Real Gun Control means Controlling Black Dysfunction -- By Any Means Necessary

Do you remember when the feckless Conservatism Inc. non-profit, Political Media, dared to propose a campaign aimed at blacks to get them interested in stopping gun control from passing?

American Thinker: "The KKK, NAACP, and Democrats agree blacks shouldn't have guns." Crime and gun homicide stats prove all three groups correct

It was to be called ‘What Would Django Do?’[After 'Gun Appreciation Day,' Organizers Invoke 'Django Unchained' for Follow-Up Campaign, Hollywood Reporter, 1-22-13]:

A controversial group's new effort dubbed "What Would Django Do?" looks to bring minorities to its side in the debate over gun control. 

The group is called Political Media, and it's the same entity that was behind Saturday’s controversial Gun Appreciation Day, which encouraged Americans to show up at various places with a copy of the U.S. Constitution and signs reading, “Hands off my guns.” Larry Ward, president of Political Media, a company that designs websites and organizes ad campaigns for right-of-center organizations, said hundreds of thousands of people participated in Gun Appreciation Day, crowding gun stores and gun shows and demonstrating at various state capitals nationwide.

One can only see this group peddling “WWDD” bracelets in the vain hope of encouraging black people to abandon any call for gun control – but remember, Django went around killing white people in the movie where he was unchained.

Not exactly the ideal question to ask black people to ponder, is it?

So just what do black people think about gun control? The answers might surprise you [New data: Whites twice as likely to own guns: A previously unreleased survey shows whites far more likely to own guns, and oppose reform, than blacks or Latinos, Salon, 2-20-13]:

White Americans are more than twice as likely to own guns as blacks or Latinos, and more likely to oppose gun safety reforms, according to previously unreleased data from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers.The survey, conducted by the Center for Gun Policy and Research and initially released without racial breakdowns in late January, showed strong support overall for many of the proposals being discussed in Congress to limit gun violence. But the researchers broke down the numbers by race this week and shared the results with Salon. 

Overall, 22 percent of Americans were found to own guns, while another 11 percent live in homes with someone else who owns guns. Among whites, the number of gun owners is slightly higher, at 26 percent, with an additional 13 percent who live in gun-owning households. 

But only 12 percent of African-Americans and 13 percent of Latinos own guns. Just 5 and 7 percent of each ethnic group, respectively, lives in a household with someone else who owns a gun. 

Not surprisingly, this translates to a disparity in support for gun control measures, with whites being consistently more opposed to gun control than the other groups. For instance, support for reinstating the assault weapon ban is about 10 percentage points higher among blacks than whites. And 72 percent of blacks support banning possession of assault weapons entirely through a mandatory buyback program, compared to just 54 percent of whites. 

African-Americans are also more supportive of laws promoting safe use, such as requiring people to keep their guns locked in a safe while at home, and of proposals to restrict access, such as making people acquire a license from the local police before being able to buy a gun.

So, white people primarily use guns for defensive purposes (or purchase them with defensive scenarios in mind), while black people are in favor of gun control because blacks use guns for offensive purposes – such as for committing robberies, rapes, car-jacking, home invasions, or murders.

Thus, white people are against gun control: disarming white people means they become potential targets for those same crimes black people – who use guns primarily for offensive action – commit disproportionate to their percentage of the overall US population.

And just what might be the racial breakdown of these cities compared to the metro/suburbs? 

Richard Florida, editor at large of The Atlantic Cities site, has been kind enough to gather together to data for those US cities where gun-violence is the highest; and, yes, there is a dramatic correlation to race [The Geography of US Gun Violence, Atlantic Cities, 12-14-12]:

Cities have substantially higher rates of murder by gun, as [Harry] Moroz points out. New Orleans has the highest rate, 62.1 per 100,000, more than twice its metro rate. Detroit has the second highest rate with 35.9, nearly four times its metro rate, followed by Baltimore (29.7), Oakland (26.6), and Newark (25.4). St. Louis, Miami, Richmond, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., round out the top 10. All of these rates are considerably higher than their metro rates — in most cases more than double or triple, or in the case of Newark, nearly eight times its metro rate. 

On the other side of the ledger, Austin has the lowest rate of gun-related homicides (1.5), followed by San Jose (1.9), Portland (2.2), Virginia Beach (2.7), and San Diego (2.8). 

The rate of gun death for central cities ranges from a high of 69.1 in New Orleans to a low of four in San Jose. Detroit has the second highest rate (41.4) followed by Las Vegas (36.9), Miami (33.5), and Baltimore (33.1). St. Louis, Richmond, Memphis, Cleveland, and Philadelphia — all with rates above 20 gun deaths per 100,000 people — round out the top 10. All have a rate of gun death that is roughly two or more times higher than their metro rate. On the flip side, New York City follows San Jose with second lowest rate (4.9), followed by central San Diego (7.1), and Seattle (8.3). 

Race, unfortunately and tragically, factors into gun death at the metro level. The share of the population that is black is positively related to both the overall rate of gun death (.56) and even more so with gun-related homicides (.72). The pattern is similar for the share of the population that is comprised of young black males which is also positively related to the overall rate of gun death (.55) and murder by gun (.70).

For those wondering, San Jose is 3.2 percent black and Austin (TX) is 8.1 percent black.

The data paints a powerful picture – not “tragic,” in the words of Atlantic Cities – as to why suburbs/metro areas of major cities like Baltimore, New Orleans, or Detroit exist: as a way for white people to escape the high rates of black crime in the city, which only serves to drive down property value and drive away productive members of society.

What might be the racial breakdown of those cities with greatest rates of gun-related homicides? 

1.     New Orleans is 60% black, 30% white 

2.     Detroit is 82% black, 7% white 

3.     Baltimore is 63% black, 28% white 

4.     Oakland is 28% black, 25% white 

5.     Newark is 52% black and 11% white 

6.     St. Louis is 48% black and 43% white 

7.     Miami is 19% black, 16% white, and 64% Hispanic 

8.     Richmond is 50% black, and 39% white 

9.     Philadelphia is 44% black and 37% white 

10. Washington D.C. is 50% black and 35% white

Do you begin to understand why white people abandoned cities like Baltimore, Detroit, Richmond, St. Louis, and Philadelphia? What about Birmingham, the 73.4% black city, which harbors one of the most dangerous inner-city populations in all of America? Well, black people have a monopoly on gun violence, which has been the primary reason white people have abandoned the city [The killing years, Part One: Accused killers in the Birmingham area, and victims, often under age 25, The Birmingham News, 6-2-10]:

When people are murdered in Jefferson County, chances are the killer was a male under 25 using a gun. 

More than half of the accused killers in the county were 24 or younger, according to a Birmingham News analysis of homicides from 2006 through 2009.Nine times out of 10, the victims were shot to death. 

The percentage of homicides with defendants under age 25 who used guns in Jefferson County substantially exceeds the national average, statistics show.In Birmingham, where nearly three-quarters of the county's murders occurred, the disparity was even worse from 2006-2009. 

Black males were 80 percent of the homicide defendants in majority-white Jefferson County and 89 percent in majority-black Birmingham. The national average was 57 percent. 

>> More than 70 percent of the victims in Birmingham were black males, versus 43 percent nationwide in 2007, the only year a comparison was possible. 

>> Guns were used in 86 percent of Birmingham homicides, and 83 percent in the county as a whole, versus 68 percent nationwide. Birmingham's rate is higher among defendants ages 16 through 24.

Wait a second -- why are black people targeting white males and white females in Birmingham?

Do you get why cities have such violent rates of gun crime and the metro/suburbs don't? Yes, it's all about race.

Now, Conservatism Inc. is already proudly wearing those ‘WWDD’ bracelets, happily dancing the tune of the few black people who profess “conservative” views publicly.

[Black conservatives: Gun control has ‘racist’ roots, Daily Caller, 2-22-13]

Conservative African-American leaders spoke out against President Barack Obama’s call for more Gun Control on Friday, some saying the proposed measures have “racist” origins. 

“For black Americans, we know that gun control has ultimately been about people control. It sprouts from racist soil; be it after the, or during the infamous Dred Scott case where black man’s humanity was not recognized,” said Niger Innis, spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality at the press conference sponsored by the Center for Urban Renewal and Education. 

Harry Alford, the president of the Black Chamber of Commerce, praised the National Rifle Association in his speech at the event. 

“The National Rifle Association was started, founded by religious leaders who wanted to protect free slaves from the Ku Klux Klan,” said Alford. 

“They would raise money, buy arms, show the free slaves how to use those arms and protect their families. God bless you. Many of us probably wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the NRA.” 

Alford told The Daily Caller he agrees with Innis that gun control laws have “racist” origins. 

Some of the leaders argued that cities with the most crime have the strictest gun control laws. 

“How many children have to die, black and white, for us to come to the conclusion that most of the gun violence is in cities with the most gun control? When are we going to change our minds and put some common sense in there?” said Ken Hutcherson, former linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys and pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Washington state.

That’s why the NRA was started? Good thing I’m not a paying member. There is gun violence in our cities, because black people are responsible for said gun violence.

An expansion of the suburbs/metro area of cities like Detroit, St. Louis, Baltimore, Atlanta, Memphis, and Birmingham exist because white people must constantly abandon communities once too many black people migrate to the area.

Why?

Because they import the very conditions for gun-crime that whites abandoned in the first place, i.e., black people.

The data doesn’t lie.

Statistics don’t lie.

To paraphrase Mr. Hutcherson’s question: “How many black children have to die for us to come to the conclusion that most of the gun violence is in cities with a lot of black people? Perhaps gun control isn’t the solution, but controlling black dysfunction and working to eradicate the problem is the answer? When are we going to change our minds and put some common sense in there?”

Understand this: gun control is about thing, and one thing: controlling the ability of peaceful, law-abiding, productive members of the white population of America from legally procuring weapons that can be used in a defensive manner.

And we write “defensive,” we simply mean protecting their life, family, and property (be it private or commercial) from those who would do evil to others.

And judging by the statistics, “those who would do evil to others” are the very people gun control laws in big cities like Chicago, New York City, Milwaukee, etc., target… black people. 

The American Thinker recently lamented the NAACP, KKK, and "the Democrats" are all about 'gun control' as a way to control black people: 

Anti-Second Amendment journalist Robert Sherrill meanwhile admitted that the Gun Control Act of 1968 might as well have been called the Negro Disarmament Act of 1968: 

"The Gun Control Act of 1968 was passed not to control guns but to control blacks, and inasmuch as a majority of Congress did not want to do the former but were ashamed to show that their goal was the latter, the result was they did neither." 

The truth is that law-abiding black people in rural areas have needed firearms to defend themselves from the Klan, while those in inner cities need them for self-defense against the gang members of all ethnicities who turn their neighborhoods into war zones.  It is already illegal for gang members who are under 18 to own any firearms whatsoever, while it is also illegal for anybody of any age to possess a firearm during the commission of any crime.  New gun laws are not needed to change this.

The current 'Klan' is nothing more than a loose collection of organizations completely infiltrated by the FBI, with black people in rural areas being quite safe; The Gun Control Act of 1968 came on the heels of massive black riots, including one in Detroit (1967) that represented a true racial war -- disarming black people through a 'stealth' law made sense, when such actions would protect white property and business owners hoping to still live in major American cities.

Data and statistics don't lie; people do.

Real Gun Control means Controlling Black Dysfunction -- by any means necessary.

We Have a Table, We have Multiple Chairs, but We have no Ladder: Scores of Blacks Brawl at NoDa in Charlotte

Knowing what we can expect on "The Day the EBT Card Runs Out" is a powerful privilege and advantage in strategic planning, all courtesy of World Star Hip Hop and the black people who graciously post videos of Blacks Behaving Badly (BBB) without a seconds hesitation. 

Screen shot comes courtesy of this video at World Star Hip Hop

There's a reason 65 million guns have been purchased since 2009, coincidentally the same year President Barack Obama was inaugurated. And when you watch this video, it is the powerful display of Spontaneous Blackness that has served as the catalyst for convincing Americans to buy guns and ammo. [Brawl at NoDa venue spawns YouTube video, no arrests, Charlotte Observer, 2-27-13]:

A brawl at a NoDa venue in Charlotte has spawned a YouTube video of the fight and a police investigation but no arrests. 

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police responded to the disturbance call for a large fight at the NDemand venue at 617 East 28th Street around 2 a.m. Monday but found no one with visible signs of injuries. 

But a video posted on YouTube shows several people throwing chairs and other items at each other from across a large room. 

Detectives are using the video to help with their investigation but hadn’t made any arrests by Tuesday evening. 

People at the venue and involved in the brawl have been unwilling to cooperate with officers – either by giving their accounts of what happened or identifying people in the fight, police said. 

A CMPD spokeswoman said the venue had been the site of some kind of fashion show Sunday evening. 

Witnesses told WCNC-TV the fight broke out at an after-party for the Carolina Awards Ball 2013, with about 150 attendees. 

The party featured a competitive fashion show that led to the brawl, NDemand owner Charlene Henderson told WCNC-TV. 

“It was a very sore loser at a fashion show. And it just happened to escalate,” Henderson said.

D
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/02/27/3879752/brawl-at-noda-club-spawns-youtube.html#storylink=cpy

dWhat 

That's not a buffet table...

What do you even say to a video like this?

The familiar "Whites do it too..." refrain? Maybe...'it's 2013, how are there still people who are stuck in such bigoted, prejudice thinking as to perpetuate negative stereotypes'?

Anyone?

It's incredible how quickly an all-black gathering/event/celebration/awards show/picnic/alumni event/funeral can "escalate" into an orgy of violence normally reserved for a Hollywood movie -- be it of the comedy/horror/action/drama/tragedy genre, it doesn't matter.

America isn't a country anymore; it's one big McDonald's Play Area - you know the one, with the slide and ball pit for kids to play in - where black people are allowed to engage in 365Black behavior without any repercussions.

Odds are your redistributed tax dollars are paying for it.

Great Moments in Black History: Birmingham, Mayor Larry Langford, a Prayer, and a Burlap Sack

Birmingham, Al: the 73.4% black city is awash in black crime... why not put on burlap sacks and pray for change?

Living in Black-Run America (BRA) means that any failure by black people - especially on a large scale - will be swept under the rug; in place of criticism of black people, will come the proverbial statements of "how far we've come," or "Jim Crow," this, or perhaps, "some whining about 'lynching'. 

Which brings to the city of Birmingham, Alabama. There's not much to say about the 73.4% black city of Birmingham that Mr. John Bennett didn't discuss in his provocative piece at American Thinker [Civil Rights and the Collapse of Birmingham, Ala, 2-25-13]. To the point, Mr. Bennett provided us a glimpse into the demographic breakdown of Birmingham's public employees:

From the top down, considering the racial breakdown of Birmingham city jobs, data indicate that blacks are fully empowered in the sphere of government. Whites are 22% of the city's population, and hold 27% of public jobs (1180 of a total of 4273). Blacks are 73.4% of the population and hold 71.3% of public jobs (3051).

On the surface, this is surprisingly close parity between population percentage and representation in government jobs. However, serious racial disparities remain within several city departments. For instance, the City Council has 35 black staff members, but only four whites; in the Mayor's office there are 75 black and 12 white employees; Municipal Court Department: 89 black and six white; Public Works: 827 black, 99 white; Parks and Recreation Department: 301 black, 43 white.

 This portrait of a black-run city would be incomplete without these demographic numbers, showing us just who is in charge of the day-to-day maintenance of Birmingham.

The actual iconography for the 10/30 Birmingham "Stop the Black Crime" event

But the story of Birmingham would be incomplete without bringing to light the tale of former black Mayor Larry Langford, currently rotting in jail for 15 years on 60 convictions for public corruption. Meanwhile, Birmingham has been rotting since 1963. 

Prior to his convictions, Mayor Langford embarked on an ambitious public relations crusade in 2008, hoping to restore some luster to the "Magic City": he wanted to build a $100 million pentagon-shaped police headquarters in the city to combat crime, smaller in scale then the Department of Defense headquarters in Washington D.C. ; he pushed for the release of public funds to build a dome-stadium, believing a state-of-the-art sports venue would resurrect the once named "football capital of the south"; and he pushed for the 2020 Olympics to be held in his city [Mayor Pushes Skeptical Birmingham to Dream on an Olympic Scale, New York Times, 8-28-08]:

But those ideas were dwarfed by Mr. Langford’s proclamation this month: He wants the Olympics.

“Why shouldn’t Birmingham host the Olympics in 2020?” Mr. Langford, 60, asked in an interview at City Hall, smiling coyly and puffing a menthol cigarette.

With 230,000 people, Birmingham is far smaller than most of the cities that have played host to the Summer Olympics. It lacks sufficient hotel space, transportation options and athletic facilities, as the mayor concedes. And Atlanta, the last American city to host the Summer Games, in 1996, is only 145 miles away.

No matter, Mr. Langford said. “Our city has allowed the world to tell us for too long that we’re ‘less than’ and ‘too small,’ and we’ve bought into it,” he said. “We need to start thinking big.”

The response has alternated between laughter and frustration. Roads are deteriorating in the city. The murder rate is rising. And the county that Birmingham is part of, Jefferson, where Mr. Langford was the president of the County Commission until 2007, is on the brink of what could be the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history.

“Birmingham has an incredible number of needs, and we never have sufficient money to fund even half of them,” said Valerie A. Abbott, a member of the City Council. “Why would we spend money on something where we have no hope of being selected? It does not take a very sharp person to see that we’re out of our league and don’t have any hope of getting into the league.”

But in a city forever toiling to escape Atlanta’s shadow and the shame of its racial history, Mr. Langford, who is black, envisions a lofty future.

 A "lofty future" for the almost 3/4ths black city of Birmingham? 

Only in the wildest imaginations of white liberals does the black-run city of Birmingham have a chance of prospering. 

What percent of blacks are born out of wedlock? How about -- "Wake up from the dream. Restore Birmingham. Restore the West."

But it's another decision by Mayor Langford that requires an in-depth discussion now, for it serves as one of the great moments in black history. And it involves, sack cloth and ashes. 

Burlap sacks. 

You see, 73.4% black Birmingham was in the grip of a black crime wave. So the mayor went Old Testament on a city where Vulcan, the Pagan God of fire, lords over. [Birmingham mayor fights crime with Christian rally, Birmingham News,  4-25-2008]:

More than 1,000 people gathered at Boutwell Auditorium Friday night, wearing burlap sacks, their foreheads dabbed with ashes, to observe what was proclaimed by Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford as "a day of prayer in sackcloth and ashes."

The night featured collective prayers for forgiveness and fiery sermons calling for the city to repent in order to stop the violence plaguing the city.

"Let there be so misunderstanding: Satan is at work in this town," Langford said. "And It is time to pray."

 Oh, it gets better. [Birmingham mayor fights crime with Christian rally, Tuscaloosa News, 4-26-2008]:

Struggling to confront a worsening homicide rate, the mayor asked pastors and citizens Friday to don burlap sacks and ashes Friday in an Old Testament-style sign of biblical repentance.

Mayor Larry Langford said his “sackcloth and ashes” rally at Boutwell Auditorium was inspired by the Book of Jonah, where residents of the ancient city of Ninevah wore rough fabric and ashes as a sign of turning away from sin.

A pastor who helped organize the rally said Langford bought 2,000 burlap bags to be handed out at the event.

“We believe things begin to dramatically change when the mayor, or leader, calls for prayer. I don’t think there’s ever been a city called to sackcloth and ashes,” said the Rev. Steve Green.

Since he took office last year, Langford has held three prayer rallies as a way of addressing crime and violence. Bibles were handed out at one of the events.

“This city needs to humble itself,” said Langford, a professing Christian.

Vulcan, a statue built long-ago by the white citizens of a dead Birmingham, still stands guard over a now 73.4% black city

The city of Birmingham was humbled, when in 1963 the cameras of the Eastern Establishment broadcast to the world images of a civilization trying to save itself -- trying to save itself from denegrating into the world of 2013 Birmingham and Detroit. 

This wasn't the first time prayer was invoked to restore order to a city ravaged by black criminality [Birmingham Mayor Suggests Prayer, Wearing Sacks to Curb Spate of Homicides, Fox News, 4-28-08]:

Birmingham city officials have turned to prayer in the past to cope with the city's crime problems.

The former chief, Annetta Nunn, promoted the idea of turning people toward God to quell the violence in the city's neighborhoods, and she instituted a Bible-based plan of civic responsibility for cleaning up rundown neighborhoods.

All the while the statue of Vulcan, the largest cast-iron statue in the world mind you, watches on -- overlooking the mess of present-day Birmingham. 

Before Mayor Langford decided to hold sack-races in Birmingham, a most curious article appeared in the pages of the Birmingham News -- Mayor Langford realized that black people were responsible for the deteroriating circumstances of the city and he felt the need for blacks to be held accountable for their actions. 

So he called for a rally of black men only to address this issue [Langford plan has sights set on crime Black men challenged to step up to the plate, Birmingham News, 2-4-08]:

The city of Birmingham is launching an initiative that in other major cities is credited with successfully helping bring down violent crime rates. 

The solution to ending violence in Birmingham lies with black men, who must take responsibility for their communities, Mayor Larry Langford said.It's an issue Langford pledged to tackle with the same vigor as each of his other initiatives since taking office in November. 

The mayor wants to fill the seats at Fair Park arena Friday with black men willing to change the plight of their communities where homicides, violence and apathy are most prevalent.''We need to become leaders in our community,'' Langford said. ''We need to say enough is enough.'' 

Langford late last week met with a small group of black professionals to discuss his plan and set the first mass meeting for Friday at 6 p.m.His call to mobilize black men is similar to programs in other major cities designed to curb crime and invigorate struggling communities. 

Langford said he created his ''Plan 10/30: Why am I dying? Do you care?'' initiative after seeing cases of violence and homicides in the city, mostly committed by black men.The plan's title reflects the fact that crime statistics show a majority of crimes in the city are committed by black men aged 10 to 30. 

Already 11 people have been killed this year in Birmingham. Most of the homicides involved black men as the victim, suspect or both.''We can't blame folks for what's going up in our community now,'' Langford said. 

Several speakers will give short presentations, discussing challenges and giving examples of how each man present can help.''I'm not asking anyone other than black men,'' Langford said. ''If you're white, don't get offended, you didn't create this problem. We did.'' 

Organizers said they want a cross section of black men to attend Friday's meeting. Every concerned black man is encouraged to come, Langford said.''The goal is to put the 'neighbor' back in the 'hood,''' said Frank Matthews, co-director of the mayor's office of citizen's assistance and a coordinator for the meeting. ''The mayor started his 23 in 23 neighborhood cleanup, now he wants to restore safe neighborhoods beginning with African-American male accountability through project 10/30.''
Langford said his meeting is not about creating new government policies, but encouraging personal responsibility. After the first meetings, Langford said he would then invite the entire community to join.''It has to start with us and then we bring everyone else,'' Langford said. ''I need the ones who look like me right now.'' 

Practical approach 

Langford's call for only black men will be seen as controversial, but his approach is practical, said David R. Forde, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Alabama.''The sad fact is for Birmingham your significant problem is in black neighborhoods,'' Forde said. ''You have to start somewhere. If Mr. Langford feels he has to talk with a small group initially, start there.'' 

Forde said the program should be broadened later to get ideas from all concerned with solving the problem.''It's a problem not just for black people, it's a problem for everyone in Birmingham,'' Forde said. 

Forde was an evaluator for Strategic Approaches to Community Safety Initiative, a 10-city community based program to reduce crime in cities that included Memphis, Indianapolis and Atlanta.His report on that program showed aggressive participation in the program and partnerships with the community, law enforcement and prosecutors reduced violent crime by half in some cities. 

''There are no overnight solutions to this,'' Forde said. ''There is a significant problem in Birmingham, and the only way we're going to do something about it is not just relying on the mayor to do something. We all have to do something about it.''

Mayor Langford is correct -- the violence and criminality in Birmingham is the fault of black people; but so are the sorrowful conditions found in post-1963 Birmingham.

On February 7, 2008, roughly 2,500 black men answered the mayor's call to address black-on-black crime in the city of Birmingham [Birmingham mayor's anti-crime rally brings out about 2,500 black men, Birmingham News, 2-8-08]; not long after, 3,500 black women would attend a summit on black violence called on by a man who still had dreams of hosting the 2020 Olympics in a city plagued by black crime [About 3,500 metro Birmingham black women attend summit called by Mayor Larry Langford, Birmingham News, 2-29-08]:

A crowd of black women left Fair Park Arena in Birmingham tonight saying they felt empowered, uplifted and encouraged by a stage full of speakers delivered energetic speeches, telling them they hold the key to improving the community, their lives and the schools.

"I was really proud of Birmingham women as a whole, coming together in such a forum," said Felicia Sanders, 37, of Center Point. "I was just impressed by all the speakers."

Sanders was among the nearly 3,500 black women to attend tonight's anti- crime summit called "Leap Up to the Challenge." The event was organized to address black issues in the community including black-on-black crime, relationships, parental responsibility and education.

Langford, Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper and the Rev. Tommy Lewis addressed the crowd, telling the women they have always been the backbone of the house and the community, but it is important form them not to lose focus of their goals with a man who is no good for them.

 On April 4 of 2008, black families would come together to watch videos of Birmingham in the 1960s, when the white people in charge of the city dared to fight a revolution that would birth a world capable of producing the very conditions the black citizens of Birmingham gathered together on April 4, 2008 to protest.

They even sang "We Shall Overcome" for old-time sakes...

All the while, Vulcan looked on at a city whose leadership and the majority of its citizenry were far, far different then the one that had erected so many years earlier.

Burlap sacks and ash did nothing to stop black violence in the city of Birmingham; Mayor Langford, who was electing in 2007 promising change to the "Magic City" under the campaign of "Let's do something" is in jail -- his grandiose hopes for the city piled under those discarded 2,000 sacks.

All the while, Vulcan looks on.

This has been another great moment in black history. 

The Great Python Hunt of 2013: An Apt Analogy for Our Time

Sixty-eight pythons were found in the Everglades during the 2013 hunt; that represents the removal of potentially 6,800 new pythons in one generation and 680,000 in two generations from the ecosystem of the Florida Everglades

The 2013 Great Python Hunt in Florida is over. So what did this hunt of an invasive species yield in the Florida Everglades? [Final count in Florida's python hunt: 68, AP, 2-16-13]:

A public hunt for Burmese pythons in the Everglades yielded 68 of the invasive snakes, the longest measuring more than 14 feet long, Florida wildlife officials said Saturday.

That might not seem like a success, considering roughly 1,600 people signed up for the state-sponsored Python Challenge that ended Sunday, but Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials said the hunt may have prevented thousands more pythons from being born in the Everglades.

Female pythons can lay as many as 100 eggs at a time.

"In our view that number — the number that were harvested, taken out of the ecosystem — was an unprecedented number of samples that will help us answer questions about pythons and make us more effective at tackling this problem, removing them from the system. We're going to learn so much," said Nick Wiley, executive director of the wildlife commission.

The highly publicized hunt probably generated more attention-grabbing headlines than snakeskins. Wildlife officials say that was their goal: to raise awareness about the threat pythons and other invasive species pose to native wildlife.

Researchers say pythons are eating their way through the Everglades, decimating populations of native mammals. The snakes can grow more than 20 feet in length, and they have no predators, other than the humans desperately trying to control their population.

 Those 68 pythons, representing an invasive species in the Everglades of Florida, in one generation could have seen their numbers improve to as much as 6800; in two generations, the extreme number of pythons would have reached 680,000 (of course, in a competition for limited resources/food, the number would have been less -- but this was the extreme number of snakes potentially disrupting the fragile ecosystem of the area).

Balance must be restored to the fragile ecosystem of the Everglades, or else life will cease to exist with the pythons overtaking all in the swamps of south Florida.

When we last discussed the great python hunt of 2013, we mentioned in passing black history in Chicago. Was it in poor taste, or do the fragile communities different racial populations groups in America create remain untouched by the laws of nature?

A couple of stories about the recently torn-down Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago, which were almost exclusively home to black migrants from the southern states, might be a powerful reminder of what happens when - like the Hyena population in The Lion King - a fragile ecosystem is disturbed [Dream Of Progress Died Quickly At Taylor Homes, Chicago Tribune, 12-3-86]:

A crack of gunfire echoes from a distance. It goes unnoticed, a familiar melody to which the young children play. High-pitched voices bounce off the barren playground with its hard, concrete floor. Bodies tangle, scrambling over benches that have no seats and dodging the legs of a rusted swingset without a single swing.

Watching, Edie Bishop sighs.

``This is no place for children,`` the 65-year-old woman says, peering toward the playlot through the zigzag of wire mesh that stretches across her kitchen window. ``Not fit to be anybody`s home.``

She didn`t always feel this way, not when she first heard the city had built housing for people with low incomes and she dressed in her best clothes to inquire. That was in 1960, back when apartments were first rented in the Robert Taylor Homes.

``They wanted good people in public housing then,`` Bishop remembers. ``I had to have references, and they really checked me out. How much money did I make, did I take good care of my kids, and was I telling the truth about how many I had? I got calls from Memphis, which is where we had come from, and they said, `Edie, the housing authority called us and they wanted to know about your attitude, if you take off from work, if you drink.` ``

Her apartment is a well-kept space that tells much about the family that has lived there for 26 years. It is warmly decorated with snapshots of grandchildren, polished furniture with handmade slipcovers and a framed sketch of John and Robert Kennedy with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

This is where Bishop has raised six children according to her own rigid set of rules. Inside, she reigns.

At her doorstep, order and chaos collide.

It happens in the evening when she is awakened by sounds of sexual intercourse from the darkened stairwell, just a few steps from her door. It happens in the morning when she hears a neighbor reprimand a young daughter for staying out all night and sees the girl grab a broomstick and angrily beat her mother on the head.

It has happened right in front of her apartment as she watched a man lie dying, blood oozing from his body and trickling toward her feet. He was robbed on his way home from the market. Killed, the police told her, for a loaf of bread.

Life is a matter of daily survival for Edie Bishop.

The CHA originally planned a more livable collection of low- and high-rise buildings spread over the 92 acres. It would have cost $22,000 per unit. But even a generous federal government had its limits. The U.S. Public Housing Authority refused to spend more than $17,000, and the result was the CHA`s more ``cost effective`` high-rise plan.

Robert Taylor died in 1957, five years before the development would be given his name.

During his 13-year tenure as CHA chairman, Taylor recognized that many who needed public housing in Chicago were poor blacks who had migrated from the South--poorly educated, unsophisticated and often in need of instruction so basic it dealt in personal hygiene or how to raise a child. He believed they needed more than just a place to live. Taylor`s most valued CHA employees were ``social directors`` whose work with tenants went far beyond collecting rent.

Large families have always lived in Taylor. Its population peaked in 1966 when it was home to 27,400 people, about 20,000 of them children and all of them poor and black.
Most moved into the buildings with little understanding of what Taylor`s high-rise environment would mean. Less than three years after Taylor opened, serious problems began.

Beauty Turner gives "Ghetto Tours" of the former sites where the almost exclusively black Robert Taylor Homes were located; where an invasive species of Chicago were housed

 Those black people living in the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) public housing area known as Robert Taylor were responsible for creating their own ecosystem; more importantly, they represented an invasive population upsetting the balance of life in Chicago.

Though the United States Postal Service (USPS) has claimed neither rain, snow, nor sleet will disrupt the mail from being delievered, the hazardous conditions black people created in Robert Taylor Homes did [Postal Service Workers Adding Fear Of Gunfire To Their Motto:Fed Up By Sporadic Shootings, Mail Delivery Is Suspended To The Robert Taylor Homes, Triggering An Outcry And Bringing A Resumption Of Service, Chicago Tribune, 3-26-98]:

What should be a fairly straightforward task--providing mail, one of everyday life's necessities--doesn't get much trickier than this.

Delivery to six high-rises at the Robert Taylor Homes was briefly suspended Wednesday because the Postal Service had gotten fed up with sporadic shootings, including one this week that had heightened fears among letter carriers.

Postal officials pulled the plug on delivery to the buildings in one of the largest such cutoffs in the city's history, only to announce later in the day that service would resume Thursday.

That announcement came after postal authorities, police and Chicago Housing Authority officials talked about safety issues, including a plan in which community residents would escort letter carriers--just as Taylor-area residents escorted children to a local school earlier this year after an outburst of gunfire.

For the hundreds of families affected by the interruption in postal delivery, it was more than a matter of missing the latest batch of junk mail: Many rely on letter carriers to deliver timely notice of new welfare-to-work requirements to avoid being dropped from public aid rolls.

Resident leaders at Taylor contended that the Postal Service was operating under a double standard that discriminated against CHA residents. Tenant leader Mildred Dennis said a female postal carrier in the nearby Englewood neighborhood had been shot last year--and the local post office sent out a new carrier the next day without disrupting delivery.

"If you would deliver mail when a (carrier is shot), why not deliver here?" Dennis asked. "It's an insult to us. . . . We are still first-class citizens."

No Mildred Dennis, you are not first-class citizens; it's difficult to even classify the community the black residents of the CHA Robert Taylor Homes created in Chicago a 'civilization'... in one short generation, the fragile conditions necessary for a prosperous city had been disrupted.

But as the New York Times reported, a solution to the anarchy blacks created in Robert Taylor Homes was found; tear them down [END OF A GHETTO: A special report.; Razing the Slums to Rescue the Residents, 9-6-98].

An invasive species ultimately destroyed one of America's greatest cities (Detroit), just as an invasive species threatens the ecosystem of the Florida Everglades. Luckily, far-thinking city planners realized the importance of removing the menace of public housing from Chicago; now, former black residents of this complex can only reminisce about what life was like there via 'ghetto tours' ['Ghetto' tour is journey into city's heart, 8-12-07]:

Beauty Turner's Ghetto Bus Tour begins in a field as peaceful as a prairie.

"This was a community just like yours," says Turner, her lilting voice passionate, even though she's given this talk before. "People stayed here, played here, lived here and died here."

She pauses. The cicadas whir. Cars throb past the place once known as the Robert Taylor Homes.

"There were 28 16-story public housing high-rises," she goes on, "with tens of thousands of low-income people on 99 1/2 acres of land."

A mirage of what has vanished shimmers in weeds, but on this sweaty Friday, the future is more obvious than the past.

Up and down State Street, good-looking condos are popping up, in Turner's words, "like jiffy popcorn in a microwave."

It's a mind-boggling conversion of a vast part of Chicago that for decades went barely seen by the white and the affluent. Now Turner wants people to come see it as surely as they'd go see the Bean.

"The truth tour," she says, and the truth as she sees it is that most of the people leaving won't get to come back to their old neighborhoods and many won't be better off in the new ones.

 "Truth Tour"...?

No, Beauty Turner, the Robert Taylor Homes were not like any community white people had ever seen; it was a physical manifestation of the type of ecosystem the Florida Everglades will see if the Burmese Python is allowed to replicate beyond sustainable numbers and completely disrupt life in the area. 

For only a few years removed from the razing of the Robert Taylor Homes, life has found a way to bounce back in the same plot of land where life was once repelled; to the point -- it was state policy to fund the conditions found in an area of Chicago were an invasive population was housed.

A community, a neighborhood is nothing more than the combined efforts of individuals to create the conditions where life either flourishes or flounders; introduce an invasive species into the mix, and the equilibrium, the balance of life shifts.

This is the great lesson of history -- for the ecosystem that has arisen in the Everglades or in that of Chicago.

"Guns, Blacks, and Steel": 'Obamerica' and the Morality of Survival

"Obamerica."

From what I can tell, a term coined by Daniel Greenfield at Front Page Magazine.

Murder in America: The Wall Street Journal created a database for all firearm murders in America (save Florida) between 2000-2010 -- though black people are 13% of US population, they were responsible for 45.1% of known murders in America committed with a gun; whites, though roughly 66% of US population, were responsible for 24.3% of known murders committed with a handgun. 

As we consider the question of 'Guns, Blacks, and Steel', it would be imprudent not to include Greenfield's piece detailing the true source of America's gun problem [Gun Violence is Not a Republican Problem, It’s a Democratic Problem, Front Page Magazine, 1-18-2013]:

Forget Wal-Mart and skip your local gun show. The murderers of tomorrow will not be found wearing orange vests at your local sporting goods store. They won’t have NRA memberships or trophies on their walls.

You won’t find them in America. Look for them in Obamerica. 67% of firearm murders took place in the country’s 50 largest metro areas. The 62 cities in those metro areas have a firearm murder rate of 9.7, more than twice the national average. Among teenagers the firearm murder rate is 14.6 or almost three times the national average.

Those are the crowded cities of Obamerica. Those are the places with the most restrictive gun control laws and the highest crime rates. And many of them have been run by Democrats and their political machines for almost as long as they have been broken.

Obama won every major city in the election, except for Jacksonville and Salt Lake City. And the higher the death rate, the bigger his victory.

He won New Orleans by 80 to 17 where the murder rate is ten times higher than the national average. He won Detroit, where the murder rate of 53 per 100,000 people is the second highest in the country and twice as high as any country in the world, including the Congo and South Africa. He won it 73 to 26. And then he celebrated his victory in Chicago where the murder rate is three times the statewide average.

These places aren’t America. They’re Obamerica.

In 2006, the 54% of the population living in those 50 metro areas was responsible for 67% of armed killings nationwide. Those are disproportionate numbers especially when you consider that for the people living in most of those cities walking into a store and legally buying a gun is all but impossible.

Mayors of Obamerican cities blame guns because it’s easier than blaming people and now the President of Obamerica has turned to the same shameless tactic. The NRA counters that people kill people, but that’s exactly why Obamerican leaders would rather talk about the guns.

Chicago, the capital of Obamerica, is a city run by gangs and politicians. It has 68,000 gang members, four times the number of police officers. Chicago politicians solicit the support of gang members in their campaigns, accepting laundered contributions from them, hiring their members and tipping them off about upcoming police raids. And their biggest favor to the gang bosses is doing nothing about the epidemic of gang violence. 80% of Chicago’s murders are gang-related.

But in 1999 when a bill came up in the Illinois State Senate to charge anyone carrying out a firearm attack on school property as an adult, a law that would have largely affected gang members, the future leader of Obamerica voted present. Had he not voted present, it is doubtful that he would have been reelected in an area where gang leaders wield a great deal of influence. The majority of murders in the cities with the worst homicide rates are gang-related. And while it isn’t always possible to be certain whether a killing was gang-related, the majority of homicide victims in city after city have been found to have criminal records.

In 2010, there were 11,078 firearm homicides in the United States and over 2,000 known gang-related killings, over 90% of which are carried out with firearms. Since 1981, Los Angeles alone has had 16,000 gang related homicides. That’s more than twice the number of Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is what Obamerica looks like. It’s a place where life is cheap and illegal guns are as available as illegal drugs. It’s the war that we aren’t talking about, because it’s easier to talk about the inanimate objects being used to fight that war.

 "Obamerica" -- funny, as James Kirkpatrick illustrated at Vdare, those leaders of Conservatism Inc. believe only a black man can save America from "Obamerica" (paging Dr. Ben Carson... paging Dr. Ben Carson) or else watch as the Republic is dragged into the 9th layer of Hell.

Right now, there is no "morality" in place that defines why white America has a right to exist, to survive -- instead, the only hope by the gatekeeper at Conservatism Inc. is in coagulating the severe wound "Obamerica" has inflicted on the nation with the steady hand of Dr. Carson.

No thanks.

The cities Mr. Greenfield mentions as the epicenter of "Obamerica" - Chicago and Detroit - were once the crown jewels of white America, an expression of the type of community white individuals could collectively create.

In 2013 -- they represent the type of communities black individuals are capable of collectively creating.

It was those conditions white people created in Detroit and Chicago - seemingly limitless prosperity, a state-of-the-art infrastructure, etc. -   that attracted black migrants; it is the conditions the now black majority in each city created that drove away white people and allowed for the flowering of "Obamerica" to transpire.

The constant threat of black violence (be in gun or black criminality) drives away capital investments in a city; it drives away businesses - legitimate businesses - that can provide tax revenue for much needed city improvements; and, most importantly, it drives away white people who must seek a safer climate to rear children and protect their family.

One city Mr. Greenfield doesn't mention is Philadelphia, where it was reported 59 precincts went 100 percent for Obama in the 2012 election.

Zero votes for Mitt Romney.

Conversely, Philadelphia is also a city firmly controlled by "Obamerica" [Violent trend remains epidemic, Philly Tribune, 6-28-12]:

From one end of Philadelphia to the other, virtually no neighborhood — from Society Hill to Grays Ferry and from University City to Strawberry Mansion — is exempt from the senseless violence that seems to have a vice-like grip on Philadelphia.

According to law enforcement experts, among the top ten cities in the nation, Philadelphia’s homicide rate remains among the worst, with young Black males between the ages of 17 to 25 consistently being the majority of the victims and perpetrators. After a 20 percent decline in homicide over the last three years, the numbers are starting to inch up again. To put the figures in context, there have been 183 murders in Philadelphia as of Tribune press time. By contrast, one U.S. serviceman was killed in Iraq in 2012. In 2011, there were 324 murder victims in Philadelphia, again, mostly Black males. In Iraq for that same year, 54 U.S. servicemen were killed.

The numbers illustrate the glaring and frightening reality that a young Black man is safer in Iraq fighting insurgents than he is walking around the streets of Philadelphia’s African American neighborhoods.

During military operations in Iraq from 2007 to 2012, 1,482 American service members were killed. In Philadelphia for the same years, 1,654 people were killed — mostly Black males. To color that number even more, according to Philadelphia Police Department figures, 645 Black males between the ages of 17 and 25 were murdered in Philadelphia during those years. By contrast, 27 Black males between the same ages were fatally shot by police officers in the commission of their duties.

 It is the destruction of a city of such national importance as Philadelphia that illustrates why the "Liberty Bell" has no meaning in 2013 -- a property owner or business owner in the "City of Brotherly Love" only has the liberty to watch their property value plummet or their security expenses go up and their cash flow go down as the "Obamerica" sets in upon Philly.

The Wall Street Journal created a database for all firearm murders in America (save Florida) between 2000-2010 -- though black people are 13% of US population, they were responsible for 45.1% of known murders in America committed with a gun; whites, though roughly 66% of US population, were responsible for 24.3% of known murders committed with a handgun; Hispanics, roughly 13% of the US population, were responsible for 9% of known murders in America committed with a gun over that same time period.

Mr. Greenfield would end his piece at Front Page Magazine with these words:

There are, as John Edwards said, two Americas. America is a country that runs pretty well. And then there’s Obamerica. Not all of Obamerica is broken, but a lot of it is. America does not have a gun violence problem. Obamerica does. And Obamerica has a gun violence problem for the same reason that it has a drug problem and a broken family problem.

Democratic leaders and machines, combined with social workers and justice crusaders have run Obamerica into the ground. Obamerican cities used to be the homes of industry and progress. Now they’re places where young Black and Hispanic men kill each other in growing numbers.

We need to set aside the same old tired social justice rhetoric and have a serious conversation about what is wrong with New Orleans, Detroit and Chicago. And we need to do it before it’s too late.

 Right now, one of Greenfield's "two Americas" is under tremendous assault from all corners: immigration, illegal immigration, the removal of Red State white males from the military, gun control, the outsourcing of jobs, confiscatory levels of taxation, an EEOC determined to make erratic heartbeats a violation of 'equality', a USDA that considers any white person an abomination,  and an Education-Industrial Complex determined to create handicaps for white (and Asian) children just to close the racial gap in achievement.

And a state whose private and public sector is doing everything possible to retard the advancement of white people via "diversity" and quota mandates. 

And the best Conservatism Inc. can do is look to Dr. Ben Carson and pray for his divine wisdom to impart sanity upon "Obamerica."

What those 65 million people who have bought guns since President Obama's election in 2009 don't understand is simply this: it is the goal of those in charge of "Obamerica" to turn every last village, city, or community in this nation into just another reflection of "Obamerica."

And it is almost exclusively white people who have even vested interest in stopping this from happening.

The morality to survive is a radical, radical notion in "Obamerica"; after all, in what other epoch of American history would the very people whose blood was the catalyst for the creation of the nation be targeted for elimination?

SBPDL was started as a joke -- but with the fall of black-run Detroit imminent, I know realize the importance of such seemingly insignificant projects as this; no one else had told the story of Detroit's demise.

The same with Chicago; the same with Birmingham. 

What is becoming increasingly obvious about life in "Obamerica"is, to paraphrase President Thomas Whitmore's speech from Independence Day, "White America is  fighting for a form of ultimate freedom. Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution, but from annihilation. We're fighting for our right to live, to exist."

As we have seen with Detroit, where white America is absent (violently overthrown by blacks in an as-of-yet-unnamed war), civilization is absent.

And the cost of policing and maintaining the "absence of civilization" in black-run Detroit is passed on to the white taxpayer; as will the cost of bailing out the city.

So Mr. Greenfield is correct to call for a conservation about what is wrong with New Orleans, Detroit, and Chicago. 

But any discussion of gun control in America would - as the Wall Street Journal's interactive on murder in the USA between 2000-2010 makes clear - would involve a frank discussion of race.