Black on Black Crime in the USA: Will it ever stop?

It seems from the breaking news that the body of Jennifer Hudson's nephew, Julian King was found. That's a relief as it was just about certain given the dynamics of the victims and the killer, that the boy, the murderer's stepson, had no chance to survive.

This story broke into public awareness at about 3 p.m. on Friday. However the forced-entry shooting through the home's front door occurred at about 9 a.m. Friday morning. Neighbours told police that they hear gunfire "all the time" so took no action when they did. Stopping right here for a second. Gunfire in this residential neighbourhood is so common that people ignore it. I realize this goes on but why is it not a critical issue? This is happening just a stone's throw from the "civilized" part of town. It is a situation that repeats itself in the pockets of blight around large US cities--it's black on black crime and if gunshots were not a normal, everyday ocurrance might the boy have been found in time?

I've listened in dismay to stories like this all my life. Usually they have no connection to famous people so the stories don't even warrant news coverage in the eyes of the news companies.

The story as it has unfolded goes like this. Jennifers Hudson's sister had a son with her ex. That relationship ended. She took up with the suspected killer of her son, William Balfour, a criminal on parole having served 7 years for attempted murder and other serious charges. As cold-hearted as this sounds I'm going to say it. She married him, a dude on still on parole for attempted murder. She was a dumbass. What a horrible price to pay for that.

Sister finally realizes this is not a good guy--they separate--though he is still -currently- her husband. There's been acrimony that for unspecified reasons bubbled over to Friday morning when Balfour shot his mother-in-law and brother-in-law and kidnapped his step-son, killing him at some point before being taken into custody Friday evening. Note #1: People on parole are not allowed to have guns. Note #2: In the US "they will take away your gun when they pry it from your cold, dead hand."

Black on black crime is so common in the south Chicago suburbs that while they were looking for the missing boy on Sunday they found an 18 y.o. woman shot to death in an unrelated crime--in the same neighbourhood.

This is my point. Why is it OK? And if it's not OK why are the powers that be not giving law enforcement and community services and the myriad other factors that need attending to the resources to do so? 

Why just let people live miserable gang-infested lives only to barely make it to age seven or even 18 before getting shot to death?

When I was young I was very much an idealist. As the years have passed and as one human atrocity piles up upon the next I've moved away from idealism to realism--though perhaps questioning why this violence is OK makes me naive and not quite a realistic enough realist.

I refuse to give in to pessimism and defeatism but I have no idea how I personally can help to save the black community from preying upon one another.

In closing I must look back longingly to the time when I was an idealist and state that it is my hope that by electing Barack Obama and putting in the White House- a family not of privilege but of strength of character and a sense of purpose, that a spark of hope can be ignited in the black community. They do not have to be resigned to being "use to" the sounds of gunfire. That they deserve better. That their commander-in-chief a man of mixed race, proves that there is no magic wand to stop the perpetuation of poverty and violence. There has to be a unified hope for the black community and it's my feeling that a black man and his family in the White House is cause for hope and could be that spark.

Sadly for Jennifer Hudson--a self-made black woman, hope must be in short supply right now.

Comments

[Cyn]

@ V. Smith:
Thank you for commenting.
It's a conundrum. Someone else commented via email--and this is a person I've known for a lifetime and is in no way racist--that blacks are "more emotional." I thought it was a very rational comment that I'd not ever really heard put that way.

Emotions run the gamut and I agree yes, that black rappers and ex-jocks seem disproportionately to revert to thug-like behaviour but I cannot explain Bill Cosby, Colin Powell, Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Jesse Jackson and Obama, of course--who are not known to be violent. These are intellectual black leaders as opposed to black men who arguably did not need to be especially smart to become successful (sports stars, rappers).

If one were to agree that in general, black men are more emotional than white men then can one then argue that educated or natively intelligent black men are less emotional and therefore less prone to violence?

Lots of questions. Unfortunately not enough answers that could lead to solutions.

[V.Smith]

Cyn, hi..
I don't believe rampant Black-on-Black crime will ever stop, no matter how successful or upwardly mobile Black folks become.. Here's the reason I (unfortunately) believe this.. Poverty is not the source of violence, poverty does fuel hopelessness & theft (out of need,etc).. but violence is a different animal.
West Virginia is one of the poorest states in the country, but has a very low violent crime rate and very small Black population, meaning poor Whites aren't killing nearly as frequently as poor Blacks.. which dispells the poverty-violence link.
Violence is in the soul of Black Americans, Black men who have ascended in sports, and acquired wealth, which would end the poverty-violence link, still disproportionately get involved in violent, thuggish incidents, same as hip-hop artists, who become wealthy, but stay violent & thuggish.. of course, ALL races have thugs & violence, but Blacks show no signs of letting up, or getting better, in fact, AFTER the Civil Rights gains of Blacks in the 60s, the violent crime rates in inner-cities went UP, not down, so even when societal gains are made, things dont get better in the violent crime behaviors ? anyways, peace.