimes so they can continue to make money off their incarceration.

I do believe that “if you commit the crime, you should do the time”, but far too often there are loopholes in our system that causes Black Americans who can only afford a public defender to confess to crimes that they didn’t commit. Their best option is to accept probation for three to fours years, during which time he or she is more likely to fail since they are returning to the same environment without a job or any other opportunity to succeed.

Holding our elected officials accountable is another way to make sure our voices are heard. In California the correction facility PACs are the biggest contributors to candidates across the State of California. Former Governor Pete Wilson (R) wrote the bill Proposition 21; however, this bill wasn’t passed when Pete Wilson was in office but pushed and passed by former Governor Gray Davis (D) who received over 2 million dollars from correction facility PACs.

Proposition 21 was passed in 2000 and:
1.Transfers the authority to decide to try youth as adults away from judges to prosecutors in cases of youth as young as 16 accused of dozens of different offenses, and for youth as young as 14 for a smaller list of offenses.

2. Greatly restricts the current practice of sealing juvenile offense records for youth 12 or older, and expands conditions where police and courts can release the name of juvenile suspects. (In Denver, Colorado, eight of every 10 youth of color were in the gang database in 1992. Employers could call the police before hiring a youth to see if they were on the list.)

3. Requires that youth "admit guilt" before they can be allowed into drug rehab programs.

4. Requires that "gang members" convicted of crimes have up to three additional years added to their jail sentences, must register with the police for five years, provide the police with fingerprints, and with their new address each time they move.

5.Changes graffiti laws so that the amount of "damage" done by a graffiti writer that is considered a felony would be reduced from the current value of $50,000 to $400, turning almost any youth who tags a wall into a felon.

6. Extend the government's authority to wiretap youth, including where someone is suspected of possession of a controlled substance.

The problem with correctional facility PACs is that they give money to candidates to champion the cause of stringent laws like Proposition 21. Proposition 21 was funded by PG&E, Chervron, TransAmerica, Atlantic Richfield, San Diego Gas and Electric, and the Union Oil Company of California according to California Voter Foundation.

Furthermore, if we can examine what our elected officials are voting for and WE VOTE ourselves, we can make the decisions about how those who represent us vote. Though this was a long blog, I felt it was imperative to write on a variety of issues that are ongoing in the Black and Brown communities.