Baltimore police spent $148,639 on community development and $8,600,594 on SWAT teams. That’s from a graphic from this group’s Facebook page. BTW, it looks like a great organization!
Nobody asked me but…
What should happen in Baltimore is a well-coordinated plan to rebuild the damaged and destroyed 200 businesses starting this July and August. Since 50% of the youth are unemployed, let the Feds, the state of MD, and the city put together and fund a brief job training program for all who need jobs. Once they pass it, they will be hired to work alongside construction crews and many other workers to rebuild what was destroyed last week. Youth centers would be just one priority. Each youth will be provided a mentor who will be their role,model.
Workers who complete their work assignments and satisfy their supervisors will be hired permanently. Workers who need more training to learn basic skills etc.will be placed in an apprentice program. Workers who can’t cut the mustard or reverted back to their bad habits will be given a second chance and then they are out.
If this was done properly, there should be a long line of hungry youths in Baltimore anxious to show their neighborhoods what they are made of. The City’s leaders have clearly shown everyone they care about their neighborhoods and their young people.
If nothing is done then we can argue over why the next riots started.
I made the assumption that the problem consisted of two components, one: black young men being abused and killed by the police and two: being young black men killing black young men.
Going by simple numbers, a mother is much much much much much much less likely to bury a son killed by the police that she is to bury a son killed by another young man of his demographic equal. I made the assumption that as a mom one would be most interested in addressing the more dangerous situation not INSTEAD of the lesser danger but in in greater urgency. Even if the situation of graver danger is draws less TV/Media drama. My goal as a mom was and will always be to keep my kids safe. I personally would address the greater danger with at least as much vigor and out cry as the lesser (and arguably easier to avoid) danger.
What I don’t understand is the knee jerk defensive responses to the issue being brought into the discussion.
But…that’s just me. The same me that is eternally grateful I can go to bed at night and not worry about a loved on in law enforcement
I think it isn’t a question of why , but when and in what city ?
It’s time to be truthful about the unemployment stats within the black community , country wide.
Investing in education is all well and good, but how does that effect the enthusiasm of the students and parents to take advantage of the improvements ?
Abbott districts in NJ don’t really perform well, despite the money pumped into them.
But here is something that does, though on a small scale :
@TonyK, you have a nice idea. A lovely idea. However, the pessimist in me says that construction jobs are hard work and don’t pay enough. Dealing drugs (which apparently Baltimore is quite familiar with, being the heroine capital of the US) is far easier and more lucrative. The long lines of hungry youths in Baltimore that you’re talking about would be full of illegal immigrants, ready, willing and able to do the job.
I don’t think the problem is a lack of strenuous and low paying jobs.
Turns out dealing drugs is neither easy nor lucrative for street dealers.
A news item about a prosecutor in the Detroit area being forced to resign for making online comments some critics have cited as coming from a mentality all too common among many in law enforcement and DA offices:
It’s doubly ironic to me considering I was old enough to remember how the US and the international community condemned Mainland China for doing what this former prosecutor is calling for back in 1989…
I don’t know how they manage to keep the fast food restaurants open in Baltimore with so few black people willing to work low paying jobs. How ever do they do it in the face of so much drug dealing money jangling in the pockets of black youth? Construction jobs? Nope. They’re not willing to do hard work, just ask busdriver (and she ought to know, being personally familiar with so many of Baltimore’s inner city residents). If only they weren’t so lazy! And criminal. And prolific!
And now Kevin Moore, the guy who filmed Freddie Gray’s arrest has been subjected to police harassment before being arrested at gunpoint with two other fellow members of “cop watch”, an activist group dedicated to documenting police activities and abuses on film.
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If she’d only kept her rant to herself, she’d still have that Detroit prosecutor’s position, perhaps merely conferring such sentiments amongst her peers over after hours cocktails. She could still be helping present cases before Grand Juries responsible for “fact finding” in police brutality cases, poor girl…
But the good news is, she’s sure to land on her feet! She’s surely already received countless messages of support from among the law & order Fox News crowd, telling her how she is yet another victim of political correctness run amuck. She’s likely already been offered any number of positions, perhaps in a conservative think tank, with full privileges in their corporate echo chamber. Don’t worry. She’ll be just fine.
What you should be eternally grateful for is being able to go to bed at night and not worry about being the mother of a young black man. In interactions between them and police officers, it’s rarely the cop who ends up dead.
@poetsheart – Retrograde viewpoint + young + blonde = FoxNews “consultant.” Mark my words.
This will keep happening unless EVERYONE acknowledges there is a problem and offers solutions.
- It does not help when the first thing non blacks throw out is , " black on black crime". Please stop, 85% of crime against whites is committed by whites.
- The drug war needs to stop, it’s not working, nor are the punishments meted out equally. It’s ludicrous that young black men are incarcerated for crack offenses and non minorities get less time for cocaine offenses. I agree with an earlier poster, expunge records for minor offenses. The number one problem is lack of jobs and once you have a record however minor it’s hard to get one.
- Education is key, but they have to want it. Unfortunately it isn’t valued for many families.
- Subsidizing some type of jobs program. We give tax incentives and outright subsidies to billion dollar companies some of which pay little or no taxes. We will vote to subsidize professional sports teams and their billionaire owners with new stadiums. Why not invest in our communities?
It’s sad that we are spending billions overseas rebuilding while our cities here are crumbling.
Are there any women on Fox who aren’t blonde? It seems to be pretty much a job requirement.
Because they don’t want to work! Don’t you get it? Middle class suburban dwellers, from within their McMansions and soccer-mom SUVs, have reached into the hearts and minds of inner city residents and parsed all their secrets, and figured out that it all boils down to this: Those people are lazy. They would rather steal and deal drugs than work for an honest living. They wouldn’t work a construction job or anything that might be deemed hard. They’ll just pass those jobs onto the illegals who do want to work (but whom we nevertheless do not want here, either)!
Now as for those companies receiving billion dollar subsidies, well, they are the job creators who will employ the children of those all-knowing suburban dwellers, so must they really be taxed on top of everything they’re already doing? Is that fair? As for the sports teams? Well, civilizations have long been willing to pay their gladiators and those who own them. Gotta be entertained, after all.
@poetsheart you had better put in your sarcasm emoticon or someone may take you seriously. Lol
I find it endlessly fascinating to see the blame put on fox news and not the people in baltimore who have run this city for the past 40 years who are primarily black and democrat. The inner city black community does not value fathers and families. I have no idea how that can get reversed but it would be a good first step. Two parent homes are naturally more economically viable than one parent homes.
Poetsheart…that’s about as helpful as a screen door on a submarine.