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Increasing crime stats cause worry among leaders
- By News Hound
- Published 11/5/2007
- Black Prides
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View all articles by News HoundIncreasing crime stats cause worry among leaders
By DEE DIXON
BEAUMONT - The murderous year that 2007 has become also has underscored what a nightclub owner, who tried to break up a recent fight that led to the 15th and 16th slayings of the year, said is a growing problem in Beaumont.
Black-on-black violent crimes.
All but two of this year's homicides involved black victims, and blacks are suspected in the killings.
While this year's homicide rate is not on pace to eclipse the record 30 of 1994, city leaders are concerned about this year's level of violence, with homicides at their highest level in 11 years.
"I have a big interest in black-on-black crime. We need to talk about it," said Alice Faye Booker, youth minister at New Beginnings Church. "Our kids are in trouble, and people better understand and wake up."
A lack of parenting, morals and a respect for elders is breeding a culture where young people think whatever they want should be given to them, no matter the cost, Booker said.
"Some parents are going broke trying to please the kids with a cell phone, and the house phone is off," she said. "We have to go back to old standards of raising our kids because we have failed our children with 'I have to make it better and I want them to have what I didn't have.'"
Cities nationwide are grappling with black-on-black crime.
In Philadelphia, a 10,000 Men initiative is training mostly black men to go into certain communities in an attempt to reverse the rising homicide rate.
Locally, Mayor Pro-tem Audwin Samuel, National League of Cities public safety and crime prevention committee chair, said myriad factors contribute to black-on-black crime - drugs, socioeconomics, lack of supervision, poor anger management and unaddressed mental issues.
Those all factor into Beaumont Police Department programs and departments aimed at crime-fighting and community empowerment, Officer Crystal Holmes, department spokeswoman, said.
In the 1990s, the department started a housing unit to address crime in 14 apartment complexes, one of which is Cardinal Square - the site of a July double homicide in which three men have been indicted.
Other programs include Neighborhood Watch, citizen's police academy, Community Oriented Policing and the Police Athletic League.
The apparent increase in local homicide rates conflicts with a national decline in black-on-black crime, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report based on FBI uniform crime statistics from 1976 to 2005.
Over that period, 86 percent of whites were killed by whites, and 96 percent of blacks were killed by blacks.
A 1968 Kerner Commission report drafted in response to 1967 riots revealed problems still prevalent today: black urban crime, unemployment, inadequate housing, poor education, poor recreation facilities, ineffective political structure and discriminatory consumer and credit practices.
"The reason you have black-on-black crime is because blacks are the dominant demographic of densely populated urban areas that experience the brunt of these circumstances," said W. Joe Deshotel, Lamar University student and Jefferson County Democratic Party executive director.
"Conflicts for survival and violence are symptoms of chronic poverty as seen in conflicts around the world," Deshotel said in an e-mail.
In the early years of the 20th century, sociologist, civil rights leader and Massachusetts native W.E.B. DuBois tackled the topic of black violence in his essay "Of the Sons of Master and Man" from his book "Souls of Black Folk."
"... the chief problem in any community cursed with crime is not the punishment of the criminals but the preventing of the youth from being trained in crime," DuBois wrote in 1903. "... It is the public school, however, which can be made, outside the homes, the greatest means of training decent self-respecting citizens."
Before Bill Cosby and Alvin Poussaint went on their recent crusade to stop the self-destructive behavior in the black community, black columnist Joseph H. Brown wrote about black-on-black crime in 1995, likening it to dirty laundry.
"Dirty laundry cannot get cleaned while it is laying in the hamper," Brown wrote.
Lashon Proctor, who works at Proctor's Mortuary, addressed the rise in violence at the funeral of Jarrah Y. Davis, one of the two women brutally killed at Cardinal Square.
"Every time that happens, it doesn't just affect the family. It affects people in the community, the predator, the neighborhood. It affects everyone," he said.
Proctor is a proponent of Neighborhood Watch programs, which attempt to hinder predatory activity.
Mentoring is the focus of 100 Black Men of Greater Beaumont, which recently received grants from ExxonMobil, Chevron and Client Logic to continue work at adopted schools Blanchette and French elementaries. The group also promotes its platform of education, economic development and health and wellness.
"... there is a new cadre of individuals in civic groups, fraternities, sororities ... who have begun to take ownership in our community," group president Vernon Durden said. "It takes a village to raise a child and we are becoming that village again. ... We have just decided to intervene earlier in the lives of kids."
Since becoming a justice of the peace, Ransom "Duce" Jones works directly with wayward youth facing truancy charges and stresses the importance of education in the courtroom.
He started the character building program Community TIES, where the students perform community service and meet with mentors.
"... what we pass on is, 'To get something out of life you have to put something into life.' You cannot plant rocks and expect an apple tree to come up. You have to put the right things in," Jones said.
"We need to reach out toward each other and help each other ... If one person would help one person we can get this thing solved ... If we do that the village will start working."
Bounce back
BEAUMONT - The murderous year that 2007 has become also has underscored what a nightclub owner, who tried to break up a recent fight that led to the 15th and 16th slayings of the year, said is a growing problem in Beaumont.
Black-on-black violent crimes.
All but two of this year's homicides involved black victims, and blacks are suspected in the killings.
While this year's homicide rate is not on pace to eclipse the record 30 of 1994, city leaders are concerned about this year's level of violence, with homicides at their highest level in 11 years.
"I have a big interest in black-on-black crime. We need to talk about it," said Alice Faye Booker, youth minister at New Beginnings Church. "Our kids are in trouble, and people better understand and wake up."
A lack of parenting, morals and a respect for elders is breeding a culture where young people think whatever they want should be given to them, no matter the cost, Booker said.
"Some parents are going broke trying to please the kids with a cell phone, and the house phone is off," she said. "We have to go back to old standards of raising our kids because we have failed our children with 'I have to make it better and I want them to have what I didn't have.'"
Cities nationwide are grappling with black-on-black crime.
In Philadelphia, a 10,000 Men initiative is training mostly black men to go into certain communities in an attempt to reverse the rising homicide rate.
Locally, Mayor Pro-tem Audwin Samuel, National League of Cities public safety and crime prevention committee chair, said myriad factors contribute to black-on-black crime - drugs, socioeconomics, lack of supervision, poor anger management and unaddressed mental issues.
Those all factor into Beaumont Police Department programs and departments aimed at crime-fighting and community empowerment, Officer Crystal Holmes, department spokeswoman, said.
In the 1990s, the department started a housing unit to address crime in 14 apartment complexes, one of which is Cardinal Square - the site of a July double homicide in which three men have been indicted.
Other programs include Neighborhood Watch, citizen's police academy, Community Oriented Policing and the Police Athletic League.
The apparent increase in local homicide rates conflicts with a national decline in black-on-black crime, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report based on FBI uniform crime statistics from 1976 to 2005.
Over that period, 86 percent of whites were killed by whites, and 96 percent of blacks were killed by blacks.
A 1968 Kerner Commission report drafted in response to 1967 riots revealed problems still prevalent today: black urban crime, unemployment, inadequate housing, poor education, poor recreation facilities, ineffective political structure and discriminatory consumer and credit practices.
"The reason you have black-on-black crime is because blacks are the dominant demographic of densely populated urban areas that experience the brunt of these circumstances," said W. Joe Deshotel, Lamar University student and Jefferson County Democratic Party executive director.
"Conflicts for survival and violence are symptoms of chronic poverty as seen in conflicts around the world," Deshotel said in an e-mail.
In the early years of the 20th century, sociologist, civil rights leader and Massachusetts native W.E.B. DuBois tackled the topic of black violence in his essay "Of the Sons of Master and Man" from his book "Souls of Black Folk."
"... the chief problem in any community cursed with crime is not the punishment of the criminals but the preventing of the youth from being trained in crime," DuBois wrote in 1903. "... It is the public school, however, which can be made, outside the homes, the greatest means of training decent self-respecting citizens."
Before Bill Cosby and Alvin Poussaint went on their recent crusade to stop the self-destructive behavior in the black community, black columnist Joseph H. Brown wrote about black-on-black crime in 1995, likening it to dirty laundry.
"Dirty laundry cannot get cleaned while it is laying in the hamper," Brown wrote.
Lashon Proctor, who works at Proctor's Mortuary, addressed the rise in violence at the funeral of Jarrah Y. Davis, one of the two women brutally killed at Cardinal Square.
"Every time that happens, it doesn't just affect the family. It affects people in the community, the predator, the neighborhood. It affects everyone," he said.
Proctor is a proponent of Neighborhood Watch programs, which attempt to hinder predatory activity.
Mentoring is the focus of 100 Black Men of Greater Beaumont, which recently received grants from ExxonMobil, Chevron and Client Logic to continue work at adopted schools Blanchette and French elementaries. The group also promotes its platform of education, economic development and health and wellness.
"... there is a new cadre of individuals in civic groups, fraternities, sororities ... who have begun to take ownership in our community," group president Vernon Durden said. "It takes a village to raise a child and we are becoming that village again. ... We have just decided to intervene earlier in the lives of kids."
Since becoming a justice of the peace, Ransom "Duce" Jones works directly with wayward youth facing truancy charges and stresses the importance of education in the courtroom.
He started the character building program Community TIES, where the students perform community service and meet with mentors.
"... what we pass on is, 'To get something out of life you have to put something into life.' You cannot plant rocks and expect an apple tree to come up. You have to put the right things in," Jones said.
"We need to reach out toward each other and help each other ... If one person would help one person we can get this thing solved ... If we do that the village will start working."
Bounce back
Spread The Word
Comments
Comment #1 (Posted by john)
Rating:
African-American problems come directly from their ridiculous hip-hop culture that rivals tribal aspects of the Muslims. Until African-Americans decide to grow up and drop that culture nothing will ever change.
Comment #2 (Posted by makayla)
Rating:
Wow. I never knew that it could be so horible. After all people come to this country to have a better life and such, not to be violated, better or worse than they ran away from. That's horrible. I just wish people would just listen and learn from what we do wrong, not say, oh big deal someone got shot,whatever.
