Defining Genocide Down

There’s one more peculiar tidbit in the article cited in my last post:

There was one other development in the flurry of gun debate at the Statehouse: a call from state Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) on Gov. Pat Quinn and Mayor Rahm Emanuel to open the door for the National Guard to come into the city to help quell gun violence.

“It’s almost as if there’s a war going on,” Davis told the Chicago Sun-Times. “It seems like it’s genocide, and those officials who can do something about it have chosen not to do anything about it. I’m calling for the National Guard to come to Chicago and ride up and down these streets.”

As I’ve documented in previous posts, shooters in instances of gun homicide in Chicago are preponderantly black and the victims of gun homicide by black perpetrators are overwhelmingly black as well. No genocide involved. Unless you think that competing gangs are separate, warring tribes.

What there is is more like internecine warfare. I know that some believe that the underlying problem is the War on Drugs but my own view is that the WoD is actually just a small part of a much larger problem which I would summarize as the rule of law does not extend into the black community here in Chicago at least in part because people have lost confidence in the Chicago Police. The homicides that are occurring on a weekly basis are the result of gang initiations and turf battles between rival gangs. The gangs themselves exist to provide protection, support, and something to do under conditions of social and economic disintegration.

You can end the War on Drugs with the stroke of a pen but providing basic security, changing perverse social structures, and reviving the economy are much, much harder.

4 comments… add one
  • TastyBits Link

    The black civil rights leaders are a disgrace, but I am not surprised. They have never been anything more than race hustlers and poverty pimps.

    The War on Drugs is only one aspect of the problem. The War on Poverty has created socio-economic tar pits that have trap many poor people. Criminals tend to inhabit the lower end communities because the people are more vulnerable, and the people are more vulnerable because they cannot get out of the tar pit.

    My guess is that the Chicago Police are corrupt and incompetent. Chicago is a port city, and I am going to guess that there is a substantial drug trafficking problem. If so, the police are involved in the trade. They are paid to ignore crime and provide security, or they are running drugs themselves.

    In some communities, the police are worse than the criminals. The people have a good reason for the lack of confidence. The police can not or will not protect them. In these communities, reporting a crime will be punished by the criminals, and testifying against a criminal is a death sentence.

    The gun rights folks decry the gun laws, but the laws are worthless. You do not live in one of these communities without a firearm. This makes everybody a criminal, but it is better to be tried by twelve than carried by six. The problem is that the real criminals are not scared of an ordinary citizen with a gun. The criminals have nothing but time, and at the right time, the ordinary citizen will be left bleeding in the middle of the street.

    As long as the problem is limited to the poor areas, they will remain a problem for the people in those areas. For everybody else, the problem is out of sight and out of mind. When Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, et al. become concerned about children in Chicago being shot up, they may be able to shame the white and black liberals into caring.

  • PD Shaw Link

    “You do not live in one of these communities without a firearm. This makes everybody a criminal . . .”

    I think Tastybits should get extra points for working in the problems with overcriminalization/risk of selective enforcement angle. So true.

    As an aside, I find it very difficult to justify using the term “genocide” outside of NAZI Germany.

  • TastyBits Link

    There are many problems with outlawing guns. You now cannot legally purchase a firearm. This does not stop firearms from being sold, but many of the weapons for sale have problems. They are either stolen, or they have been used in a crime. Getting caught with a firearm is now a much greater offense.

    In addition to the weapons crime, you are also implicated in any crimes involving the weapon. You may end up being charged in a crime you know nothing about. This is one reason non-criminals flee from the police. Of course, a fleeing person must have something to hide, and the weapon proves it.

    People with no experience in these hell holes have no idea of the forces working against these folks.

    Genocide is not the right word, but I understand the reasoning. Chicago is more dangerous than Afghanistan, but nobody gives a damn. Why is this indifference not racist? Oh yeah, those yelling “racist” all the time have nothing to gain.

  • CA Left Link

    Mayor Rahm Emanuel is committing genocide in Chicago, the president’s city. There are killings in the West and South Sides of Chicago, black areas. Parts of Chicago represent a war zone. Mayor Emanuel is known as the “murder mayor,” “racist,” and “liar.” The state of Illinois provides “genocide education” for the killings that occur in Chicago. Mayor Emanuel uses proactive force, which the US Military used for genocide during war. The US Military no longer uses genocide for war. Through proactive force the rights of citizens in black areas are violated and pre-identified for crime. There is historical poverty in these areas that leads to crime. Laws are disregarded in these areas and there is known discrimination that traps blacks in the West and South Sides and forces them to feel like the are not wanted.

    Mayor Emanuel has closed over 50 schools in black areas and an important hospital. There are layoffs and job losses in black areas. Gangs in Chicago have formed “Alliances,” and are taught to be respected as nations. Gangs and City Council have close working relationship in government. Gangs drive all of the crime in the West and South Sides. Killings of blacks are inevitable and cannot be stopped without ending the system that kills blacks in Chicago. It is Mayor Emanuel’s system, that is the reason for the killings.
    Genocide is of government and the worst moral crime a government can commit against its citizens. We must prosecute individuals for committing genocide.

    Mayor Rahm Emanuel should face the death penalty under Illinois state law (20 ILC CS 50101) and Federal law (18 USC Sec. 1091). He is committing genocide and we must stop it in the president’s city.

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