Colin Flaherty has done an excellent job in this chronicle
of racial violence. He cites cases in most US cities, involving theft, assault,
murder, and witness intimidation, but the main concern of this book is mass
assault. For the past several years we’ve had innumerable instances where
dozens of black teenagers rampage through shopping malls, train stations, and
parks, beating and robbing people at random. We know it from the news media as
the “knockdown game” and it’s becoming a serious problem in the USA.
The main concern of the author is that race plays a huge
part in this. He believes that since 95% of the gang assaults are the work of
black teens, it must be the result of either corrupt and lazy black leaders, or
race-conscious reporters. He gives an example in Mayor Michael Nutter of
Philadelphia and his reaction to these mass assaults. First he openly
criticized the attackers, then the next time round he changed his attitude.
Flaherty accuses him of being afraid to criticize his own people, either out of
resentment, or because he’s afraid of pissing off his angry low-class
constituents. The news media Flaherty also accuses in this problem, citing them
as being more concerned with appearing liberal (unless you’re tuning into Sean
Hannity) in order to avoid accusations of racism, than in reporting honestly.
There is, however, a positive window of hope. He devotes a
chapter titled “Granny Get Your Gun” to people who fight back. In states like
Florida, Michigan, and Texas, there have been citizens who shot their attackers
and saved themselves. In another state, some boys approached an old man and
said “we want your wallet.” His response? He took off his glasses, said “well
you can’t have it” and fought back. I think this man may have saved the lives
of those boys, because risk-takers don’t learn until their luck runs out. His
punches to their faces may keep them out of jail. There’s also (not mentioned
in the book) the Hasidic private security patrols in Brooklyn, formed after the
Crown Heights riots in 1991. Fed up with the lack of police protection, the
locals started their own. This was 20 years before the so-called knockdown game
became a catchword, but assaults just like it were commonplace. When black boys
did it to each other, it was because they were being stupid angry kids. When
black boys did it to Hasidic Jews, it was definitely racially motivated.
I have to wonder myself if the “knockdown game” is the
result of racial hatred, or simply the result of people tolerating bad behavior
from the lower classes. Black communities have been dealing with gang assaults
for years, and nobody panicked. Most shooting victims in the inner cities are
black and/or Hispanic, and I rarely hear of white people being randomly shot in
their own neighborhoods. But it does seem that there is an increase in the
number of black boys and girls mobbing and beating whites. If it’s not about
race and/or class, could it be the result of weak law enforcement? I fear that
both are possibilities.
Ten years ago, Britain had a problem like this; it was
called “happy slap,” where teens would randomly hit strangers (or all ages and
races) and film it with their cellphone cameras. There were headlines in the
paper “Happy Slap Them Straight to Jail” after one such incident caused an old
lady to fall, hit her head, and have a stroke. Most of the “slappers” were
white kids, and my theory is that the British legal system tolerates crap from
lower class people. Their idea is “well that’s how they behave and that’s what
we expect from them.”
Back when I was a kid, we had a boy in my school who was
always fighting with everyone, very confrontational and angry. My mother’s
response was “he’s unhappy, and he doesn’t have all the good things you have,
and a mature person doesn’t start up with him.” What she really meant was “he’s
from the lower classes, that’s how they behave, the principal doesn’t want to
discipline him because he feels sorry for him, and it’ll be too much trouble
for me to do anything, so just tough it out.” To this day I consider my mother
a coward.
I give kudos to Flaherty for taking the American liberals to
task over the return of racial violence. Newspapers in NYC are now omitting the
race of the perpetrators when they report crime, and they’re doing it because
they’re afraid to be accused of race. My only criticism of Flaherty is that he
doesn’t place enough blame on weak law enforcement, lazy judges, or cowardly
business people. I say weak law enforcement it a problem, because if the police
can’t respond quickly to one assault, how will they respond to a gang of 80? I
say lazy judges, because too many of them give short sentences for major
assaults, rather than giving the teen 100 hours of community service and making
him do it on weekends and school holidays. I blame cowardly business people who
won’t even try to throw out disruptive customers, not because they’re afraid
for their safety, but because they’re afraid of lawsuits.
I blame President Obama for a lot of this. He’s the nation’s
top cop, and if you disagree, look at the constitution of the USA. It says his
job is to “carry out the laws, enforce the laws, oversee defense and security
of the nation, and oversee Federal property.” But Obama hasn’t been carrying
out the law. He did nothing about the Black Panthers in Philadelphia who stood
outside the polling stations armed with nightsticks. He did nothing about
Mormon Polygamists who traffic underage girls across state lines. He’s done
nothing about marijuana growers in the national parks, cross-border drug
dealing, foreclosure abuse, or food stamp fraud. If the president won’t do his
law-enforcement duties, what does that tell young people?
Back in September 2013, a gang of bikers chased a driver,
dragged him from his car, and beat him while his wife and child looked on in
horror. Now what race were the bikers? That’s right, they were black (with one
Italian American thrown in.) Even the Hell’s Angels wouldn’t have done anything
remotely like this. But if I were the driver of that car, I would’ve panicked
and run over the entire gang. Fear is a powerful weapon, it tells you when
you’re in danger, and when you’re in danger you may have to fight back.
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