Changing the image will change the reality of black crime, they say.
Taleeb Starkes says in his new book, The Uncivil War, that Color of Change has it backwards. If the reality of black crime changes, so will the perception. But changing the reality must come first. And that is not a particularly pleasant picture.33
“Color of Change is asking us one question,” says Starkes. “Who are we going to believe? Them? Or those lying videotapes we see on COPS?” Starkes says. “For people who do not like what they see on the show COPS, I have a better idea: Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.”
Starkes wrote about Langley in his new book:
As long as a Black subculture continues to commit disproportionate amounts of crime, they will always have starring roles on crime-based reality shows; especially those based on violent crime or told from law enforcement’s vantage point.
Naturally, Black apologists believe that these shows perpetuate stereotypes, however, the cancellation of these shows still won’t cancel the statistical reality that Blacks are to violent crime what Mickey Mouse is to Disney World.
These shows don’t contribute to negative stereotypes … an African-American subculture does.34
Starkes says part of the problem is the result of black people blaming high rates of violent crime and high incarceration rates on racism instead of a streak of dysfunctional behavior that permeates black subculture.
“And this Color of Change crowd are the leaders in this intellectual hoax. Black crime is the elephant in the room in this country,” said Starkes. “Every day we talk about black caucuses, black teachers unions, black officers groups, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and other race-based notions. But to talk about black crime is somehow racist. So it gets worse.
“And now we learn that the producers of COPS have been intentionally distorting their program to misrepresent the racial makeup of people who commit crime in America by underreporting black crime? Maybe Color of Change is right but for the wrong reason.”
DENY THAT.
END
APPENDIX
FIND YOUR OWN RACE RIOTS
When I first started writing about racial violence and its denial, I got most of my leads from the newspapers. Just scanning, keeping my eyes open. Some checked out. Some did not.
Then I set up some Google news alerts. But I had to use the euphemisms the reporters use, like “unruly teens” to get my leads. Some checked out. Some did not.
Then readers got into the act, sending me stories about large-scale black mob violence all over the country. Some e-mailed me. Some sent me tweets. Some messaged me on Facebook. Some made old-fashioned phone calls. Some checked out. Some did not.
In March of 2013 the floodgates opened. I added a new term to my Google Alerts and immediately wondered how I would ever find time to check out all the new stories. I did.
It turns out “large fights” is the newest euphemism for black mob violence. (I hope you add it to your Google Alerts and keep me posted about what is going on in your neck of the woods.)
For a one-month period, from March to April 2013, I found racial violence busting out all over: Philadelphia, Chicago, Utica, Jacksonville, St. Louis, Wilmington (Delaware), Grand Rapids, Peoria, Newark, Boston, and Brooklyn.
Police often say they are baffled. Others say it is a regular meteorological event: “large crowds and fights are not uncommon in the city in the warm weather,” said the ABC affiliate in Philadelphia.1
In April 2013 in Philadelphia two hundred black people on the streets of the downtown financial district were fighting, vandalizing, rampaging, refusing to disburse, and tossing bottles at police. It began at 4 p.m. and took police ninety minutes to restore order.
At the epicenter of the violence, a Wendy’s employee said no one was surprised. “It usually happens when the weather breaks,” Lakia Garrick told the local Fox affiliate. “They come in here and go crazy. It was really expected.”2
Fourteen black people were arrested and charged with misdemeanors.
The riot came less than a month after the political and media establishment of Philadelphia rose up in outrage at an article in Philadelphia Magazine called “Being White in Philly.”
The article documented how racial violence was an everyday fact of life in the City of Brotherly Love, and how most white people were afraid to talk about it, because they were afraid of being called a racist.
Or as the Philadelphia Inquirer put it: The article was seen as “dwelling on negative experiences that whites had with blacks that often fit into racial stereotypes.”
I love that line.
Mayor Nutter asked the city’s Human Relations Commission to investigate the author and the magazine.
Perhaps they could call Brandon Jones as a witness. Jones is the guy Temple University hired to get to the bottom of these large scale violent events in Philadelphia in 2011. He explained the widespread black mob violence in the area to Diverse Issues in Higher Education: “he understands the high energy level of youths and the need ‘to blow off some steam.’”3
Meanwhile, the television stations in Philadelphia are being extra vigilant to ban from their message boards any Philadelphia Magazine-style comments attributing the violence to race. That is why George says his comments were removed from the ABC news site:
I am honored that the uneducated censor that monitors this board removed my previous post. Since when is it against ‘Posting Policy’ to request people not jump to conclusions when there is a large fight in the city? Tsk Tsk, honesty certainly is not anything you are acquainted with. You must be a Philly School graduate. Anyway, I grew up in the city & there were MANY HOT days & nights and we NEVER started or were involved in fights with 200 people or 10 people. I imagine in the words of Michael Vick, ‘It is a cultural thing’.
Glenn noticed the same thing: “They wiped out pretty much the whole first wave of comments. No grace for stating the obvious.”
The rest of the country has been busy as well.
In St. Louis, sixty-five hours before the Philly financial district melee, police responded to reports of a mob of one to two hundred black people fighting and shooting guns at Leclede’s Landing, near the famous arch. Police refused to release an incident report on the violence, other than to say they thought it was a flash mob.
One man was shot. He was also the only one arrested after police found marijuana in his clothing at the hospital.4
Kevin McBryan, told KSDK-TV news that racial violence in St. Louis is not hard to document: “I witnessed ‘flash mobs’ running thru VP fairs sucker punching white people on 3 different occasions.” The VP Fair is an annual St. Louis celebration held in the same area commemorating the “Veiled Prophet.”5
One week later it happened again. Same kind of crowd, but this time it happened in downtown St. Louis. The local Fox affiliate reported twenty-four people were arrested for the usual rampaging, fighting, vandalism, and lawlessness.
Curiously, the local reporter assured her viewers that people downtown were still “enjoying what this city has to offer” as they watched police haul members of the black mob away in “paddy” wagons.6
Anyone want to play the racial grievance game? Now would be a good time for you to get in on it. Just look up the meaning of “paddy wagon.” See you down at the Human Relations Commission.
Let’s move to Utica, New York. On April 7 more than one hundred black people were having a “riot.” Officers described the scene as “very chaotic with numerous fights breaking out,” said the local NBC affiliate. “Police say they were greatly outnumbered.” Six black people were arrested.7
A few hours before the Utica rioting, police had to fire pepper spray at “groups of people fighting in the East Bluff neighborhood in south Peoria, just minutes before a double shooting left one person dead.” All of the people were black.
No one was arrested.8
A few hours before that a mob of at least 15 black people
attacked a man walking home from the grocery store in Jacksonville, Florida. Two Good Samaritans who came to his assistance saved him from further harm as the mob scattered at their approach.9
First Coast News was the only local media outlet to report the attack. Several residents of Jacksonville wondered about the news blackout: “Have heard nothing about it here,” said one reader replying to a WND account of the mob violence. “I will ask the TV channels and the newspaper what gives?”
If you find out, let me know.
Just a few days before the Good Samaritans saved the man in Florida, a mob of more than one hundred black people were fighting in the streets in Wilmington, Delaware. One person was shot. Police described the action as a “large fight” and no one seemed alarmed or thought it was anything out of the ordinary.10
I was visiting my brother at the time. He lives seven blocks away. I heard the sirens.
A few days before that, in a suburb of Newark, New Jersey, police reported the latest in a series of violent robberies targeting Hispanic day laborers. NJ.com reported a man had “been robbed by a group of six African-American males.”11
In Chicago, one week before that, five hundred black people rampaged through the upscale shopping district known as the Magnificent Mile. They destroyed property, assaulted at least one police officer, and sent one other person to the hospital with injuries.
Local media referred to members of the violent mob as “mischievous teens.” And Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell suggested the rioters should lose their Facebook pages as punishment.
Chicago Alderman Emma Mitts told the Chicago Sun-Times that we are way past that. “They’re taking over the streets. They’re taking over the restaurants.” Mitts said it’s not only happening in downtown, but also in other Chicago neighborhoods. “They dance all over the street [and] in the restaurants, and they’re stopping traffic.”12
Mitts and other aldermen want to make sure the parents get counseling.
In the Boston area, two weeks before the Magnificent Mile rampage, a group of fifteen to thirty black people surrounded a bus at 1:15 a.m. and attacked the driver. “It is unclear what prompted the assault,” dutifully reported Metro.us.13
The night before that, in New York, demonstrations protesting a police shooting turned violent. Dozens of black people looted a Brooklyn drug store.14
And did I mention the “large fights” in Louisiana, South Carolina, Ohio, and, again, New Jersey? All in the same month?
More and more local news sites are allowing fewer and fewer comments from readers about the racial violence. Some shut down the comments altogether when the topic is race. Others purge comments frequently.
But where the topic is discussed, it attracts a lot of people who want to know why the local media refuses to report it. In Philadelphia, Ron Bockman suggested a better headline for the CBS story: “Correct headline, Large Disturbance Of Black Teens Gathers In Center City Philadelphia.”15
The comments were soon removed. The actions remain.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
NOTES
INTRODUCTION
1 Meg Jones, “Police investigate Riverwest armed robberies,” Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, July 5, 2011, http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/124983979.html.
2 “‘Beat Whitey Night’: Racism suspected in Iowa State Fair attacks,” The Des Moines Register, August 24, 2010, http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=213223.
3 Matt Buedel, “Police, firefighters shot with fireworks at Taft Homes ‘riot’,” Peoria Star Journal, July 5, 2011, http://www.pjstar.com/news/x1107265269/Police-briefly-close-Adams-while-dispersing-crowd.
4 Meg Jones, “Flynn calls looting, beatings in Riverwest barbaric,” Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, July 6, 2011, http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/125027704.html.
5 Terri Sanginiti, “Deliveryman beaten, robbed by group in Wilmington,” Delaware News Journal, August 17, 2011, http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110817/NEWS/110817022/1003/rss01?nclick_check=1.
6 “Officials: Flash Mobs Already Plague South Side,” CBS News Chicago, June 7, 2011, http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/06/07/officials-flash-mobs-already-plague-south-side.
7 Ian Urbina, “Mobs Are Born as Word Grows by Text Message,” The New York Times, March 24, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/us/25mobs.html.
8 “Parents seek answers in assaults near Missouri State University Mothers suspect ‘knockout game’,” by Steve Pokin, Springfield News-Leader, November 19, 2012, http://www.news-leader.com/article/20121119/NEWS12/311190020/Springfield-Missouri-State-University-assault-knock-out-game.
9 John Cook, “Matt Drudge Launches Black Teen Crime News Service,” Gawker.com, May 31, 2011, http://gawker.com/5806975/matt-drudge-launches-black-teen-crime-news-service.
CHAPTER 1
1 Mike Newall, “Teens in a mob assault and rob Center City patrons,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 29, 2011, http://articles.philly.com/2011-06-29/news/29717406_1_maria-teens-mob-assault.
2 “As Victim Speaks Out, City Explores Ways To Stop Violent Flash Mobs,” CBS News, August 3, 2011, http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/08/03/as-victim-speaks-out-city-explores-ways-to-stop-violent-flash-mobs.
3 “Officials Try to End Philly ‘Flash Mobs’,” Associated Press TV, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4WOYMWp29g&feature=youtu.be.
4 Ian Urbina, “Mobs Are Born as Word Grows by Text Message,” The New York Times, March 24, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/us/25mobs.html.
5 John Tarrett, “Panic amid US flash mob attacks,” Al Jazeera English, August 14, 2011, http://blogs.aljazeera.net/americas/2011/08/14/panic-amid-us-flash-mob-attacks.
6 Ronnie Polaneczky, “A bystander was severely beaten by the ‘flash mob’,” Philadelphia Daily News, June 28, 2011, http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/ronnie_polaneczky/47751717.html?viewAll=y.
7 “Center City Store Brawl Caught On Tape,” CBS News, March 24, 2011, http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/03/24/teens-arrested-for-fighting-in-center-city-store.
8 Sarah Bloomquist and David Henry, “‘Unruly crowd’ forms after 4th of July celebration Monday,” 6ABC.com, July 5, 2010, http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7537449&hpt=T2.
9 Monique Braxton, “Flash Mob Strikes in Philadelphia,” NBC10 Philadelphia, July 31, 2011, http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Flash_Mob_Strikes_in_Philadelphia_Philadelphia-126468293.html.
10 Darren Hunter, “LaSalle Student Stabbed in ‘Hate Crime’: Dog Saves Life,” Examiner.com, July 4, 2011, http://www.examiner.com/article/lasalle-student-stabbed-hate-crime-dog-saves-life.
11 “As Victim Speaks Out, City Explores Ways To Stop Violent Flash Mobs,” CBS Philly, August 3, 2011, http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/08/03/as-victim-speaks-out-city-explores-ways-to-stop-violent-flash-mobs.
12 Erik Uliasz, “Flash Mobs in Philadelphia: Sorry PC America, They are a Racial Thing,” Philly2Philly.com, August 13, 2011, http://www.philly2philly.com/politics_community/politics_community_articles/2011/8/13/47591/flash_mobs_philadelphia_sorry_pc_amer.
13 Ron Allen, “Philly mayor: flash mobbers ‘damaging their race’,” The Grio, August 12, 2011, http://thegrio.com/2011/08/12/is-michael-nutter-right.
14 Stu Byko, “Nutter did well to move quickly against mayhem mobs,” Philly.com, August 18, 2011, http://articles.philly.com/2011-08-18/news/29900904_1_curfew-enforcement-mobs-trash-cans.
15 Elizabeth Fiedler, “Officials In Phila. Plan Curfews To Curb Teen Violence,” NPR.org, August 11, 2011, http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139507252/officials-in-phila-plan-curfews-to-curb-teen-violence.
16 “Teen Arrested For Stabbing At Erie Lanes Bowling Alley,” CBS Philly, August 14, 2011, http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/08/14/teen-arrested-for-stabbing-incident-following-event-at-erie-lanes-bowling-alley-in-philadelphia.
17 Dann Cuellar, “‘Flash mob’ assault suspects surrender Thursday,” 6ABC News, August 11, 2011, http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/crime&id=829942
0.
18 Julie Shaw, “Chased home: Mob attacks man in his house,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 27, 2011, http://articles.philly.com/2011-09-27/news/30208589_1_white-teens-attackers-angry-mob.
19 Alfred Lubrano, “Flash mob victim’s untold story,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 14, 2010, http://articles.philly.com/2010-04-14/news/25213326_1_flash-mob-attacker-anna-taylor.
20 “Caught on Camera,” NBC10 Philadelphia, July 7, 2011, http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Caught-on-Camera-4th-of-July-Boardwalk-Shooting-Atlantic-City-125177899.html.
21 Pearl Stewart, “Temple University’s Medical School Leads a Crime-Fighting Team,” October 27, 2011, http://www.readperiodicals.com/201110/2501835451.html%23b#ixzz2ONjpVYcp.
22 Robert Moran, “Philadelphia Magazine editor faces critics on race article,” March 20, 2013, http://articles.philly.com/2013-03-20/news/37846909_1_philadelphia-magazine-robert-huber-racial-insensitivity.
CHAPTER 2
1 Todd C. Frankel, “‘Knockout game’ case shocked St. Louis, then fell apart,” St. Louis Dispatch, March 4, 2011, http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/knockout-game-case-shocked-st-louis-then-fell-apart/article_cdf5032a-b65e-51e0-a84e-de0f0ce0c5f8.html.
2 Ibid.
3 “Police Will Investigate Possible Witness Tampering in Knockout Game Attack,” CBS St. Louis KMOX, January 13, 2012, http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2012/01/13/police-will-investigate-possible-witness-tampering-in-knockout-game-attack/.
4 Dave Keiser, “Demetrius Murphy identified as Gravois Park shooting victim,” 5KSDK.com, February 15, 2013, http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=363261.
5 “Updates on other ‘knockout game’ cases,” St. Louis Dispatch, January 11, 2012, http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/updates-on-other-knockout-game-cases/article_3ae2a002-2bb4-5056-8a28-db5c5fa795b6.html.
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