'Don't Make the Black Kids Angry': The hoax of black victimization and those who enable it.
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As these and other cities cancelled their fireworks and surrounding parties, other cities such as Baltimore are gearing up to prepare for the annual violence.
The Baltimore Inner Harbor has been the site of black mob violence during the holiday for years. State legislator Pat McDonough called on the governor in 2012 to declare the upscale Inner Harbor a “No-Go Zone” because of black mob violence.
By 2013, the city would be in the midst of a record-breaking crime wave, and the police promised a “'dramatic increase' in presence through July 4, said the Baltimore Sun. [515]
Ditto at Fort Lauderdale: The city experienced unprecedented black mob violence at the boardwalk over the Memorial Day weekend, and now the city has “tripled the number of officers normally assigned to the beach,” said city commissioner Dean Trantalis. “Be assured: The city is ready for the Fourth of July.”[516]
Last year, Chris Rock began the holiday with an explosive tweet: “Happy white peoples Independence Day. The slaves weren't free but I'm sure they enjoyed fireworks.”
That night, more than a dozen cities including Chicago, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Columbus, Albany (Georgia,) Waco, Peoria and Greensboro experienced large-scale black mob violence. Some of the fireworks were cancelled before they were over. Some of the crowds shot fireworks at the police.
The July 4 violence of 2012 is documented in White Girl Bleed a Lot.
From Bedford, with Love:
So I wrote an email to the mayor of Bedford, asking for a comment, even enclosing a draft of the previous chapter, documenting the black mob violence in his town.
His staffer did not like that.
First my letter. Then the response.
From: Colin Flaherty [mailto:colin@colinflaherty.com]
Sent: Monday, July 01, 2013 1:36 PM
To: Dan Pocek
Subject: From Colin Flaherty for Mayor Pocek
Mr. Mayor,
I am the author of White Girl Bleed a Lot.
I write about racial violence for publications around the world
I’m doing a story about how several cities are canceling their July 4 celebrations this year because of trouble last year with black mob violence.
Here’s a chapter on it from my book: White Girl Bleed a Lot.
Fourth of July – Epidemic of black mob violence: White Girl Bleed a Lot.
Any thoughts about black mob violence in Bedford?
Fair to call it black mob violence?
Best,
Colin Flaherty
Here is what they sent in return:
Mr. Flaherty,
Bedford is a charter city with the Chief Executive Officer being the city manager; as such that is my position. In my position, I also serve as the City’s Safety Director.
I am a little perplexed and at a loss to understand your email to our Mayor.
You state that you write about“racial violence,” and go into a diatribe about some alleged incidents here.
You further indicate something about“trouble with black mob violence,” assuming somehow that Bedford experienced“black mob violence.”
I am appalled with your insinuation. Both white and black residents of Bedford would also be appalled at such an insinuation.
Maybe you have our city confused with some other city.
In no way were our fireworks cancelled based on such erroneous innuendos, misstatements and“race-baiting” conjectures.
Is there anything in that statement you might not understand?
I find your email contemptuous and without merit or substance.
You allege to be a reporter. Assuming you might actually be one, I would be most happy discuss with you how far off base you actually are.
Henry J. Angelo
City Manager,
Bedford, Ohio 44146
Then I asked him one more time about black mob violence in Bedford. Here is what I got back:
I just received this. After your telephone message, I would have expected no less. Your vocabulary leaves a lot to be desired and your writing skills are more along the lines of fiction. The statement credited to me, “But he did say it was“contemptuous” that anyone would notice,” is pure fabrication. So much for any real dialog……….
If possible in your world, have a good day.
Henry J. Angelo
Denial. Deceit.
In Bedford.
July 4, 2013: The Riots That Were Not Canceled
"Happy white people’s independence day;
the slaves weren't free but I'm sure they enjoyed fireworks."
Chris Rock, July 4, 2012.
When writing about the black mob violence in more than 15 cities over the Fourth of July, 2013 that were brave or crazy enough to have them, it is tempting to start with Chicago.
Chicago was the site of several cases of black mob violence during the holiday fireworks, which city officials and local media dutifully downplayed or ignored. We’ll get to that.
But the real story in 2013 is not just the black mob violence raging in bigger and more predictable places like Chicago -- and Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Detroit, Cleveland, Atlanta and St. Louis. Which it is.
But racial violence is also striking smaller, and more unlikely, places like Greensboro, Buffalo, Wilkes-Barre, Tulsa, Cedar Rapids, Seaside Heights, Memphis, Fredericksburg, Uniondale, Fall River, Lincoln, Kingston, Utica, Manchester, and Indianapolis.
And Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And Lincoln, Nebraska.
Full Stop.
They have black mob violence in Iowa? And Nebraska? Man, I have to get out more. But they do. Lots of it. Sometimes fatal. As we shall see here and later in the book.
But if black mob violence is common in Iowa and Nebraska, what do you suppose the rest of the country is like? What’s your town like?
On the Fourth of July holiday weekend 2013, we found out.
Let’s start with Tulsa. It took the local media a year to report it, but on the Fourth of July in 2012, a black mob set fire to a local recreation center, then hurled fireworks at the cops and firemen there to put it out.[517]
The following year on July 4, “the kids” in Tulsa did it again. Then once more on July 5. They set fire to a recreation center, then attacked police and firefighters with missiles when they arrived to put it out. On video.[518]
It is amazing how often -- like all the time -- I find a story about black mob violence where someone innocently reports: Oh yeah, it’s been happening a long time. Like here:
According to News On 6:
"We've seen worse Fourth of July’s and we've seen better, and this one will rank up as one of the worst," neighbor Jason Trent said.
Trent has had a front-row seat for the illegal fireworks show that more than 60 kids have been putting on since Monday.”
Despite the grainy video of several black people fleeing, no one was arrested. Look at the video: The fleeing black people are carrying something: Fireworks? Or bongs?
Several years ago, city officials discussed closing this recreation center. But because it was in a black part of Tulsa, members of ACORN convinced the city council to keep it open after claiming it would be racist to close it.[519]
This time the black people almost burned it down. Then tried to hurt the people who came to put it out. If you check the video of the neighbor, let me know if you can figure out why he is so eager to condone what the “kids” are doing.
In Greensboro, black mobs rampaged in 2012 through the downtown, spreading violence and chaos on several occasions. Including “every weekend in June.”[520] In 2013, in the weeks leading up to the Fourth of July holiday, it started again. On video.[521]
“A massive fight in downtown Greensboro Saturday night has some city leaders taking a hard look at bringing back the teen curfew.
Nearly 400 people were involved in the several fights that happened along Elm Street. Greensboro police arrested 11 people ranging in age from 16 to 20-years-old.
Officers had to use pepper spray and a stu
n gun to try to get the crowd under control.”
One local nightclub owner called it a “riot, to say the least.” At least one gun was fired. The black people were invited downtown to see a free movie. An offshoot of the city’s Midnight Basketball Program.
And yes, I checked this 12 times to make sure it was true.[522] Midnight basketball is still around. Only now it has morphed into an occasion of black mob violence.
Funny how that happens.
With the Fourth of July fireworks downtown just a day away, the city council held an “emergency meeting” to discuss imposing a curfew. Community activist George Hatzman belled the cat when he talked about the video that showed a “bunch of black kids” causing the chaos.[523]
Black city councilmember T. Dianne Bellamy-Small said she hated to “play the race card,” but she did not want to “criminalize” the behavior of the black mob. The curfew was an attempt to exclude a “certain group” from downtown.[524]
She acknowledged that shopping centers and movie theaters in Greensboro were having similar problems, but that is different because “they are private,” she said. And the parents of “the children pay tax dollars,” she said, so their children should have a right to go downtown whenever they want.
What? Widespread black mob violence is common in Greensboro?
Say again? “Shopping centers and movie theaters in Greensboro were having similar problems.”
I thought she said that. Hmmm. I checked: That was not in the local press. Guess it’s normal.
But we do have a conflicting narrative: On the one hand, black people riot because they do not have jobs. And thus pay no taxes. On the other, they do have jobs and thus, that gives them the right to riot.
Dang: This stuff is way above my pay grade.
In the end, the council passed the curfew -- The Youth Protection Ordinance -- making it illegal for people 17 and under to be downtown after 11 p.m.
They can’t even get that part right. This was not about protecting the black people responsible for the violence. It was about protecting everyone else from them.
Why is that impossible to say?
If you go to the tape of the city council meeting, you can help me out: Try to find one member of that city council who is upset at the assaults, property damage, and harm to the business climate in their downtown. Go ahead. I dare you.
The next day, Independence Day, violence and lawlessness erupted again downtown. Most of it before 11, the Chief of Police told the News & Record. “We recognized some as individuals who participated in the disruptions and fights occurring in the downtown area last Saturday night," said the chief. [525]
However bad it was, it was not as bad as the previous Saturday night, said the chief.
In Madison, “a witness described a huge fight that was going on a block away,” said the police report.[526] “The officer arrived on scene and reported that dozens of people were fighting in the middle of the street with a variety of weapons from garden rakes to dumbbells, according to the release. Officials said people were using locks in their hands as brass knuckles and brandishing sticks.”[527]
Everyone arrested or hurt was black.
How about a two’fer in Madison. Madison.com reports a big fight with arrests, threats on police, pepper spray, the works. All after the fireworks:
Madison police say they had to threaten a hostile crowd with pepper spray after last week's Rhythm and Booms fireworks show.
The crowd grew hostile when officers tried to arrest a man who was fighting in the 1800 block of Northport Drive, just outside Warner Park where the fireworks were set off, about 11 p.m. Wednesday, according to a police news release.
Officers were finally able to arrest Jayton Jarvel Richmond, 21, on a tentative charge of disorderly conduct, while about 30 onlookers yelled expletives at the police, according to the release.
From this account, here is what we learned: This has happened before. Here is what we did not learn: This was another case of black mob violence. Had to go to the mug shots for that.
Let’s head out to Iowa, Cedar Rapids. The Patch says: [528]
“Multiple news outlets are reporting that a large brawl that began during the fireworks on the Fourth of July and flared up again on Saturday resulted in the arrest of 13 people.
“KCRG reports that the fight at 232 20th St. NW involved "rocks, bats, and bricks" and one of the suspects with a knife was subdued by police officers with a Taser.”
“According to KGAN, this fight was a spillover from a fight that began Thursday night.”[529]
Everyone arrested or hurt was black.
Soon after I talked about racial violence in Iowa on WHO radio, I got a letter from Cedar Rapids: ‘Hey Colin, it happens a lot here.’
In Cedar Rapids?
Hey, I know this must seem that I am “dwelling on negative experiences that whites had with blacks that often fit into racial stereotypes,” as the brainiacs like to say at the Philadelphia Inquirer when they are covering up the latest bout of racial violence in the City of Brotherly Love.
But Cedar Rapids? What happened to the fresh lemonade and picnic baskets with fried chicken and potato salad? Under a big old oak tree.
There go my stereotypes again.
Even by Detroit standards this was a bit much: A couple of hundred people gathered at a liquor store in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac to watch the fireworks. Big fight breaks out. Guy pulls a gun. Kills a father of five. Shoots five others, including two of the dead guy’s children.[530]
What else can you say?
In Uniondale, New York, a large fight started at a holiday gathering of 250 black people. Police tell the crowd the party is over and it is time go home. They did not like that. The money graph from the Patch.com: [531]
As officers attempted to break up the fight Phillips and Cherry called out to the partygoers to intervene.
A second large fight then ensued in the front of the residence and officers responded, police said.
They attacked police. Several others were charged with inciting a riot.
There’s that “R” word.
In downtown St. Louis, a black mob described as “sea of people” assaulted several employees and patrons of local shops after the fireworks. According to the local NBC affiliate:[532]
Joe Stapf says he was ambushed and attacked while he was talking on his cell phone in the alley behind Robust during his break. He was talking to his girlfriend when one teenager punched him in the face and ran off. Then more teens started attacking him for no apparent reason.
He says they took off without stealing anything.
Stapf’s girlfriend suffered a similar, Knockout Game attack in January. [533]
Another employee in the upscale district reported a “mob of kids” stealing cell phones, throwing chairs, vandalizing cars, and assaulting people.
No one was arrested. So it never happened.
Look into my eyes. You are getting sleepy. Very sleepy. It never happened. On the count of ten, you will awake, feeling refreshed and full of hope that black mob violence is not out of control.
Ten!
Commentators at local news sites were upset at the frequency of this black mob violence in St. Louis. And how the local media continues to ignore it. Greg Rodey posted on the local NBC web site:[534]
“Just like the 'kids' that attacked the Wisconsin state fair goers, the 'youths' that mobbed a Peoria neighborhood, and the 'teens' who beat a white girl into convulsions on a school bus in Ocala. Look it up.[535]Maybe if we just keep ignoring the elephant in the corner, it will just go away. Right, media?”
Fans of White Girl Bleed a Lot can get rowdy.
Several others at the site echoed Rodey’s comments and wondered when the media was going to start telling the truth: Mob violence in St. Louis is a black thing.
But at least one person inflicted with Infantile Omnipotence was not going along with that: “This is all about crime and has nothing to do with race,” said one anonym
ous poster.
All black people in St. Louis are not criminals. But all the criminals involved in these episodes were black. Maybe that’s not important, right?
Maybe they can talk about that at the next meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists.
Down in Memphis, a black mob started fighting during the downtown fireworks. Two people shot. 200 cops were not enough. Police say "Unsupervised juveniles were the problem," said the CBS affiliate. The shooter "was not a bad kid." [536]
This is another increasingly popular narrative: People involved in black mob violence are OK because 95 percent of the time they are not hurting, beating, taunting and destroying property. Like all the largely peaceful Trayvon riots.
Two days later a few miles away, hundreds of black people were fighting and stabbing each other. Gunfire. Neighbors say it happens all the time, and is “a way of life.” No one arrested.[537]
Next.
At Indianapolis, black mob violence is now part of the fabric of that city’s life. Police and media know the drill: The newspaper describes downtown as a “a city core overrun by unsupervised teenagers who fight each other and occasionally fire weapons,” said the Indianapolis Star.[538]
The Fourth of July was no different. Following the annual fireworks, black mobs moved through the downtown, fighting, destroying property, firing guns. Killing one person.
All this despite heavy police presence that included helicopters, vans, dogs and everything else they could muster.[539]
The newspaper and local public officials like to pretend that race has nothing to do with the regular and intense violence. People who are caught in the middle of it do not have that luxury.
Black mob violence is a regular feature of life in Utica, New York, with more than a dozen examples in 2013 alone. The Fourth of July was no different: Police responded to a “large fight” and everyone involved or arrested was black.[540]
In Lincoln, Nebraska, the local media reports lots of large-scale violence in the downtown, including some on the Fourth of July where one police officer was hurt.[541]
The local TV stations worry that "downtown Lincoln gets a poor reputation" from recent cases. The offending parties were not kind enough to leave us a video of the most recent example of black mob violence over the holiday weekend.