Quite Riot Among Blacks

Parent Cafe
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<p>Barrons, lets coordinate our statistics, and see what comes up. You post that the percentage of murders which are “black kills white” is 8.5%, and “white kills black” is 3.5%. That’s a ratio of about 2.4 black kills white vs. white kills black, which supports your position that on a per capita basis blacks are statistically more likely to kill somebody than are whites. (That is true, although actually irrelevant to the issue of the Government response to Katrina.)</p>

<p>But the statistic of who has been executed for interracial murder in the past 30 years is 216 “black kills white” vs. 15 for “white kills black”. That’s a ratio of 14.4 to 1. Or to put it another way, a black person killing a white person is 6 times more likely to be sentenced to death for that crime than is a white person who kills a black person. What does that tell you about the aggregate sentiment of the community from which the jury pools are chosen, and their sense of the weight of the respective crimes?</p>

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<p>Yes NOLA had more deaths–it’s much more populated but the death RATE was probably higher in Miss. It certainly deserved more coverage than it got but it was bad TV. Nobody says it was well handled but white areas got no more FEMA help than black areas during the first days after the storm. It was equal opportunity bad service.</p>

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<p>Where in the links does it say anything whatsoever about human suffering – dehydration, isolation, being trapped on rooftops for days – being equally distributed around the region? It says that BODIES were recovered from various areas in close proportion to population, but the vast majority of victims suffered squalor, thirst, hunger, and terror, not death. </p>

<p>Furthermore, the first link actually confirms that the people left behind after the evactuation warnings were disproportionately black.</p>

<p>I was pretty disgusted by this quote from your link:</p>

<p>“flattened houses look much less dramatic than refugees escaping the flood”</p>

<p>That’s literally true, but why does the article sarcastically suggest that this is a bad thing, and that there OUGHT to be just as much news coverage of piles of wood as there is of Americans in agony and needing help? Yes, it’s true: those of us who experience empathy for our fellow creatures care more about the suffering of human beings than we do about piles of wood. Guilty as charged. I guess the author of the article isn’t among our number. Are you?</p>

<p>“death RATE was probably higher in Miss.”</p>

<p>First, I suggest that you find out whether it was in fact higher before you make the assertion, rather than after.</p>

<p>Second, the deaths and suffering in Mississippi were overwhelmingly acts of God, not acts of government. No government can keep a house on its foundation in Category 5 winds.</p>

<p>Third, I wonder if you really follow your own logic. By your reasoning, there ought to be a lot more news coverage of Huntington’s Disease (few sufferers, not preventable, but 100% death rate) relative to lung cancer (thousands of sufferers, largely preventable, but only a 50% death rate).</p>

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<p>Did FEMA actively BLOCK rescues in the days after the storm in any predominantly white areas? Demand that doctors cease treating any WHITE patients and let them die?</p>

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<p>“What does that tell you about the juries’ assessment of the seriousness of the crime of killing a white person vs. the crime of killing a black person?”</p>

<p>It may not say much of anything unless you know the underlying facts. Since the murder rate of blacks is higher than that of whites and since I would imagine that many/most of the killings are drug or gang related, it could be nothing more than a jury putting more value on a “civillian” no matter what the color versus a drug dealer caught up in a gangland turf fight. If you can present data that shows a statistically higher death penalty rate when both victims are innocent civillians but with one group being black and the other white, then it may have more validity.</p>

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<p>I would accept that 30 years ago there may have been more prejudiced sentencing in some areas of the US. You also need to know the circumstances of the crime as they usually control if the death penalty is given. Your example is a very small portion of the total executions and could easily be skewed by the specific circumstances of the few cases. A white person is more likely to get death for killing another white person too and whites get the death penalty at nearly twice the rate of black murderers. There is something there for everyone.</p>

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<p>I have no idea if FEMA did what you said or anything else. However even if the story is exactly true it does not prove racism was the reason. If you are in charge do you allow every person flashing some ID to play doctor? Are they so instructed by FEMA?</p>

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<p>Why not read the CNN transcripts I linked to, including quotes from the doctor involved (who had his medical license with him) and a Republican senator? Michael Brown himself admits that he turned away the Wildlife and Fisheries rescuers as well as civilian rescuers. All of this has been copiously documented in testimony by government officials before the Republican Congress.</p>

<p>What’s the point in refusing to read the information? </p>

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<p>A guy with a plane full of donated medical supplies and a state issued medical license that would have taken 2 seconds to verify? Come on, now. </p>

<p>Not even FEMA is claiming that they thought he wasn’t a doctor. In fact, he went to another location and was added to their list “in about 2 seconds” because someone had thought to bring the paperwork with them.</p>

<p>Seriously, why not read the links instead of just making up random things?</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/07/martin/index.html[/url]”>http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/07/martin/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;