During the weekend of Aug. 4-5 (and the preceding Friday night), 12 Chicagoans were shot dead, and 62 others were shot and wounded, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Before last week’s mayhem, 1,718 Chicagoans had been shot since the beginning of the year, and 306 had been murdered. Adding to this tragedy is the fact that Chicago’s clearance rate is less than 15 percent. That means that in more than 85 percent of Chicago’s homicides, no suspect is charged. Chicago is by no means unique in this lawlessness. Detroit, Baltimore, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and some other major cities share high rates of homicides.
It’s not just shootings and homicides that negatively impact the overwhelmingly law-abiding black residents of these cities. In addition, there are sky-high rates of burglaries, rapes, and property destruction. The schools are notoriously bad. City budgets face shortfalls. Residents deal with deteriorating city services. All of this causes mass exoduses from these cities by their most capable people.
Ordinary decency demands that something be done to address the horrible conditions under which so many black Americans live. White liberals, black politicians, and sports figures focus most of their attention on what the police do, but how relevant is that to the overall tragedy?
According to Washington Post data, as of July 9, 626 people had been shot and killed by police this year. Of that number, 114 were black. Last year, 987 people were shot and killed by police, of which 223 were black.
To put police shootings in a bit of perspective, in Chicago alone in 2017, there were 674 homicides, almost 80 percent of whose victims were black. It would appear that if one is truly concerned about black deaths, shootings by police should figure way down on one’s list—which is not to excuse bad behavior by some police officers.
Would getting more blacks and Democrats in political office help? It turns out that of the Chicago City Council’s 50 aldermen, only one is Republican. One is an independent. Forty-eight aldermen are Democrats, and 19 are black.
In fact, most of the cities where large segments of their black citizenry live under horrible conditions have been controlled by Democrats for nearly a half-century, and there are many blacks on the instruments of control, such as chiefs of police, superintendents of schools, and members of city councils. If Democratic and black control meant anything, these cities would be paradises.
How helpful to these desperate black communities are the efforts of so many black politicians to focus on allegations about President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia? The leader of the movement to impeach Trump is Rep. Maxine Waters. Her congressional district suffers from high crime rates and failing schools. She, like most other black politicians, claims that she is helping her constituency by doing all she can to fight to get more taxpayer money to her district.
More money from taxpayers could not fix the problems of these communities. Over the past 50 years, more than $16 trillion has been spent on poverty programs. The majority of those programs have simply made poverty more comfortable by giving poor people more food, health care, housing, etc.
What’s needed most is to get poor people to change their behavior. Chief among the modifications is reducing female-headed households. Female-headed households produce most of our prison inmates, the highest crime rates, and disproportionate numbers of high school dropouts and suicides. These devastating factors are far beyond the capacity of Washington to fix.
The only people who can fix these problems are black people themselves. Black athletes could be far more productive by going to schools and community centers to encourage constructive behavior and shaming self-destructive behavior. Support should be given to police to stop criminals from preying on communities. Nongovernmental local groups should be encouraged to play greater roles.
It’s a challenge, but keep in mind that black people had the intestinal fortitude to lead the world’s greatest civil rights movement through some very dark days from 1865 to 1965. I believe that we’re up to the challenge.
If we wait for Washington to solve our problems, we’ll be waiting for a long time.
Reprinted with permission from - The Daily Signal - by Walter E. Williams
My mama always said “Poor people have poor ways.”
I just read this article and my only conclusion to this horrific problem is to stop those politicians who favor open borders and sanctuary cities that protect those who aren’t citizens rather then putting there own people first who have ever right to get the necessary help they need to live without fear.
I’m totally discussed with both parties for turning their backs on so many Americans with their smoke screen venues. Enough with the Mueller investigation and the millions of tax payers money that is being wasted with all this verbal masturbation about collusion and focus on helping our people (Chicago) and others who definitely deserve our support.
I apologize for not sticking to the topic.
In Baltimore, the democRats wanted to prove, once and for all time, that throwing money at a problem really does work. They truly pulled out all the stops, putting over one BILLION dollars into a single downtrodden neighborhood over a period of some fifteen years. Every scenario was carefully thought out to make the plan work – which was to result in the neighborhood becoming productive and safe. Long story short, that became the neighborhood which set off the rioting two years ago. The experts did a follow up report in which they determined that only 300 million dollars of the total could be accounted for, but, if only a little more money was spent…
Welfare is the modern day slavery. It enslaves almost everyone who partakes of it regardless of who they are or what their skin color is. Yet giveaway programs are the hallmark of liberals and democrats, which serve only to burden the productive with outrageous confiscation of their resources, while virtually insuring that the poor will remain so.
But you have to hand it to the liberals. Promises not kept have gotten them 50 years of power. And the news media is ever more supportive of their efforts.
Black and liberal politicians don’t care about Black Americans, this includes the so called ‘black leaders’ of Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson. They don’t care about the body count, the maimed, those scarred for life. All they care about is the money flowing into thier pockets, and how many ‘promises’ they will break in exchange for voters keeping them in office. They love to play the blame game. Teen aged gangs are not the problem to them. It is always Trump’s or Bush’s fault. It is always the Cop’s fault. There is not enough federal money spent in the local schools, or for food stamps, welfare, and Medicaid.
Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, Camden, Newark, and Philly are run by democrats who made some of the toughest gun laws in the country, yet suffer them most gun violence. The only solution to the politicians is to repeal the second amendment and even more tougher gun laws. Even if they got that (which will not happen), they will still make excuses for the street gangs and criminals armed with the very best and latest weaponry.
It will always be someone else’s fault. We cannot get them voted out of office, they will buy, cheat, and steal votes to keep them there. So perhaps the solution is for the federal government to hold local and state politicians accountable? Congress can pass laws to remove, or imprison local and state politicians should crime statistics pass an established threshold per 100,000 citizens. After all it is the responsibility of local and state politicians to protect its citizens from all types of crime. But it is the responsibility of the Congress to protect all citizens.
After all these years. It appears that nothing has really changed. There is something fundamentally wrong with the Political Process in Many of our Major Cities. That is a fact. Now, the solution. Blacks are the solution in many cases. The Problem. None really want to do it. They will get shot for their efforts. I cannot blame them for having that fear. It is real. So how does one help. Publicity of many NFL players kneeling while on the job isn’t a solution. If do nothing is a solution. This would do it.
Yep, Gun control works, Just ask the people of Chicago.
Ask a Lib where they would like to Live
And they will Never Include
One of those Crime Infested Neighborhoods
Run by the Dems.
They seem to Prefer those areas
Made Rich from the Benefits of Capitalism.
Mr. Walter Williams is right on with his observations of the situation in Chicago. It is my hope that the Black Liberal Politicians wake up and start representing their constituents sooner rather than later. They need help now.
Walter Williams touched on the cause of the inner city problems but he did not elaborate on the
salient origin of the catastrophic breakdown in social order in cities like Chicago.
President Lyndon Johnson initiated his Great Society programs in 1965. His stated purpose was to
“help” the low income, or no income groups to attain a “decent” standard of living. Single parent households now qualify for assistance for food, shelter and clothing. Unlike India, no one is starving to death in the streets.
The social service workers started the Great Society welfare programs by telling an unwed mother that she would receive money for the basic living for her and her fatherless baby, but that she should avoid behavior that could result in another pregnancy. What the single mother actually heard was: “We will give you more money for every child that you produce.”
This well meaning attempt to alleviate poverty in the inner cities actually contributed to a situation of
growing dependence on the taxpayers to ensure a loyal voter base for the Democrat Party. The message has become: Vote for the Democrat candidate and get bigger welfare benefits, vote for the Republican candidate and you will starve to death while freezing in the cold.
This is the thing, it really doesn’t matter what political party tries to run the large cities at this point.
As Williams said, no amount of extra taxpayer money will solve the problem.
The solution? As long as the government tries to “help” the needy, the crime rate will continue to increase. I suggest the opposite, i.e. gradually REDUCE to levels of financial support for the single parent households. When the minimum pay job begins to look better than the shrinking government checks, the people will have a chance to experience a whole new feeling, namely the self-respect that comes from earning one’s own way in life. Breakfast and lunches for the school children but the adults? Hunger pains will become their usual reality.
Oh yes, and there will be a jobs creation factor in this reducing of the load on the taxpayers. Gated communities will become a necessity. The wage earners will need them for security, and the citizens who decline to become contributing members of society will need gated facilities to keep them confined. The incarcerated can be put to work raising food crops to feed themselves and society at large. The sought after results? Baby making will not look so attractive when one actually has to think about supporting the offspring.
I wish all the newspapers in America would print this article by Mr. Williams.
Just remember the old saying “give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime”. The only way this will work is if the lazy, welfare grabbing person will get off his butt and let you teach him to fish. Otherwise he will just sit there and wait for the next welfare check to show up.
People have to want to help themselves without falling prey to politics before anything will change. They have to vote Democrats out of office or things will continue to go down. If they could find a democrat tough on crime, they might have a chance. The judges would have to be replaced with people who have sense.
I think the black culture is a violent
One…… think about it before starting calling me racist…..
Without God’s principles guiding us, ALL cultures become violent. Look at Cain and Able! Brothers, yet Cain murdered his brother because of jealousy, despite the fact that Cain knew his offering to God was unacceptable. Rebellion towards God ALWAYS ends up with destruction. Some “cultures” become more violent, but the reality is ALL human cultures have that potential unless restrained by something or someone. People will either be restrained by the state or a belief system of some sort, or love and reverence for God and His principles. Only the last one results in the greatest amount of personal freedom, and voluntary caring for others. The other systems must end up forcing compliance to law (or devolving into anarchy) and enforcing ever rising taxes to “take care of” people, who essentially end up as dependents (or beggars/homeless). Eventually they become essentially slaves (as in communist countries, where you are assigned to occupations) to the state, or as in Chicago, victims or victimizers. It’s not about the outward color, it’s about the inward heart.
It seems to me that so many people of color here are a lot like foreigners trying to get into this country. Help improve the country you are in instead of tearing it down to force your will. If you are on the Left you are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Remember history of the 1920s-30s? I think the big cities suffering the highest violent crime rates today are being victimized by drug cartel criminals who are lining the pockets of the politicians to hold back law enforcement as much as possible so they can conduct their harmful business with minimum interference. The payoffs could even be reaching all the way to some members of Congress who are soft on illegal immigration.
What everyone is missing is that Chicago is a state that has implemented Gun Control the the Democrats continue to cry for. How’s that working out for you all in Chicago?
Are you supposed to leave your gun outside when you see a “no gun” sign sticker on the building entrance door? I like that one.
Very true Andi. The murderers in possession of illegal firearms are sincerely interested in obeying the law…not.
I was raised in Chicago in the 30’s and 40’s. I lived there until 1967 when I moved to a nearby suburb. I grew in in the middle of a Democratically controlled system. Over the years I’ve seen it become more corrupt than ever. The first Mayor Daley would not support anyone caught doing wrong. His son promoted corruption and profited from it. Tiny Dancer is worse than Daley Jr.!
The BIG problem is MORALITY Where are the pastors of their churches? Why do so many young girls get pregnant? Don’t they know sex without marriage is a sin!? Get Planned Parenthood out of your neighborhood. They give condoms that are faulty so they can do more abortions. And if the girls don’t have abortions , they have a child without a FATHER!!! WHERE ARE THOSE FATHERS????
AND where are the ministers. They should have after school programs for the little ones to teach them KILLING IS WRONG! DRUGS ARE WRONG ! STEALING IS WRONG! If the moms don’t see to it that they go to church, the ministers should go out to them! AND any kind of schooling that is available for the kids, mom should see they go OR face a penalty…. I am sure there are people in those who don’t like their having to live in them but feel the would be not welcome in white neighborhoods. They should be taught that is wrong. Other black people have moved away and are welcome!!! There are many avenues with common sense but the right people don’t seem to e doing anything about it.
Chicago is a no gun possession city. Where are the guns coming from?! So you see that law is only abided by good moral people, the ones that should have guns to protect themselves!!!!!
Phyllis, the pastor’s of the churches are too busy having protest that shut down our expressways, instead of looking at the real, underline issues! There too aligned with the left.
Walter is exactly right…but Democrat leaders don’t want to hear this because they feed off the victimology they have set for themselves and anything to dismantle their power gravy train is just racist in these Democrats ears!!! How else do these new plantation owners keep themselves in power but to persuade the minority communities that their poverty is the Republicans fault?