What's the Difference Between the Conditions of a 27% Black City and a 64% Black City?

Indianapolis

Population: 834, 852

Black percentage of population: 27.5%

Percent of Black population on EBT/Food Stamps (as of 2009): 34% of blacks in Marion County on Food Stamps.

Baltimore

Population: 621, 342

Black percentage of population: 63.6%

Percent of Black population on EBT/Food Stamps (as of 2009): 32% of blacks in Baltimore on food stamps.

So Baltimore has 403,998 blacks, compared to Indianapolis’ 240,789.

The violence in both cities is almost entirely due to these population groups. Though the black population of Indianapolis is only 59 percent that of the overall black population in Baltimore, its already reached a tipping point and is firmly on the path to a situation where a peaceful downtown Independence Day celebration will require the type of police-state we saw in H.L. Mencken’s hometown in 2013.

The black community leaders/clergy in Baltimore (or is it Indianapolis) speak out against black violence

Blacks recently marched in solidarity after an impressively Chicagoan spate of black violence rocked the city of Baltimore. It did nothing to deter the violence: Not two days after the march, a double-shooting claimed one life only blocks from where the Nubian “peace” rally was held.

Black clergy promised to try and get a handle on the black violence quickly turning Baltimore into more than just a proverbial ‘ghost town’; but an actual city where the ghostly apparitions of once-thriving society (the white man’s skyscrapers) stand vigilant while the black community engages in fratricide. [A new level of outrage brings hope after a violent stretch: Organizers, officials looking to channel and sustain community activity, Baltimore Sun, July 8, 2013]:

On Monday, a group of ministers promised to take on a bigger role in violence prevention and activists held a peace rally and barbecue in East Baltimore. Recent days have seen a citywide prayer tour and calls for a 24-hour Baltimore "cease fire." 

The most visible example of the increased passion came Friday night, when organizers said 600 men walked the length of North Avenue and back — about 10 miles — to protest violence. Among those who attended was 66-year-old Cornell Rigby of Northwest Baltimore, who said he came to the event after hearing about it on the radio. 

"If we don't demonstrate, it's like saying [the gun violence] is OK, that society is accepting of it," said Rigby, who led call-and-response chants during the march. 

"We're redeeming ourselves, because we've been quiet too long." 

Those involved in the efforts say many people don't pay attention to crime until an incident hits close to home. Others might want to get involved but have trouble figuring out how. 

"It's just so challenging to figure out what to do," said the Rev. Scott Slater, of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, at a ceremony Monday in East Baltimore to dedicate a peace mural. The Rev. Willie Ray has been trying to galvanize residents for decades, including an annual event that sought to get people to link hands along the length of North Avenue — but which sometimes drew only a handful of participants. 

"It's a slow process, and you have to go with the flow," Ray said. "You find a few people that's going in your direction, and you roll with it." 

At the corner of Broadway and North Avenue, where Marques Dent sold snow cones for three summers as a child, the former Air Force captain threw a peace rally on Monday afternoon complete with a DJ, grilled hot dogs and drinks. 

"Baltimore's small," said Dent, who grew up in the area and started an IT job-training nonprofit when he got out of the Air Force in January. "It might not be my cousin, but it might be the cousin of someone I know. I have several friends who have been affected. They say, 'I'm tired of going to funerals.'" 

Dent said the violence has shaken Baltimore because it seems to be on the uptick, with few answers as to why. 

"People are upset — they're upset with our law enforcement, they're upset with our legislature, they're upset with our community leaders," he said. "People can't be dropping like flies just because it's hot outside."

The key take-away from the quoted material is that for decades, Rev. Willie Ray had tried to galvanize blacks to do something, anything, to try and convince the black community of Baltimore to ceasefire.

Even with the ‘peace rally’ and Nubian marches, black people are still dropping like flies in Baltimore.

The same is true of Indianapolis, where in a span of a day, two black people were gunned down (by other blacks). [Man holding baby dies in overnight shooting; had survived earlier Indianapolis shooting, Indy Star, July 9, 2013] and [Teenager dies in Eastside Indianapolis shooting, Indy Star, July 8, 2013].

The former story helps establish why white families chose to vacate a community/neighborhood that starts being overwhelmed by the black undertow: a shooting at a park, a black kid gunned down next to a swing set just before 3 p.m. on a Monday…; a row of 8 IMPD officers lined up watching as a crowd of blacks gathered, and eventually fights erupting.

This is the same conditions of 64 percent black Baltimore and the type of communities blacks create, found in a city only 27.5 percent black.

Erika Smith, writing at the Indy Star, noted 90 percent of the city of Indianapolis and Marion County’s budget goes to public safety. How much of the overall budget would go towards public safety if, say, there were no blacks in Marion County or Indianapolis? [Erika D. Smith: It will take more than police to stop violence in Indianapolis, Indy Star, July 9, 2013]:

If suburbanites were uneasy about venturing into the “dangerous” city before, gun-toting gang members are working overtime to validate their fears. 

Collectively, city and county governments spend about 90 percent of their budgets on public safety. That’s correct — about 90 percent! 

The other 10 percent pays for things that actually make cities attractive and livable: parks, infrastructure, transportation options. 

Indianapolis needs to find a way to even out the ratio. We can’t keep spending more and more money to lock people up. It’s expensive, and the cycle will only continue to repeat itself with each new generation. 

Because one of the reasons why we have so much crime is because we spend so much money trying to punish people after they commit crimes instead of investing in things that will prevent crime and help people find other ways to live. 

Every high-crime neighborhood where IMPD will send more officers is a neighborhood also plagued with poor schools, rundown parks and crumbling infrastructure. Abandoned houses, by the thousands, are falling apart in these areas.  

Overgrown lots are filled with weeds, rodents and other vermin. Streets flood when it rains. Sidewalks are turning into gravel and dust. And the city’s grossly underfunded bus service is of limited use at best in getting to and from employment centers that pay livable wages.

What Erika Smith can’t write and what the Indy Star won’t print is that every high-crime neighborhood where IMPD must send more officers is black; it is black children who are the students at schools that are deemed ‘poor’; it is the conduct of black individuals who collectively rundown city parks and assist in ‘blighting’ (or, her words, ‘crumbling’) the infrastructure.

The abandoned houses in Indianapolis are that way, because black individuals moving into a formerly flourishing neighborhood drove down property value so much that whites abandon them; weeds overgrow the lots because black people willfully refuse to take ownership of their surroundings (especially when it comes to admitting it's black dysfunction that caused the collapse of the community); most black individuals lack the qualifications for high-paying jobs – outside of the public sector – and business owners locate their companies/corporations in areas where their employees will feel safe.

Were white people to occupy the same communities that must now be ground zero of the IMPD’s show of force (Project 46218) to take the city back, weeds would be cut; schools would be free of excessive discipline action while test scores and graduation rates would rise; parks would be overflowing with young white families; sidewalks would be pristine, with people walking their dogs and bikers aggressively riding past them; abandoned houses would be filled with the laughter of children.

If HBO wants to resurrect another season of The Wire, why not just do a spinoff set in Indianapolis?