Ferguson & Ghettos

The Plague of Ghetto Murder.
Granted that police reform is necessary Post-Ferguson. But we must not lose sight of the harsh fact that minorities are killing themselves far more frequently than any cop kills.
Example: New York City is on track to record the lowest number of homicides ever. Murders are down from a high of 2,245 in 1990 to just 290 murders through November of this year.
But 88% of the victims of those murders and 89% of the perpetrators of those murders are black or brown. The vast majority of those murders are in the poorer neighborhoods. And it's not the cops doing the killing. In the vast majority of the cases, black kids are murdering black kids and Latino kids are murdering Latino kids. And nobody is marching to protest the bloodshed because that would require accepting responsibility.
Like I said yesterday, urban neighborhoods are committing a kind of suicide.

 

Ending Ferguson

Morning, along with:
1- the De-Militarization of police departments, and,
2- the promotion of Non-Lethal police tactics like Tasers to replace lethal force;
there was another necessary reform taking a big step forward at yesterday's White House summit responding to Ferguson.
3- It is body cameras for cops.
Pushed by the parents of slain Ferguson teenager Michael Brown, the campaign has also been fueled by a petition on the WhiteHouse.gov website signed by over 155,000 people.
Now thanks to the president the effort will be funded by a $75 million federal grant over three years to outfit 50,000 officers.
Despite initial resistance, many of the nation's police departments are coming around. Cops understand how the cameras can protect the officer as well as their purported suspect, just as Dash Cams have turned out to be a boon to troopers and highway patrol officers.
No more Fergusons.