A Black Riot in Swissvale: More Than Meets the Eye

Nestled in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania is a tiny hamlet called Swissvale. Named for a farmstead owned by an abolitionist, the city is roughly 75 percent white and 22 percent black.

But that’s not the numbers that are important to our story today.

Those come in a second.

But first, the basis of our tale [Disturbing School Bus Stop Brawls Caught On Camera, CBS Pittsburgh, 1-9-13]:

Swissvale police are increasing patrols near a school bus stop where two major brawls happened the past few days. 

Cell phone videos captured by students show a crowd of as many as 60 students and parents fighting in the streets of Swissvale, on both Monday and Tuesday.“They were riots”, says Swissvale Police Chief Greg Geppert. Even worse, the fights were made up of both kids, and adults. Police say they have already arrested five adults and minors, and are looking for close to a dozen more. The students, and parents were reportedly from the Woodland Hills School district. 

“It was appalling. I’ve been very disappointed”, says Woodland Hills School Superintendent Alan Johnson. The superintendent says any students involved with the brawls will be suspended and expelled from school if possible. 

Meantime, those who witnessed the fights in the neighborhood along south Braddock Avenue in Swissvale say they are afraid to walk to the store. 

“I’m afraid for my life. I won’t go for a walk anymore”, says a woman who didn’t want to be identified. 

Four different local police departments are working to find all of the students and adults fighting on the video.

The good people at CBS Pittsburgh, remembering that in 2012 representatives of the local ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC affiliates got together to find ways to minimize the truthful coverage of the black community [TV news directors assess coverage of the black community

Leaders consider value of crime news, access to black activists and other events, Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette, 3-30-12], couldn’t find ways to deny the Spontaneous Blackness captured by cell-phones in this exclusively black riot.

The big question left out of the CBS Pittsburgh report is thankfully answered via a quick search online: what are the racial demographics of Woodland Hills School District?:

Per Diversity in the Classroom 2008 reported by The New York Times online 

•                60% – African American/Non Hispanic
•                39% – White/Non-Hispanic
•                1% – Asian/Pacific Islander
•                1% – Hispanic 

It should be noted that 70.5 percent of the students in the Woodland Hills School District are eligible for free or reduced lunch (data for 2011-2012 school year). 

One note about Allegheny County: 38 percent of black people and only 6 percent of white people are on food stamps/EBT as of 2009 (per the invaluable New York Times interactive map on food stamp usage across the country).

We’ve talked about the differences between Pittsburgh (one of the whitest big cities in America) and Detroit (one of the most monochromatic – depressingly black – cities in America) here before.

But one truth from the story out of the Woodland Hills School District must be told today; wherever black people begin to congregate and gradually become the majority population, the conditions found in 2013 Detroit (almost 92 percent black) will be quickly replicated. 

And guess what? You, the tax-payer, has the honor and the privilege of paying for the poor life choices – and ultimately, the proliferation -  of the dysfunctional black underclass.