Memphis, Chicago, Black Lives Matter, and Bubba: The Consequences of the Rhetoric of Racial Division

Reposted from kingsjesterswordpress.com kingsjester

A few days ago, a certain Former POTUS, who was once referred to as "The First 'Black' President of the United States of America", "got real" with a bunch of protesters from Black Lives Matter, who would not allow him to continue a speech on behalf of his wife, who is running for Democrat Presidential Candidate Nomination.

Suffice it to say, ol' Bubba ruffled some feathers.

According to buzzfeed.com,

Racial justice and Black Lives Matter activists based in New York say they question the sincerity of Bill Clinton’s statement at the NAACP last summer that the longer sentences in the 1994 crime bill were “overdone” after he clashed with BLM protesters earlier this week.On Thursday, after protesters interrupted Bill Clinton’s remarks at a rally in Philadelphia, the former president criticized the demonstrators and defended his wife’s use of a controversial term — “superpredators” — in 1996 that has been the source of protests in recent months.

“I don’t know how you would characterize the gang leaders who got 13-year-old kids hopped up on crack and sent them out into the street to murder other African-American children,” Bill Clinton told the protesters. “Maybe you thought they were good citizens—she didn’t,” he added. “You are defending the people who killed the lives you say matter. Tell the truth.”

On Friday, BuzzFeed News contacted a dozen activists based in New York, which will hold a primary on April 19. The activists said they now question the calculus behind Bill Clinton’s speech last summer, in which he said his administration was wrong for signing a bill that required longer sentences for many low-level criminals that did not justify their crimes. (“I signed a bill that made the problem worse. And I want to admit it,” he said then.)

Bill Clinton, they said, seemed to justify his wife’s 1996 usage of the term “superpredator” with the same rationale widely debunked by criminologists — a term she has apologized for and distanced herself from.

Tamika Mallory, a prominent activist and member of the board of directors of Justice League NYC, said the former president’s views are out of touch.

“Bill Clinton’s comments beg the question whether his apology — about how his policies as president negatively impacted the black community — was genuine or a campaign strategy to make Americans move past the devastation his administration caused,” she said. “What we saw yesterday is a person who is very much out of touch and I believe his true colors have once again appeared.”

"Out of touch"? Hardly.

Any American with common sense, would say that ol' Bubba's off-the-cuff remarks were spot on.

Please allow me to use my Hometown as an example of what Former President Clinton was addressing.

Jody Callahan, writing for the Memphis Commercial Appeal, posted the following article on April 3rd:

By at least one measure, the homicide rate in Memphis this year is nearly twice that of Chicago, a town that is generating unwanted notoriety for its soaring number of killings.

Through the end of March in Memphis, 60 people had been killed in the violent first three months of the year. As of the latest U.S. Census estimate, the Memphis population stands at 656,861, for a homicide rate of 9.13 victims per 100,000 population.

Through the same period in Chicago, 151 people had been killed. As of the latest U.S. Census estimate, the Chicago population stands at 2,722,389, for a homicide rate of 5.55 victims per 100,000 population.

If the Memphis numbers continue rising at that rate for the rest of the year, the city would record more than 240 homicides, a tally that would obliterate the record of 213 set in 1993.

By any measure, it's too much death, too much killing. And it's overwhelming those in the city charged with responding to it.

"It's an emotional strain on everybody right now, the whole community," Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich said. "But in terms of strain on the office, sure. That's potentially 60 more cases of the most serious nature. These are the most emotionally draining and difficult cases we handle."

Memphis Police Department Acting Lt. Col. of Investigative Services Caroline Mason said the homicide unit was coping with the influx, aided by solving 46 of the 60 killings.

"Homicide is a tight-knit unit. The morale is high because they are solving these cases," she said. "It's not like it's 60 unknown, or mysteries. Again, the solve rate is 77 percent."

When asked how much extra stress the homicide increase has put on the unit, Mason said, "I wouldn't say anything about extra stress, because this is just what we do."

But a former homicide detective who spent 17 years in the unit before his retirement said he's heard the strain has been tremendous.

"It would be daunting. You have so many coming in, but so few people working on them. You're just not able to give the attention to them that you should be able to. They're coming in too fast, you're spread too thin. A lot of times when they're coming in that fast, you're going to miss stuff," Bill Ashton said, remembering his time in the unit when homicide rates were up. "When they come in that fast, you get frustrated because you don't have enough time to work on them." It's not just Memphis and Chicago, either. Other large American cities are seeing jumps in homicide numbers. A New York Times story last year pointed to such increases in several cities, including Baltimore, Milwaukee, New Orleans, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.

"It's a nationwide trend," Weirich said. "For the latter part of 2015, we were all watching as major cities across the nation noticed their violent crime spiking. We ended 2015 looking good, and then lo and behold (came) Jan. 1, 2016, and all that good work is gone."

Except, DA Weirich, Memphis is now in first place, in a race that no self-respecting municipality wants to win.

Is it just me, or, gentle reader, do you also remember that we are supposed to be living under the first post-racial president?

It certainly does not seem that way.

Ever since Obama got into office, all I have heard from him is the Rhetoric of Racial Division and Class Warfare.

It reminded me of all the historical conflicts which I used to read about, during the course in college which I took, titled “The Rhetoric of Social Protest“.

Karl Marx knew long ago that all you needed to do to touch the heart of the common man was to convince him of a shared struggle.

Vladimir Lenin took this a step further, by using the concept of a shared struggle to convince the Bolsheviks to help him overthrow the Czar of Russia and murder him and his family during the Russian Revolution.

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but fiery rhetoric spoken by a national leader and his "New Bolsheviks" has consequences.

President Barack Hussein Obama is as responsible for what has happened in Ferguson, New York, Baltimore, and is happening in cities across America,  as any thug wannabe in those cities.

However, he is not alone in his responsibility.

Also responsible are the black political leaders, who make their living and get their 15 minutes of fame by exacerbating racially-divided situations. Their silence speaks volumes.

For example, by the Mayor of Baltimore, purposely giving carte blanche to the rioters to destroy her city by ordering the police to stand down, she, like the Roman Emperor Nero, lit the match that has set her kingdom ablaze.

If Black Lives truly do matter, it is the black community who are going to have to save themselves.

With a nationwide illegitimate birth rate of 74%, black Americans, with help from Uncle Sugar, have succeeded in tearing apart the very thing that kept them safe and strong for decades: the Black Family Unit.

Until that Sacred Foundation, which taught individual responsibility to generations of black Americans, is restored, the violence and disrespect for others will continue.

I remember, as a 9 year old in Memphis, Tennessee, watching my parents’ black and white television as the National Guard was called into action on the night that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

I remember after that Civil Defense Announcement that President Lyndon Johnson come on national television to make the announcement of Dr. King’s death. I remember a feeling of helplessness and of fear, as a nine-year-old, that I had not felt before.

It wasn’t just the fact that we were living in Midtown Memphis, that made me afraid.

It wasn’t just the fact of the out-of-control violence itself, that caused my consternation.

It was watching my beloved Hometown on the verge of going up in flames.

And now, 48 years later, Memphis is the #2 Most Dangerous City in America, as ranked by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and has borne witness to over 60 homicides so far the year, the overwhelming majority of which were black Memphians killing one another.

Words can hurt or words can heal.

A President who was supposed to bridge the Racial Divide in this nation…has, instead, widened it.

And, with every divisive word he and the political activists whom he champions speak, the chasm of Racial Divisiveness, which has created a gaping hole in the fabric of American Society, grows wider.

Words mean things.

Until He Comes,

KJ