The color of murder and gun violence in New York
By Jonathan Capehart
www.washingtonpost.com________________________
________________________
___
I ran into Police Commissioner Ray Kelly last week while dining at a favorite breakfast joint in New York. Since I still read the Daily News and the New York Post, I asked him about the increase in crime that I'd read about. He assured me that the bad old days in the Big Apple weren't returning. But he did rattle off a set of worrisome crime statistics that have him concerned and left me speechless. If New York City were a murder and shooting gallery, almost all of the targets would be African American and Latino.
Check out these statistics from the "Crime and Enforcement Activity in New York City" report for the first six months of 2010.
Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter victims are most frequently Black (67.0%) or Hispanic (28.1%). White victims account for (3.2%) of all Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter victims while Asian/Pacific Islanders account for (1.8%) of all Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter victims.
The Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter arrest population is similarly distributed. Black arrestees (53.8%) and Hispanic arrestees (36.4%) account for the majority of Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter arrestees while White arrestees (7.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.2%) arrestees account for the remaining portions of the Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter arrest population.
Shooting victims are most frequently Black (73.8%) or Hispanic (22.1 %). White victims account for an additional (2.6%) of all Shooting victims while Asian/Pacific Islanders victims account for (1.2%) of all Shooting Victims.
The Shooting arrest population is similarly distributed. Black arrestees (70.9%) and Hispanic arrestees (25.8%) account for the majority of Shooting arrest population. White arrestees (2.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (0.9%) account for the remaining portion of the Shooting arrest population.
In short, 95.1 percent of all murder victims and 95.9 percent of all shooting victims in New York City are black or Hispanic. And 90.2 percent of those arrested for murder and 96.7 percent of those arrested for shooting someone are black and Hispanic. I don't even know where to begin to describe the horror I still feel looking at those numbers. But the word "hunted" comes to mind.
People have railed against black-on-black crime for decades. And yet it persists. Yes, there are a host of factors that push someone to a life of crime, but not all of them have to do with the limitations or failures of society. Some folks are just plain evil, and no amount of social intervention will stop them from preying on people, especially people who look like them.
People have also railed -- and rightly so -- against the disproportionate application of the law against people of color. Bob Herbert has used barrels of New York Times ink against the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy. But when faced with such stark murder and shooting statistics, what's a police commissioner supposed to do to ensure the safety of the public?
All of society has an obligation to ensure that its citizens can live their lives in peace and security. The police are doing their job. Leaders in the African American and Latino communities have struggled to do their part, as well. Myriad organizations exist in New York City and across the country to steer the wayward on a better path and to protect potential victims from those who violently veer off it. But new alliances must be formed between the two to get guns off the streets and to break the "stop snitching" culture that allows cases to go unsolved, criminals to go free and communities to cower in fear. It's time to stop being speechless and feeling powerless. It's time the hunted fought back.
Update, 12:05 p.m.: Paul Duggan's story this morning on the murder of Joseph Sharps Jr. shows that what's happening in New York is happening elsewhere.
________________________
________________________
________________
Those damn Tea Baggers and their AR 15's!
