Ten years ago, local officials tried to stop the rampant violence and mayhem and noise and trash and lawlessness that mark this holiday. Nothing worked. Local businesses closed, trying to stop the damage. That did not work either: The ACLU and NAACP filed lawsuits forcing them to remain open.
Much of the law breaking is documented in White Girl Bleed a Lot.
Any illusions that Black Bike Week was somehow getting more mellow and family-friendly were disabused over the 2014 holiday weekend. At least 8 people were shot, three killed, some on video. [586]
For some locals, it became impossible to ignore the relentless black mob violence. Ryan Dodd took to the web site of WMBF TV news to say he had enough. He compared a recent “white” biker rally with Black Bike Week.
“During white bike week, the scanners light up with traffic collisions and some DUI arrests. During black bike week, we have nudity, littering, murders, stabbings, people shitting in elevators, walking out on bar tabs and restaurant tabs, and on and on.
When the city tried to get rid of bike week because of black bikers, they had to tip toe around the NAACP and flush out both weeks. Last night's stack of incident reports shows that generally speaking, the face of the two bike weeks brings different hazards to the business owners and citizens of this community, which I've lived my entire life.
WE WILL NOT TIP TOE around the FACT that blacks come here, act like goons, stretch our emergency services resources way beyond the limits, making it hazardous for us, and disrespect our entire community, and I speak for many of us when I tell you that I'm sick and tired of it.
The city of MB needs to stand up and let black bikers know that some of them have ruined it for all of them. Then when the NAACP calls in Jesse Jackson's racist self, officials need to extend their longest finger in that direction while handing them the stack of incident reports from 24 and 25 May 2014.
Next stop, Clearwater, near Tampa. Clearwater is known as an upscale tourist and family beach town. Not Memorial Day 2014. Starting at around sunset, several large groups of black people started fighting, shooting guns, rampaging, defying police orders, and creating havoc.
According to the Tampa Bay Times: Anne DeDominick, a Hyatt guest visiting from upstate New York, had just stepped out of a hot tub at the hotel when she spotted about 15 SWAT officers with assault rifles. "I was shaking in my shoes," she said. "I didn't know what was happening."[587]
Three people were wounded by the gunfire -- by all accounts, they made up just a small portion of the bullets fired all over that town during a 90-minute stretch. Four people were arrested. And the mayor blamed it all on a different crowd that does not normally go to the beach.
“It was absolutely crazy,” said TV reporter Peter Bernard. “I’ve lived here for 20 years and have never seen anything like this.”
Let’s finish in Fort Lauderdale. For years, city officials have congratulated themselves for ridding their beach town of the crazy college kids who used to make their city the destination of choice for wild and destructive Spring break parties.
And Black Beach Week? That was Miami Beach’s problem. Not theirs.
That all ended in 2013, when black beachgoers who chaffed at the armed camp atmosphere of Miami Beach headed over to Fort Lauderdale -- where they fought, destroyed property, defied police and created mayhem.
Some of it on video.[588]
One year later was a repeat: Large groups of black people -- hundreds -- came to Fort Lauderdale looking for trouble. They rampaged, destroyed property, jumped on cars, punched drivers in the face, attacked police, threw bricks at a bus, and caused holy hell for several hours until 42 people were arrested. Lots of video.
One person was stabbed.
Last year, a local radio personality said all the ruckus was just one big misunderstanding. She could speak for all of those who still refuse to believe that black mob violence exists out of proportion on Memorial Day. And every other day:
"You had many more people up that way than previous years," said Jill Tracey. "You have that many young black people together at any one time, it frightens white people."
I’m not frightened of black mob violence. But I am terrified of the bat shit crazy people in the media and government who ignore it, condone it, encourage it, and even lie about it.
Now those folks are dangerous.
Memorial Day, 2014. Part 3.
As bad as I thought Memorial Day was, it was worse.
Sometimes I miss a few. Or a lot.
That is what happened when I wrote and researched the previous chapter about more than a dozen episodes of black mob violence around the country over the Memorial Day weekend, 2014.
I missed at least three examples of large-scale racial violence. Or 300 depending on how you count.
So let’s see if we can make up for these grievous errors of omission, starting in Chicago.
Shortly after Memorial Day, cops and other readers of the Second City Cop blog in Chicago started reporting large groups of black people rampaging through the upscale Gold Coast area of the downtown. All over the holiday weekend.[589]
“Michigan Ave and the lakefront were a complete disaster tonight,”said one reader.“Jumping on [top] of cars and using racial slurs at the taxpayers.”
Said another:“Some poor woman was stopped at a light and had 40 savages completely surround her car and begin to rock it back and forth from each side in an attempt to tip it. When then didn't work, at least one of them ended up on her car and began stomping on it.”
And another:“It wasn't just jumping on cars. There were assaults and batteries as well.”
And another:“This comment is from a senior citizen and life long Chicago resident. I listened Saturday night at around 7pm to the scanner and heard police officers tell of packs of 40, 50, 100 and even 200 individuals causing trouble at north avenue and oak street beach areas.
“Fighting, running across the outer drive, throwing bottles at the oak street underpass, and pushing people. I have not heard of any comments by the mayor, the newspapers, or TV news on their websites.
“There were even packs of teens at state and lake near the ch 7 TV station. They probably could have just looked outside and seen them.”
And on and on and on.
Cops in Chicago will tell you: The Second City Cop blog is the most reliable source of crime information in the city. But this time was different. There was pushback: Several readers said they did not believe the dozens of accounts of black mob violence because there was no video, no news stories and no official acknowledgement.
Could the nasty white racists be planting false stories of racial violence for reason we cannot even guess?
The Superintendent of Police answered that question one week later:
“Over the weekend, we had at least five or six examples of large groups of kids coming off the CTA,” said Gary McCarthy told the local CBS affiliate. “We escorted (them) around basically like NATO protesters, which is the tactic that we used last year that was so effective.”[590]
Five or six large groups? How many people is that? I do not know.
Better question: How many of them were arrested. That I do know. Zero.
You may remember Superintendent McCarthy: He is the guy who variously blames Sarah Palin and the pilgrims for the violence in Chicago.
So, how many acts of black mob violence were there? Somewhere between 5 and, say, 100.
Sorry I missed them.
In Baltimore, I did get at least one act of racial violence correct: Hundreds of black people were rampaging through the downtown Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Beating, destroying property, creating mayhem.
But it was not until Friday that we got a fuller story about 50 to 100 black people fighting and attacking people at a local swimming pool in another part of town. After getting kicked out, they made their way over to Druid Hill Park, where the city parked 40 bikes as part of its CitiBike program.
You know: Where the city buys bikes and lets peo
ple ride them, hoping they will return them and thus create the utopian, racially harmonious, carless society. Enter the mob. According the Baltimore Sun: “bikes were stolen by mob of threatening youths. City-owned bikes were brazenly stolen by 40-50 youths, some ejected earlier from the municipal pool for fighting.”
But not before taunting and assaulting city employees who tried to convince them of the error of their ways.[591]
Per usual, the reporters pretended that black mob violence was not an every day fact of life in Baltimore. Which, per usual, attracted the ire of lots of commenters to the paper’s web site who wanted to know when the paper was going to start reporting the epic levels of black crime and violence in Baltimore.
Per usual, one reader objected to the “demonization” of black people in Baltimore.
It is hard to say why it takes days to reach the local media when 50 to 100 black people rampage and steal and beat their way through an entire section of a big city with lots of people seeing them. And when it does, it is presented with a gauzy filter that obscures more than it reveals.
I missed it too. Sorry about that. But I’m also having a bit of trouble with my math: How many cases of black mob violence is that: Is it two, one at the pool and one at the bikes? Or many more, since there were lots of individual acts of crime inside the mob.
That’s above my pay grade. Sorry about that too.
Finally, San Leandro. Here I have the least excuse for my crime of omission: I’ve been there. I have friends there. Yet in San Leandro over the Memorial Day Weekend, 200 black people took the BART from the Oakland area and beat, stole, kidnapped, pistol-whipped and rampaged their way through town.[592]
The local ABC affiliate gave a few details, but saved the good part for last:“Local police are warning violent packs of teenagers are attacking and robbing people, seemingly at random.”
We interrupt that re-creation of that broadcast to remind you that racial violence is not random. We now return to the regularly scheduled portion of the city’s video press release masquerading as a news story. “One of the kids that we arrested tried to take a car from the victim, who had a baby in the car, so we arrested him for kidnapping," San Leandro Police Lt. Mike Sobek said.
Ready for the punch line: It’s been happening for a while. None of the Bay area newspapers got around to mentioning this before, but: “This has been taking place every weekend for the past month and the Bayfair mall has been dealing with a lot of these problems, but it is starting to happen more often.”
Here’s my final confession. My final plea for, if not forgiveness, then at least understanding. There is way more happening than I can keep up with.
Postscript:
People who read the White Girl Bleed a Lot web site, Facebook page, YouTube channel and book are a curious, if not feisty, lot: They love asking reporters one question.
Why don’t you report racial violence?
They wonder why newspaper reporters talk about Black Caucuses, black colleges, black television stations, black radio, black music, black literature, black unions, Black baseball – everything except black mob violence.
Reporters get kind of snarky when anyone asks. That is what happened when Stephen Martin wrote a letter to a reporter Yvette Wenger, the reporter who “covered” the Memorial Day weekend black mob violence for the Baltimore Sun. [593]
Ms. Wenger,
Why don’t you mention that the gangs of“teens” committing hate crimes against whites are black? Sounds very racist in its omission. You know you’re not fooling anyone, we know what’s going on and you just look foolish and racists when you pretend it isn’t so.
Her response:
“I am sure you have first hand knowledge of the races of the children that comprised this group from Dallas, even as the police who are actually here in Baltimore haven’t actually caught the children.
Please keep your racism to yourself. I am not interested.”
Wow: So 100 black people rampage through a Baltimore neighborhood and this reporter wants to pretend she did not know they were black. Or that it was impossible for anyone else to know because they were not there. Or it was not important.
I was not there, but here is how I know: People told me. People from Baltimore who are constantly amazed at how reporters excuse, deny, condone, lie and even get snarky about racial violence.
So this is Exhibit 3794 of racial violence and denial in Baltimore.
And oh yeah: A day or so after the Big Bike Heist story, Wenger was back on the racial reporting beat. Here is a recent tweet from the lovely Ms. Wenger:
Last time Bmore hosted the All Star game in 1993, @MayorSRB said it was an amazing experience. She helped escort Negro League Players.
A few words of advice to the future New York Times award-winning reporter Yvonne Wenger: Don’t look back. They might be gaining on you.
Jennifer told me.
P.P.S. Flash forward to August. The Baltimore Sun runs a story saying neighbors -- and by extension the paper -- are upset that the police are not releasing details on two recent crimes in the Federal Hill area.
An upscale area. One guy was attacked by a group of teens on mopeds. The other beat up. The neighbors piled on, reminding people of all the violence in their once safe neighborhood. Let’s hear the Sun talk about it.[594]
“The case underscores what some Baltimore residents complain is a lack of information about crime in their neighborhoods, and misinformation on online platforms that include community Facebook pages and sites such as Nextdoor, a social networking site for neighbors.”
Which, of course, is exactly what this book and White Girl Bleed a Lot documented the Baltimore Sun doing the exact same thing.
But you already figured that out, right?
Baton Rouge: No Whites Allowed
Learn the penalty for disregarding this rule.
No one saw the sign that said “No White People Allowed.” Maybe because it was dark. Or did not exist.
So when a white family pulled into a Baton Rouge gas station in a black neighborhood 10 p.m. Sunday night after a 2013 Mother’s Day celebration, they had no idea they were in danger -- especially if everything they knew came from local media.
But they were.
Donald Dickerson, a black man, told them so, right before the assault began that would leave the father with a broken face, the mother unconscious, and the daughter badly bruised.
All because they were the wrong color in the wrong place.
WAFB television news captures the crime from police reports. The spokesman for the police department said:[595]
A man wearing a pink shirt was in line trying to pay for gas when Donald Dickerson, 41, started making fun of him, leading to an argument. "The defendant (Dickerson) approached the white male victim," the police report stated.
It went on to read, "the defendant told him he was in the wrong neighborhood and he was not going to make it out." The victim said that's when he "was punched and knocked to the ground."
At this time, his wife got out of the car and ran to help her husband. The victim said, "He continued to struggle with the defendant and was eventually knocked unconscious, which later he awoke in the hospital."
His wife told police, "After running to help her husband, she remembers falling to the ground and (being) knocked unconscious."
According to a close family friend, that's when the couple's teenage daughter got out of the car to check on her parents and, "observed a female punch her mother in the face, when her mother then fell to the concrete, hitting her head on the surface."
The daughter was also punched in the face.
The man suffered a broken eye socket, a broken nose and several cuts on the face, said the police report.
Dickerson was charged with a felony and taken to jail. The other two involved in the assault were charged with misdemeanors, given tickets at the scene, and released.
No one has been charged with a hate crime.
Police have not identifi
ed the victim or his family. So no one has had a chance to ask if he was aware he was in a black neighborhood. Or if he ever heard of Routine Activities Theory. Otherwise known as R.A.T.
R.A.T. played a central role last year in a Chicago courtroom where the city had to pay a white woman $22.5 million after she was arrested, then released into a black neighborhood in Chicago.
She was assaulted and tossed -- or jumped -- from a seven-story building, leaving her with permanent brain damage.
Harvard sociology professor Robert Sampson, one of the country’s top experts on R.A.T., testified the R.A.T. made it clear that a white person in a black neighborhood can reasonably expect to meet with violence.
The judge explained R.A.T. by saying the victim “was a white female in a predominantly black, poor neighborhood (and) she had a much higher risk of predatory victimization.”
There is no indication that Dickerson knew anything about a competing theory called Critical Race Theory, popularized by one of Barack Obama’s professors at Harvard, Dr. Derrick Bell.[596]
This theory says that white people, good or bad, are racist. As is every institution in America. Permanently.
For the more academically inclined, this explanation from the UCLA School of Public Affairs, may be more complete:[597]
Critical Race Theory recognizes that racism is engrained in the fabric and system of the American society.
The individual racist need not exist to note that institutional racism is pervasive in the dominant culture. This is the analytical lens that CRT uses in examining existing power structures.
CRT identifies that these power structures are based on white privilege and white supremacy, which perpetuates the marginalization of people of color.
This theory is popular with educators at all levels of school.
At first, the R.A.T. and C.R.T. might seem conflicting. But if you think about it, it is plain they both predict a similar result for white people who accidentally end up in black neighborhoods. At night. When there are no warning signs.
'Don't Make the Black Kids Angry': The hoax of black victimization and those who enable it. Page 29