Desperate Measures -- Indianapolis Edition

Imagine you live in a city where crime is committed almost exclusively in one community (remember Project 46218?). It's a city where April was declared 'non-violence' month, though this same community failed to celebrate or participate in this worthwhile endeavor.

The first action of this department should be opening clinics in the those communities where violence is most prevalent to administer Depo-Provera shots -- a true act of ensuring public safety

It's a city where the federal government is using data to illustrate this community (putting the term 'black' in front of community would be an oxymoron) is a breeding ground for violence, though any activity in these neighborhoods must strike a delicate balance of respecting the individuals feelings.

After all, the violence is in a community full of black people [Indy, feds team up to fight crime in 'hot zones', Indy Channel, 5/11/13]:

A surge in violent crime in five areas near downtown Indianapolis has prompted federal officials to team up with police and prosecutors to make the city safer.

U.S. Attorney Joseph Hogsett said his office will help provide "boots on the ground" and prosecutions to help city leaders with a broad-based approach targeting high-crime areas.

"If you do not have safe neighborhoods, I would suggest that all the other things won't matter," Hogsett told The Indianapolis Star, adding that it would be "immoral" for federal officials to stand by and not do anything to help reduce violent crime.

Indianapolis Police Chief Rick Hite called the effort "an all-hands approach."
Joe Slash, president and chief executive officer of the Indianapolis Urban League, welcomed the help. But he cautioned that police will need to strike a delicate balance in the heavily African-American neighborhoods to ensure they are engaging, not harassing, residents.

"Unfortunately, we're in a situation where if you want to clean up crime, you have to clamp down," Slash said. "But I am convinced there are far more people living in these neighborhoods who want a clean, safe environment to live and raise their families. They are going to have to step up and help, too."

Hite, who is black, said the effort was being driven by data, not race.

"We are looking at where the violence happens, who are the people most likely to be involved in violence involving guns," Hite said. "We are not looking at the race of the people. ... If they happen to be people of color in an area that is predominantly people of color, then so be it."

 Black people in Indianapolis are most likely to be involved in the violence (especially the gun violence) threatening the stability - and driving away the tax-base, white people - of the city.

Erika Smith, the voice of black Indianapolis at the Indy Star, addressed this initiative in a manner only a light-skinned black female can -- comparing any measure by the police to the 'stop and frisk' tactics (harrassment) in New York [Erika D. Smith: Federal crackdown on gun crime in black neighborhoods is unfortunate, but necessary, Indy Star, 5-8-13]:

As leader of the crime-preventing Ten Point Coalition, the Rev. Charles Harrison spends his weekends canvassing the most dangerous, drug- and gun-infested neighborhoods in Indianapolis.

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department calls these neighborhoods “hot zones.” And as of this week, so does U.S. Attorney Joseph Hogsett, who is vowing to prosecute every gun crime eligible for federal charges and committed in those neighborhoods — largely to the immediate north, east and west of Downtown but also on the Far Eastside.

“IMPD calls them postage stamps,” Hogsett said in a meeting with Indianapolis Star editors and writers on Tuesday. “They aren’t really big, but it would surprise you with the amount of crime that takes place within these hot zones.”

Indeed, we’ve had three fatal shootings in those neighborhoods just this week.
But here’s the problem: The hot-zone neighborhoods also are where many of the city’s black residents call home.

IMPD and now Hogsett want to crack down on crime in these neighborhoods — and rightfully so. But how do you get at the problem of rooting out guns, drugs and, as Hogsett says, “the worst of the worst,” without also creating an atmosphere of police harassment?
The answer, sadly, might be that we’re beyond thinking only in terms of fairness and instead must acknowledge reality — at least for the short term.
Why?
Because in the past six years, about half of all of the homicides in Indianapolis occurred in or near those hot-zone neighborhoods. And things don’t appear to be slowing down. So far this year, the number of homicides is up to 41 compared with 24 at this time last year.

Plus, it’s hard to get around the fact that about 60 percent of homicides in the city are committed by black males ages 18 to 34 — a statistic that Harrison calls “alarming.” That’s an understatement. Perhaps we’re at a point of desperation.

 Oh, Erika: any city with a black population greater than 10 percent is at a 'point of desperation.'

Luckily, a black writer at the Indy Star, Abdul -Hakim Shabazz, isn't willing to be as blind to the reality of crime being virtually the exclusive vocation (avocation) of blacks in Indianapolis [Abdul-Hakim Shabazz: Black community needs to stand up against crime, Indy Star, June 20, 2013]:

At the risk of being the bad guy, I want to say that it is time for the black community in Indianapolis to have a serious discussion about the city’s rising murder rate. There has been a lot of talk about the need for more police officers and whether the city is directing its priorities in the right places, but I have seen the data, and while more cops may help in ­addressing some crime, I doubt if adding more officers will lead to a decrease in Indianapolis’ murder rate.

Allow me to share some statistics. Between Jan. 1 and June 3, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department cataloged 50 murders. Of the 50 murder victims, 41 (82 percent) had criminal records. And according to IMPD, 30 of the victims accounted for 119 adult felony arrests. Now let’s look at the suspects. Of the 29 suspects that local law enforcement was able to identify, 75 percent of them, or 22, had criminal records accounting for a combined 61 adult felony arrests.

There’s more.

Looking at a breakdown of crime victims by ethnicity, 64 percent of the victims were black. And for those who want to go down the conspiracy road, allow me to stop you now. Nearly half the murders between Jan. 1 and June 3 were the result of black-on-black crime. The average age of black male victims was 27 years old, and the average age of black male suspects was 25. In fact, more than 50 percent of the suspects were also black. And 82 percent of the murders occurred on the North, Northeast or East sides. In 32 percent of the murders, the victim and the suspect were either friends or acquaintances.

I don’t think we can save some of these people. But we can do our best to tackle the environments that create people like this in the first place. This is going to be one of those areas where I don’t think the police can do much, but the clergy and faith-based communities can. However, that will require more religious leaders to get out of the pulpits and go to the “hot spots” to engage what’s left of families in these neighborhoods.

Also as a society, we have to stop subsidizing counterproductive behavior. It’s time to change the dynamic in which the more children you have the more benefits (in whatever form) you receive.

 Mandatory Depo-Provera shots (for women) to anyone receiving EBT/Food Stamps, Section 8 Vouchers, or Welfare payments is the first step to introducing sanity to the crime problem in not just Indianapolis, but in cities like Chicago, Milwaukee, Baltimore, and - especially - St. Louis.

That would be a good second action.

The first action must be laughing at black writers like Erika Smith and Jarvis DeBerry of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, who use their columns as bully pulpit to lecture anyone who dares notice that crime is almost always black in their cities. 

These people are apologists - and, in ways, enablers - of the destruction of property values (for private and commercial property) and in the continuation of white flight from once thriving cities that are now seeing large acres 'blighted' by the presence of the Visible Black Hand of Economics.

When the pendulum swings on racial discourse in America - and it will - a city like Indianapolis is going to have the opportunity to quickly bounce back from years of being forced to operate under the aegis of Black-Run America (BRA); New Orleans, in the Post-Katrina era, will too.

Your Smith's and DeBerry's of the dying daily newspaper world will be obsolete,with their ability to deflect the blame for crime from the black community (whoops, oxymoron...) to the whole community no longer paid any lip service.