No person is intrinsically criminal. The lack of morality is an acquired trait.
America has too many murders. Were it not for the carnage found in ten or twelve large Democrat governed cities, the murder rate in America would be rather low considering its large population.
There is a disproportionality problem with respect to violent crime in our country. Media is very disinclined to portraying persons of color critically. Mug shots are disappearing from newspapers. The result is both sickeningly revolting and patronizing. All people must be held to the same standard under law. This is constitutional equality which distinctly differs from equity which has become a completely nebulous term.
The failure of Democrat/Marxist governance of big American cities is incredible. Cities are governable as Rudy Giuliani so clearly demonstrated in New York. Black criminality deserves to be addressed as an existential problem of higher priority rather than tolerated as a perennial problem.In one year, Giuliani did wonders in New York. I can attest to same because I spent a month in the Big Apple when Dinkins was mayor and another month when Giuliani was in office. The difference in the city was profound.
Both Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell, two of the finest professors and prolific writers, attribute the slow down of African American progress attributable to the breakdown in the family. The solidity of the black family unit prior to the 1960’s and the advent of the Great Society was more rock solid than that of white America, and the two aforementioned economists cite the strength of the black family as a salient reason for the stellar advancement of African-Americans since emancipation.
I feel another root problem with respect to black criminality is to be found in secondary schools. Principals mitigate blow back by having their best teachers teach the highest achieving students. More often than not, these students are from homes with responsible, more affluent parents who also can and do exert strong political influence. Principals bend over backwards to accommodate the parent group that can jeopardize their success should they become discontented… Ergo, the worst teachers are often assigned to the task of lion-taming the more intractable, non-achieving students. Most teachers avoid like plague teaching in schools in ghettoized areas, and it is hard to blame them given the conditions found in many urban schools. I suppose this also explains businesses fleeing the same neighborhoods. I believe that there should be high bonuses paid to teachers who succeed in lion-taming. These, I think, are heroic persons, and urban school districts should champion placing these talented educators in failure schools in the hood. To this end, I also favor school choice, even if it requires busing to magnet schools or vocational centers. Students who are weak in basics will continue dropping out unless their interest can be piqued, and they can realize a modicum of success in school. Vocational education is capable of turning thugs into productive humans by providing them with a skill making them eminently employable.
Unfortunately, big city crime will not be addressed until crime is visited on the affluent. Flash mobs now tolerated will eventually be quelled, because they affect the people who have political influence. Perhaps these are the wake-up calls necessary to motivate leaders into action. As the Black Avenger, popular radio broadcaster, used to say that there are places in the city for which I pay taxes but choose not to venture. And, this is undoubtedly true. People are not racist due to their concern for their own safety. They exercise their instincts for self preservation.
During my civil rights days, I met Jessie Jackson several times, and I found him to be eminently likeable and highly intelligent. You could not help but like the guy, and I am somewhat disappointed how he turned out. I expected him to be a mayor of a city or a responsible member of a state legislator, or perhaps even a senator. Jessie Jackson certainly was not a racist but did have a highly developed sense of self preservation. I have recounted several times that once Jackson was walking back to his New York hotel late at night and heard footsteps behind him. Jackson became fearful for his personal security, but as the footstep drew closer, he noticed they belonged to a group of white people, and his fears were allayed by seeing who was behind him. Self-preservation. Reality not racism.