Unanswered Prayers (Even of the Voodoo Variety) = Continuation of Black Crime

Burlap sacks and ashes didn't stop the killing in Birmingham (strangely, the deployment of such novel crime fighting tactics were only needed in the black community); no amount of voodoo dances and conjuring off Haitian spirits can save New Orleans from the same type of crime vexing Birmingham [New Orleans Conjures Old Spirits Against Modern Woes, New York Times, August 18, 1995]:

The voodoo priestess used a mix of gunpowder and old graveyard dirt to draw a magic symbol on a crossroads in the Bywater neighborhood, opening a spiritual door through which a fearsome deity could pass and save her community from the evil of crack cocaine.

For two hours on Wednesday night, as drums pounded along Piety Street and orange flames of fire-eaters and torch carriers danced in the dark, the white-gowned priestess, Sallie Ann Glassman, enticed Ogoun La Flambeau, a voodoo god of war and fire, to prowl among the rows of shotgun houses and punish the dope peddlers and other criminals.

She offered rum, cigars, incense and music, and called out to him in French, respectfully but firmly, since it is unwise to appear weak-willed in the presence of spirits. "Great gods cannot ride little horses," she said.

Sometime after 10 P.M., as a circle of sweat-slick dancers and voodoo drummers seemed about to collapse in the sticky heat, Ogoun showed himself to her, the priestess said.

Burlap sacks in Birmingham didn't work...

"I can see him and feel him. He is here," said Ms. Glassman. His feet, she said, were on the street, and the rest of him rose up, high into the dark. "I can see him now, hovering over us," she said.

Even in New Orleans, where there is magic in many things and weirdness in most, this does not happen every day.

The ceremony was born in the frustration of residents in the racially and economically diverse neighborhood on the edge of the French Quarter, said Ms. Glassman and others who live here. They said the New Orleans Police Department had been ineffectual at best in dealing with blatant drug traffic, burglaries, prostitution, robberies and assaults.

"This is not frivolous," said James Smith, a writer who lives in Bywater, who came to lend his support to the ceremony.

"It has to work better than the legal system," in frightening away some of the criminals who make a living here, Mr. Smith said. "Because New Orleans is a very superstitious place."

The voodoo chants have yet to ward off any of the black criminality in the Crescent City, the exact same reaction the burlap bag wearing, ashes on the forehead crowd in Birmingham received when divine intervention was requested to assist a certain community in being violence free.

Now, violence in Baltimore (again, the same group is involved that turned the citizens of Birmingham and New Orleans toward such different types of prayer to try and stop) [Baltimore Officials & Clergy Ask For Help After Dozens Killed, CBS Baltimore, June 30, 2013]:

The surge in violence continues in Baltimore as the police report more shootings, the last of which happened late Saturday in Northeast Baltimore.

Christie Ileto has more on how clergy and lawmakers are trying to calm anxious residents.

At least 40 shootings have happened in the last 10 days and 16 of them were deadly.

Police have stepped up their presence on the streets in response to a surge in violence that included 11 fatal shootings in the span of a week. Commissioner Anthony Batts has said nearly three times the usual number of officers would be on the streets this weekend.

City clergy are now asking residents to step up and end this violent trend.

City clergy and members of 120 churches are rallying and praying this weekend for peace.

Even a 21-car motorcade drives through the city showing just how deadly this violent trend is becoming.

“If you put a police officer in every block, you still could not solve the program when the problem is inside of the individual, ” said Bishop Angel L. Nunez of Bilingual Christian Church.

This recent surge in shootings highlights the city’s problem with gun violence and homicide rate. So far this year, there have been around 117 homicides, the highest in six years.

Of course, in Detroit, the exact same community appealing to higher powers for intervention in stopping the crime/murder problems of Baltimore, New Orleans, and Birmingham, a hearse motorcade was sent around the city. 

The Baltimore Sun catalogs all murder victims for an incredibly in-depth visual of the black crime problem

Yes. 

A hearse motorcade paraded around the city, a macabre warning to the residents of the 90 percent black city to stop the violence. 

Perhaps its time for a voodoo parade, led by hearses, driven by individuals wearing burlap sacks to finally end the plague of black crime infecting these four cities? 

The hearse parade in Detroit....

The Baltimore Sun provides the most impressive newspaper database for researching homicide in the city (available here); you can access all murders between 2007 and July 1, 2013 - by race, weapon used, and where in the city it happened - by inputing various searches within the tabs. 

Since 2007, there have been 1511 murders in the city of Baltimore. Of those 1267 were black and 77 were white (inexplicably, in 2008, 111 of the murder victims are listed as "race unknown"). 

Most striking though, is a feature that allows you to see if a news story was published at the Baltimore Sun about the murder victim. 

In two of the cases of white murder victims, we learn that it was a story of the often-times buried black-on-white variety: Dr. Peter Marvit, a researcher at the National Institute of Health, was murdered in 2012 by two "light-skinned black males"; in 2008, 16-year-old Matthew Scarborough was killed by a black male during a home invasion. [Murder Ink., City Paper, 9/10/2008]:

Willondon Pettiford, a 17-year-old African-American male, was indicted by the Baltimore City Grand Jury on Sept. 4 for the murder of Matthew Scarborough. According to the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office, Scarborough, a 16-year-old Caucasian male, was in an apartment with four other people in the 500 block of Castle Drive in North Baltimore's Lake Walker neighborhood on Aug. 7 when they were allegedly robbed at gunpoint by Pettiford and unidentified others. According to the State's Attorney's Office, Pettiford shot Scarborough when he did not respond quickly enough to his demands.

How many more of the white murder victims in the city of Baltimore had a black killer?

Prayers won't work.

 Burlap sacks and ashes won't work.

 A parade of hearses won't work.

 Voodoo won't work.

What will work?

An admission of vast racial differences in both behavior and intelligence would be a good, rational first step.

Makes more sense than voodoo...