Remembering when Blacks complained Crime Crackdown "Project Exile" in Richmond, VA was effective because it "affected [blacks] almost exclusively"

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No matter what we do in terms of policies that will actually help make the black community safer, they will always cry "racism" when these sane efforts target only the black individuals who are collectively committing violent crimes against primarily black people. 

There's nothing we can do, and in the end, there's nothing we should do except create safeguards to protect our civilization from the consequences of unrestrained blackness. 

Take Richmond, Virginia. In 1940, the city was roughly 80 percent white, but there were 11 times as many homicides committed by blacks as white people. 

Project Exile worked, because it exclusively targeted the people committing violent gun crime... as it so happened in Richmond, VA, those people were exclusively black

In the 1990s, Richmond - almost exclusively courtesy of blacks - was one of America's most violent cities. Ultimately this gave birth to the awesomely named Project Exile, which shifted the prosecution of illegal gun possession to federal courts where mandatory minimum sentences existed (no plea bargains or jury nullification possible). 

But Project Exile was too effective. [VA. CRIME CRACKDOWN CALLED RACIST, COSTLY\ PROJECT EXILE IS GETTING FELONS OFF THE STREET, BUT SOME QUESTION THE PROGRAM'S CONSTITUTIONALITY AND EXPENSE, Associated Press, 5-30-1999]:

Project Exile is getting felons off the street, but some question the program's constitutionality and expense. Police, prosecutors and politicians love Project Exile. 

The joint federal-local crackdown on criminals who carry guns has been given much of the credit for reducing Richmond's once-soaring murder rate by 32 percent in the last year measured, 1997-98.Project Exile has shipped off hundreds of violent offenders to serve long terms in faraway federal prisons. President Clinton, impressed by the statistics, recently held it up as a national model for fighting gun violence. 

What could be wrong with a program like this? 

Two big things, critics say. 

For one, it is inherently racist, according to local defense attorneys. Because it targets city violence, city suspects - usually black - end up facing federal charges while suspects from outlying counties - usually white - face only state prosecution for the same crimes. 

Second, it floods federal courts with small-time local crime, the region's federal judges say. One went so far as to write Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist to criticize Project Exile as a pricey federal power grab. 

``Not only does this do violence to the concepts of federalism, the cost to national taxpayers is at least three times more' than it would be to prosecute suspects normally, U.S. District Judge Richard Williams told Rehnquist. 

Project Exile was created in 1997 by Richmond authorities horrified by high crime. 

Annual murder totals for the city of 203,000 ranged from 112 to 160 in the mid-1990s, which consistently put Richmond among the 10 U.S. cities with the highest per-capital murder rates. 

Project Exile was born of the belief that crime would fall if local officials could stop criminals from carrying guns. 

It works this way: 

If a convicted felon is caught carrying a gun, local prosecutors drop the case and let federal prosecutors press charges instead. 

They can do that because gun possession by a felon is a federal as well as a state violation. Federal prosecutors can seek longer sentences than their state counterparts - typically a 10-year maximum instead of five. 

Federal authorities also have the option of sending convicts to distant federal prisons instead of nearby state facilities. 

But the biggest advantage to Project Exile, prosecutors say, is that federal courts are simply better at putting gun-toting criminals behind bars. 

Since 1997, federal authorities have completed 347 cases and gotten 304 convictions, says Stephen Miller, an assistant U.S. attorney based in Richmond. The average sentence was 4 years without parole. The average state sentence for felons caught with guns is about nine months and about 18 months for armed drug dealers, he said, citing a Justice Department report. 

Project Exile is no secret. Billboards, bus ads, radio spots and television commercials drive the point home to those who haven't heard. 

One of the TV spots begins with a picture of a night sky and the sound of gunfire. 

The words ``9 millimeter' flash on the screen, followed by more gunfire and ``.380 caliber.' 

The sound of chirping crickets is next with the question: ``Nice, isn't it?' 

Murders in Richmond dropped from 139 in 1997 to 94 in 1998, and Project Exile deserves some of the credit, say federal and state prosecutors. 

Opponents, however, question whether the benefits are worth the costs. David Baugh, a local defense attorney, asserts Project Exile is illegal because it affects black people almost exclusively. 

Richmond's three U.S. District judges agree in part. 

In a January opinion on motions for an ongoing Project Exile case, they said the program wasn't unconstitutional but did have a disproportionate impact on black people, who make up 55 percent of Richmond's population. 

Also, Baugh argues, the program makes black defendants face mostly white juries.

Ultimately, the effectiveness of Project Exile is still in question, because black leaders of the black community complained so much about how only violent black people were being ensnared in the program  and this was somehow racist (the program was attempted in Rochester, NY, but the same problem of only blacks being arrested popped up as in Richmond).


But again, if the bad guys are all black, that's who the police will target... [Law Leaves Criminals Gun-shy: Richmond's Bad Guys Don't Want To Carry, Chicago Tribune, March 26, 2000]:

Exile is not without its critics. 

Defense attorneys charge the program is racist because more than 90 percent of those arrested are black. The program's sponsors note that most of the victims saved from these criminals also are black. Richmond's population is about 60 percent black. 

"It isn't about profiling race. It's about profiling behavior," said Chief Oliver, who is black. "We're the police, we're the good guys. We've got to go after the bad guys, and many of the bad guys are black." 

So far the program has passed constitutional muster. A federal three-judge appeals panel, deciding the first Project Exile case, ruled in January that the program does not violate constitutional restrictions on federal interference in state matters. The case will be appealed to the Supreme Court next month.

Oliver would go even further, noting suspects in violent crime in Richmond were almost all black:

Given the recent emphasis within law enforcement on the role that race plays in police tactics, it would seem inevitable, perhaps even natural, that the issue would come up with regard to Project Exile. In Richmond, noted Oliver, more than 90 percent of victims are African American, as are approximately 97 percent of suspects in violent crimes. But whatever program one points to, whether Project Exile, Blitz to Bloom or another, he said, the focus is on behavior.        “I know there are many historical and sociological reasons for having primarily young African American males involved in these crimes,” said Oliver. “But at the point that Exile meets them on the street, meets them with a gun on a corner selling drugs, or a gun robbery, or a gun involved in domestic violence of any sort, at that point it has nothing to do with race — it has a lot to do with behavior.” Oliver said he tells those who are critics of Exile that if they want to attack something, attack the reasons why young black men get involved in criminal activities.

No matter what white people do to try and improve the black community, all we will get is in return is called "racist."

No matter how far we run to insulate ourselves from the consequences of blackness, Andrew Young's warning of what blacks would do to whites fleeing Atlanta - "where ever you go, we will follow" - echoes on the packed highways to next suburb.