Ghetto Civil War

One thing Baltimore has that New York City doesn’t is prompt reporting of violent crime. And in Maryland's “Body Bag City,” the reporting reflects the river of blood that gushes through that stricken community at a historic rate.
Three were killed in Baltimore just yesterday, Sunday, the last day of May, making the month the deadliest in Baltimore in 40 years, with 43 killed. 116 for the year. Of the 116 homicides in Baltimore, 103 victims were black.
We’re trying to get the final totals from the Grim Reaper here in New York City, but we do know thanks to the Daily News that in four hours and forty minutes from late Friday to very early Saturday morning, four men, one of them Latino were killed here in New York City.
23-year old Joel Rivera was shot to death at about 11:20pm Friday on Andrews Avenue in the South Bronx. As far as I know, we are not related.
The other victims were all black. 
23-year old Jahhad Marshall was shot in the back and face while visiting Long Island City’s Queensbridge Houses at 2:30am Saturday. It was as a result of a fight over "local rivalries," according to the Daily News. Two others were shot but survived.
21 year old Tarif Combs was fatally stabbed on the grounds of the Mott Haven Houses in the Bronx about 1:30 Saturday morning. A man standing nearby was shot but is expected to survive. It is unknown whether the two incidents were related.
And the 4th of the quartet of homicides within that four hour forty minute span, 40 year old Cory Clark a visitor from Texas was shot dead at 4am outside the Marcus Garvey Houses in Brownsville Brooklyn.
I can’t find out who if anybody was killed on Sunday in New York City, but the local news programs are leading their programs this morning with surveillance video footage of a young black man in a hoodie walking backwards on Read Avenue in the Bed Stuy section of Brooklyn as he fires his machine gun, escaping after wounding at least one bystander.
In New York City so far this year 123 have been killed. Up from 107 last year, an increase of about 15%.
As far as I know, there are no demonstrations planned by anybody, either in New York or Baltimore or Cleveland or Detroit or Chicago; not by the Reverend Sharpton or the Reverend Jackson or the NAACP or Occupy Wall Street. 
The only death being protested is that of Freddie Gray, the 25-year old who died in police custody leading Baltimore to its week of rioting and protests, which led to the arrests of six cops, three of them black, and led also to the worst relationship between cops and the minority community since the bad old days of the 1970’s.
New York officials believe with some justification that our recent spike in homicide is largely restricted to gangs and crews fighting over drug turf. Baltimore officials believe the breakdown in trust between police and the community following the Freddie Gray protests is to blame. 
Blacks and Latinos represent about 25% each of New York City’s 8.4 Million residents. Latinos kill each other at roughly that rate, comprising about 25% of homicides. 
Black New Yorkers, at about 25% of the population, represent about 60% of all homicides. The community is killing itself. And rather than face that crisis, activists blame reporters like me for “demonizing black men.” I think we are witnessing a kind of urban suicide that should be the civil rights issue of our era. Instead it is easier to point fingers than look in the mirror.