The Recognition We Deserve

Once again, Flint is getting publicity for its psychotically high murder rate. This isn't anything new or surprising to me, but I figure that it's always good to have Yahoo! backing up statistics on this shithole:

"1. Flint, Mich. 

Violent crimes per 1,000: 23.4

Population: 102,357

2011 murders: 52

Median income: $22,672

Unemployment rate: 18.9%

According to the FBI, no city with more than 100,000 residents had a higher violent crime rate than Flint. In 2011, there were 2,392 incidents of violent crime in Flint, which has a population just above 100,000. That same year, there were just 1,246 violent crimes in all 10 of the safest cities in America — which have 13 times as many residents as Flint among them. Flint has the second-highest murder rate and the highest rates of aggravated assault, burglary and arson in the nation. According to Flint Mayor Dayne Walling, “there are too many guns on the street and it’s easy for individuals with evil motives to take another human being’s life.” 

Though the violent crime has long been a problem in Flint, in 2010 the city laid off 20 of its 140 police officers, a decision that diminished both the police’s street presence and response times to crime." 

Flint's favorite son feels that its murder rate is caused by a surplus of guns and, more importantly, 'individuals' with evil motives. At face value, I agree that the problem is caused by individuals with evil motives having guns. Classification of these individuals is where Dayne and I disagree--Blacks with guns are the reason Flint is the most dangerous city in the US.

But enough about Walling--let's see if anyone else can tell us why Flint is the way it is:

"Notice how all these cities have high populations of subsidized housing and projects. Those are deadly to crime preponderance. Obviously, they are a symptom of deep social problems, but the connection is more than coincidence. By the way, New Orleans also had lots of subsidized apartments. Gruesome." 

 I can think of something else all these cities have a lot of!

"You can buy a nice house in Detroit for less than 20k.....that's the reason why."

And here I was thinking that affordable housing would stop Black  crime!

Mark Adomanis on John Derbyshire

I've kept quiet about the The Talk--and John Derbyshire's blacklisting--in no small part due to laziness. The greater part, though, is due to an apathy inside me that has seen this before. James D. Watson was met with a similar backlash after a similar comment on the hereditary nature of IQ, which I talk about in (a little) more detail here. Setting aside direct discussion about The Talk, I'd like to put part of an article from Forbes contributor Mark Adomanis on the table:

"It utterly baffles me how, in this day and age, anyone, even the most obtuse or egotistical, could possibly think that you would not be put out to pasture for authoring such a humorless, ill-informed, poorly written, and sophomoric screed about the mortal peril that white and Asian children face from African Americans."

I would disagree with the notion of Derbyshire's being ill-informed, but I'm sure that his time at Harvard/Oxford left Mark with a much more intimate understanding of Black Americans than mine. The poor writing accusation won't stand as well, considering just how fresh-out-of-college and overly-horny-for-a-big-article his own writing is. Yes, Adomanis knows how the game is played, as is demonstrated by the article in three major ways:

1) The most integral part of any left-leaning article is to make your opponent's political incorrectness known as often and as pompously as possible. Your opponent is a dim-witted, evil dickface. Mark follows the formula to a tee, using the words "racism" and "racist" a collective thirty times in-between dropping loads of shit much like the one in quotes above. 

2) Ignore the big, ugly truth about Blacks in the US, and reiterate that your opponent is a racist--therefore stupid, therefore a liar. Be sure to leave it at this, because delving into statistical detail will only encourage your opponents and may confuse your audience. Mark wrote an article about how Conservatism is hurt by racist assholes like Derbyshire rather than one on whether or not The Talk could actually save lives. 

3) Use words that will make people think you're smart. Like "screed." Screed, screed, screed.

I also really liked this:

"** I am not (let me repeat not) arguing that the conservative base is uniformly racist. Far from it. But the conservative base does have a much higher tolerance for harsh rhetoric provided that that rhetoric comes from other conservatives. This “us versus them” mentality is very much a basic part of human psychology, but does seem to be particularly well developed among contemporary American conservatives who will countenance almost any sort of conduct provided the person is part of their team."

Translation:

"I'm not saying that all Conservatives are racist--it's just that, on average, they're more likely to be racists. "

Update 810: There goes the neighborhood

I've always lived in a relatively nice area of Flint. Like the Swiss alps, a few major roads form a sort of barrier between the hood and my hood. However, thanks to various government housing programs, my hood has seen increased diversity these last few years. Since my last post (Feb 2nd) I've enjoyed the benefits of a racially integrated community on two occasions worth noting:

1) Relaxing on one of the first nice, sunny days of the year, some friends and I were driving to a park just a few blocks away from my house. Passing a minor road along the way, I noticed 6-8 young Black men crossing the street at an odd angle--and in formation. I noted the peculiarity of said group to my own as we parked around the block. We had time for a collective shoulder shrug before.... BANG. BANG. BANGBANG. BANGBANGBANGRATATATATATATATATATA. Naturally, we put the car in drive and hauled ass away from the incident. A few minutes later, Flint Police Ops tweeted the details. I never followed up on whether or not the victim (or aggressor) died, but it's worth noting that last year there was a murder two blocks down on the same street. Later that night there was a brawl on the corner, too. Just saying.

2) Yesterday, an acquaintance of mine called to ask if there were any police on outside of his apartment complex. The police had been called about a group of youths with automatic weapons seen attempting a break-in. I happened to be around, so I told him that the coast was clear. He explained that his cousin, an individual of less than reputable character, had engaged in some form of TNB. A carload of thugs were now cruising through the neighborhood flashing guns and asking familiars for his whereabouts. The thugs were caught on the road with their AKs and bad intentions shortly after my acquaintance and I checked his apartment--wrecked and looted. 

Before anyone says anything, I'd like to stress that I could be dead right now. Had a stray bullet from the first gunfight ricocheted the right way, I'd be dead. Had I been standing outside my friend's apartment just five minutes earlier (or the assailants simply waited inside), I'd be dead. Caught in the crossfire. Kaput. Done. Finished.

Update 810: Hanging Out

For the last two years now, more people have been murdered in Flint than soldiers have died in Iraq. On the plus side, the number of homicides from 2010 to 2011 dropped from 65 to 57. Detroit, on the other hand, went to work this year with a whopping 344. Adjusting for population size, however, Flint still had the greater amount of homicides per capita (note that this is a largely Black phenomenon and be sure to read this post with that in mind). What are we going to do about it?

Well, we probably won't do anything--and not just because it's racist to punish Black crime. This is partially due to our  newly-appointed emergency financial manager--the adult supervision cities like Flint receive from the state when they get too out of hand--trying to balance the budget and cut costs wherever possible, and partially due to the idiots that voted for Dayne Walling. For those of you who might not know who Dayne is or what he stands for, here's an excerpt from his campaign page:

"Dayne knows that people in Flint have the skills and the dedication, and he already knows the groups in Flint which have been working for many years to improve the city. When people work together, our children will be proud to call Flint their home. We will have good schools, good jobs, and good neighborhoods for all people and families. This is what it means to be a great city in the 21^st Century."

Seriously? Good schools, good jobs, AND good neighborhoods for ALL families? Throughout the entire mayoral race, the idea that Flint (namely high-crime areas like Da Nof' End) is a spectacle of rampant barbarism never really came up. Actually, I shouldn't say that; we had a candidate who vowed not to take a paycheck until 50 officers were back on the street. Let's not forget that this same candidate owned a business which he started in Flint, giving him both monetary and moral incentives to follow through. Unfortunately, even mentioning that Flint is particularly violent means you're racist for noticing.

So what do we do about it? What can we do about it? We know for a fact that everything we HAVE been doing HASN'T been working. Democrats have been running the show in Flint for a long time, and have run it straight into the ground. In the face of such ridiculous crime rates, I feel that the only way to really drive home the message is to appeal to Flint's citizens on a more visceral level--bring back public hangings.

Some--most--would call that measure a tad extreme. I feel "fuck you, 57 murders is a tad extreme" to be a fair rebuttal. If people in Flint have such disrespect for human life and the rule of law, they need to see first-hand what happens when you disrespect either of the two. It doesn't have to be public hangings either; all we need is a swift and brutal message of "this shit isn't gonna fly." You can't tolerate criminals out of their behavior--fire with fire.