Mr. "O" and others will say it's a white privileged NRA problem.

Those who are calling the Holocaust white-on-white crime thinking they've got a comeback for black-on-black crime forget this little thing called WW2.

So if I were of a sufficiently vexatious state of mind, I could say that the real objection to white-on-black crime is that it constitutes cultural appropriation...

Railing against black on black violence provides little benefit for Al Sharpton, as the answer is looking at and fixing problems in the black community.

Protesting police brutality (real or imagined) brings in money and gets whites and blacks riled up.

Protesting black-on-black violence will only get the poor black community riled up. Not much money there. And not much political support to be had there either.

No publicity as that's a neighborhood thing, not a city-wide thing, like out-of-control police.

Sharpton wants cameras. And whites will join him in protesting police actions that go too far. Whites won't join him in protesting Gerrik Thomas' death at the hands of neighborhood thugs.

Until Sharpton et al can turn black-on-black violence into a government-funded boondoggle, there's little advantage to them in calling attention to it.

==============================

"Where were the police when Gerrik Thomas was being shot!?"

"Oh yeah, we chased them out the neighborhood last week 'cause they rousted a guy sellin' loosies."

"There's little money or fame in that"

Exactly.

On a related note:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/02/07/texas-newspaper-plans-to-publish-names-addresses-police-officers.html

Yep, they are trying to drum up more newspaper sales.

Focusing on personal crimes versus institutionalized violence would be a bad tactic to gather support from outside of the activist's base. Are you seriously afraid south central violence will affect you personally? With police brutality I think many of us outside the young minority demographic get the sense that how the police treat the least of us is how they will, eventually, treat all of us. It does have a very real potential to affect us, or at least our kids.

Are you seriously afraid south central violence will affect you personally?

Police shootings carry the imprimatur of government acquiescence, or even approval. This would be disturbing if what the activists claim to be true were actually true, the African-American men are dying at an accelerated rate from police violence - for no reason.

It is still disturbing if they are dying at an accelerated rate for a reason - especially if it's because they're committing more crimes and violently confronting the police sent to stop or contain those crimes. Why are they committing more crimes? Why are they violently confronting the police? Are the activists, under the guise of protesting violence, actually inciting these young men to more (and even more brutal) violence?

Are the police reacting to this increased threat of violence (or actual violence) with violence of their own?

No good is can come of demonizing the police ... or militarizing them.

We're being taken back to the '70s by a bunch of idiots who have romanticized the decade with its protests, hippies, and casual attitudes toward morality and rules.

They weren't around to see real results: the decaying cities, the deteriorating family structure, the violence, the filth, the and the dysfunctional social structure. They weren't around when the pieces had to be picked up and everything put back together. They think it's all Annie Hall. They don't realize the violence and despair implied in The French Connection and Taxi Driver was real. New York, along with most major cities in the US, was unlivable.

We don't want to go back to that.

Might be a case of plantation mentality. They know how other blacks think and they know there is no chance of it making much progress generation to generation. Whitey and his institutions are supposed to know better. It's still a surprise to them when that system fails.

Emotion-based decisions, inability to understand that criminal actions have consequences both present and future, certain that others are against them, and a general lack of desire to help others not make the same "mistakes".

All of the above are displayed by all that allow outside forces (drugs, peer pressure, local conditions) to dictate their day-to-day life decisions.

All of the above repeat themselves every generation w/o someone/something intervening strongly.

We are in for a bumpy ride so strap in.

Conan: "New York, along with most major cities in the US, was unlivable."

Yep, I remember that. No way do I want to go back there.

Seriously, when we did venture in to NYC we always made sure that we carried "mugging money." That was money that you put into your shoe which was just enough to buy a train/bus ticket to get home - assuming, of course, that you didn't end up in a hospital or the morgue.

To see how far New York has improved just do a Google or Wikipedia search for New York City blackouts for 1977 compared to 2003.

I'd rather live in a time when a blackout means the inconvenience of having to walk up dozens of flights of stairs instead of, actually, being in fear for your life!

It is ridiculous to compare black on black crime to violence against blacks by police officers.

Black on black violence is done by criminals. They may be robbing, raping, enforcing gang affiliation, or murdering. We expect bad things from bad people. We don't expect virtue from everyone. There are bad people out there in every walk of life.

On the other hand, we count on some people to help and protect us. We expect ethical behavior from judges, police officers, teachers, and doctors. When those people betray that trust, our society unravels. People are not always good and may behave unethically. However, when a group of people are betrayed repeatedly by people in positions of power, it is something that should outrage us all.

However, when a group of people are betrayed repeatedly by people in positions of power, it is something that should outrage us all. ~ Posted by: Jen at February 8, 2016 7:37 PM

The operative question there is whether the people in question have in fact been betrayed repeatedly by people in positions of power or other the people claiming betrayal are the ones causing the issues.

If you and your neighbors are constantly being harassed by the police, but you and/or your neighbors also commit a large number of crimes, perhaps the problem isn't the police.

Some of the issues are brought on by behaviors of certain groups. Others are brought on by racism. Still others are brought on my mistrust of institutions that have betrayed African Americans. Now that we have cameras everywhere we can see abuses. How much worse were they in the past?

Do not forget the history of the Klan, who were often aided and abetted by people in power, as well as abuses such as the Tuskegee study. There are deep issues of trust towards people that should be trustworthy.

Jen,
Let me know when individuals responding under pressure ALWAYS make the right decision.

Until that day stuff happens. Separating "intentionally harming" stuff from "Oh Shit!" stuff requires some degree of trust.

When that trust is abused ("Oh. You mean the video of the shooting last year!") then everyone needs to climb on board the 'Hell No!' train.

At the moment it seems that ALL shootings are tainted (a guy stabs someone does not respond to tasers, heads towards cops w/crowds behind them, WTF do you expect them to do?).

Racial divide. Blacks want all cops to not shoot their 'babies'. PERIOD. Nothing else will do because YES there have been plenty of BAD SHOOTINGS.

Whites CAN NOT UNDO those shootings. All we can do is to try and respond to each shooting and punish those that are bad.

I do not see any recourse between those responding to the sometimes correct perception ("That was done 'cause he was Black!") and those saying "What does the evidence show?".

It's very easy to say "All of __________ are guilty. We just have not caught them yet.".

Jen: "Do not forget the history . . ."

Quite frankly, Jen, I would be willing to bet that some of those that activists are now holding up as unfair victims (e.g. Michael Brown) didn't spend enough time in school learning any history to know about Tuskegee Airmen, let alone, the Tuskegee syphilis experiments.

No, I'd be willing to bet that far too many underclass folks are too ignorant to do much besides complain that whitey owes them, whitey is always picking on them, etc.

And, a lot of the blame for that belongs on them as well as so called civil-rights leaders.

Seriously, I remember when DC city council members would run on the platform that the Civil Rights laws were about to expire and that folks should vote for them so they can make sure that slavery doesn't come back. I kid you not on that - Slavery was going to come back - and folks voted for them!

Remember, Mayor "the bitch set me up" Barry went to jail and was elected to city council afterwards. THIS is who black folks in DC wanted to represent them in the city government? Got what they deserved then.

And since whites are so much a cause of the larger problems facing lower class blacks please, please, please stop looking to whites for the answers! They should fix their own problems and leave me out of it!

"It is ridiculous to compare black on black crime to violence against blacks by police officers. "

I don't know if "ridiculous" is quite the right word... but I am starting to think that when we focus on police shootings, we're focusing on a tree and missing the forest. This is not to say that police shootings are not serious events, but the far more pervasive problem is police neglect -- areas where the government simply does not bother making an effort to enforce the law. Black-on-black crime is one such area. (Another area, at least in the big cities, is property crime -- NYC, for instance, will generally not investigate or do more than write a cursory report for a complaint of burglary or theft.) When the government, which is supposed to be our agent for ensuring that the law is enforced fairly and equitably, decides that some groups don't deserve the protection of the law, then this is what happens.

(It's true that the culture in an area is a complicating factor. When a group decides that it is above the law, or wishes to live under a separate law from the rest of society, police may find that their hands are tied -- community policing is ineffective without the cooperation of the community. A cultural overturn of some sort is needed, and all the laws in the world cannot make that happen.)

One might say that the real distinction is about a desperate need for money vs. racist hate. One is semi-logical, the other is not. There's a reason people of all colors tend to get more outraged over the latter, whether it's white on black or vice versa. (Same goes for other violent crime done for the sake of violence.)

Despite what a few loons said about the shooting of Walter Scott (who was unarmed and running AWAY from the cop) does anyone really think under those circumstances, he would have been shot had he been white? Or that Michael Slager would have been brought to justice had not a very brave person caught it on video?

More on that, if you like:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=%22walter+scott%22+slager

"does anyone really think under those circumstances, he would have been shot had he been white?"

Depends on location. In New Orleans definitely. Atlanta too.

Understand, I think Slager should be in jail and honestly, he should be executed. But there are bad cops all over the place. In New Orleans you had a couple of cops who ran a large organized crime ring for a few years. They murdered a number of people of all races and creeds. A number of them for not showing enough 'respect'. Thankfully the FBI took them out.

The reality is racially motivated police criminality is quite rare. Yes, it should not happen. Yes, those who do such things should be prosecuted. But you will never get them down to 0%. And the number of racially motivated police crimes are dwarfed by the number of economic self interest crimes. And activists don't help themselves when they lie about this. Ferguson is still a meme even though it was shown to be a complete lie. Same with Eric Garner. Why no one but whites talk about Walter Scott but they won't shut up about Ferguson I'll never understand. I guess once you get used to lying it becomes a compulsion.

Depends on location. In New Orleans definitely. Atlanta too.
___________________________________

Got proof of that?
_____________________________________

Why no one but whites talk about Walter Scott
_______________________________________

Where did you get THAT idea? Even a well-known black athlete chimed in for TIME Magazine, IIRC. I hardly believe he was the only black person to do so.

"Got proof of that?"

Let me turn that around. Can you prove that all white-on-black crime is racially motivated? What about black-on-white crime? Hispanic-on-black crime?

The person who says "all of those are true" is taking a ridiculously simplistic view. The person who says "the first one is true and the others are false" is a racist.

Reports said that Scott fled because he had outstanding child support debts for which he would be arrested if he fell into the hands of the police. Without that outstanding child support, in theory, he'd have surrendered to the police with no incident.

We have to stop using our police forces to handle social ills and mental health problems along with enforcing the law and stopping criminal activity. A suspect fleeing the police is assumed to be dangerous and a criminal.

Scott had a defective brake light and was a deadbeat dad, but not a danger to society at large. There was no need to shoot him, but a cop by himself with a fleeing (i.e., potentially dangerous) suspect is going to react in a way to resolve the situation and minimize the danger to himself. He wants to go home to his children, too.

When I die, and I'm at the Pearly Gates, Saint Peter is going to tell me what was the biggest thing that I learned in my time on Earth. And I will say, "The old racists were right. They were right all along. I never even heard of not liking black people when I was young. But after 65+ years of living with them in their neighborhoods, I have seen the light. I have been enlightened. The old racists were right."

Conan is right.

There is racism involved here, but not by whites. The biggest difference between 1970 and now is that those blacks who behave badly have learnt how to play the race card and be believed, and they always do exactly that when called upon to take responsibility for their actions.

But meanwhile, we need police willing to draw the line between harmful and harmless people and leave the latter alone, even when idiotic laws demand otherwise. Until they do, it is by their choice that the police are at war with the public.