Michael Ramirez for December 23, 2014

  1. Wrong
    BaltoBill  over 9 years ago

    Why is this the right wing’s response to all of this?

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    fatchance  over 9 years ago

    @ Balto BillIt’s called “deflection”.

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    Wraithkin  over 9 years ago

    Locke’s got a point. What do you expect conservatives to say? The criminal is the victim? All police are bad? It’s only whites who are the problem? We may be “deflecting,” but what are liberals doing? They are blaming the wrong people for the problem. The first step to solving a problem is diagnosing that problem. The problem is not the police. The problem is that the black community (not individuals, but the community itself) is so insistent on breaking the law in response to perceived affronts. What other community riots and burns their own community when they are “wronged”? What other community lauds cold-blooded murder of police officers just sitting in their cars? When was the last time the Mexican immigrants rioted about their familes’ deportations? It is the culture of the black community, led by those IDIOTS sharpton and jackson, that is the problem here. Instead of focusing on redress and justice, they want revenge, and they don’t care who they hurt to get it. We have an entire legal system set up for this, and it believes in something called “due process.” But the culture of the black community is one of thug justice, and that’s why it’s got the stereotype it does.I’m not saying racism doesn’t exist. I’m not saying all members of the black community are this way. But I’m saying that when you have many people in many cities acting with a mob mentality, it’s the culture that is driving these actions. And if you want to combat racism, feeding the narrative that the black community operates with thug justice doesn’t help. MLK Jr. would be ashamed.

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    6.6TA  over 9 years ago

    This is, at best, mis-direction. The white on white crime rate in the US is about the same. And, of course, the white segment of the population is much larger. So, on straight numeric terms, white people are dying in much larger numbers, due to white on white homicide crime. We have a human problem. We have various colors of humans, but human on human crime does not appear to care about color.

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    Theodore E. Lind Premium Member over 9 years ago

    The way to minimize crime to to make sure all of your citizens have a decent chance at a good job and a safe community environment. Provide good schools that are safe, work at community policing and crack down on the gangs and then in a generation or so you will see a big improvement.

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    6.6TA  over 9 years ago

    @jack75287:

    white on white homicide rate 84%black on black homicide rate 90%

    http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/expanded-homicide/expanded_homicide_data_table_6_murder_race_and_sex_of_vicitm_by_race_and_sex_of_offender_2013.xls

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  7. Giraffe cat
    I Play One On TV  over 9 years ago

    As to the toon, nikilpat has it right. White on white crime is just as pervasive as black on black. Strawman argument, Mr. Ramirez, but it’s really commonly believed by people who don’t want to scratch the surface.

    I had a brother-in-law who was a police officer (now he’s a prosecutor). He told me he was a juvenile delinquent in high school. He told me that his delinquent high school buddies were in one of two places: in jail, or on the police force.

    This is our problem. One police officer who abuses his authority is enough to bring suspicion and lack of cooperation and fear for the whole community. No doubt, most officers are wonderful people and steadfast representatives of their peers. But it only takes one to do it, and a bunch of people to do nothing about it, to perpetuate these problems.

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  8. Birthcontrol
    Dtroutma  over 9 years ago

    When rats, or people, are jammed in large numbers into a small environment, fights, and crime, increase. Throw in economic repression and divide in those same communities, and crimes increase. There IS an economic and social motivator for crime in black, white, Asian, Italian, Jewish, or any other racial or ethnic “compartment”, La Cosa Nostra, the Irish mobs of New York, and yes those ever-popular taxes on bread, or other economic segregation are historic demonstrations of such criminal behavior.

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  9. Sunset on fire
    Fuzzy Thinker Premium Member over 9 years ago

    The culture is the problem. Other minority cultures do not have their members involved in crime at 8 Times the rate of everyone else. Other groups have come to America and have prospered even though they were discriminated against- Polish, Irish, Italian, German, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, etc. But, they had community leaders that taught values. B!ack leaders teach something else. You get what you pay for.After 200 years, it is time to give up the excuses and the blame.

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    lonecat  over 9 years ago

    It’s not good to have these divisions in society — young black men and their allies on one side and the police and their allies on the other side. We should all understand that fundamentally we’re in this together.

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    6.6TA  over 9 years ago

    @jack75287

    My point is that the rates of white on white homicide and black on black homicide are approximately the same.

    The actual numbers from the 2013 FBI report are: total homicides, white victims: 3005 vs. white offenders: 2509, total homicides, black victims: 2491 vs. black offenders: 2245. So, the rates of white on white homicides and black on black homicides are about 84% and 90%, respectively.

    As you point out, the actual numbers show that dying by homicide occurs at a disproportionally higher rate, compared with the population rates that you state. (These seem about right to me.)

    But that is not what I was saying. What you pint out is a worthwhile question to consider, but is certainly much more complex. Just to point out one pertinent factor, the poverty rate for the black segment of the population is about 2.5 times higher than that for the white segment. Of course, quite a bit of homicide probably occurs within the poverty end of the population.

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  12. Birthcontrol
    Dtroutma  over 9 years ago

    ^Compare U.S. homicide, and homicide by gun rates in the U.S to all other “first world” industrialized nations; the results are a real killer, for the U.S..

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  13. Genesme1
    gusty1345 Premium Member over 9 years ago

    try comparing total nbr of homicides by all methods

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    Wraithkin  over 9 years ago

    First, thank you for your candor. First, to dispel your thoughts, I’m not a racist. I don’t give a rat’s rear-end about what tone your skin is. But I am intolerant. I am intolerant towards bigotry in any form. I’m intolerant of willful ignorance, petulance, and the “I deserve” complex. I am intolerant of political correctness. I am a pragmatist. I don’t understand why we can’t have an honest discussion about racial culture without being labeled a racist. Everyone is so sensitive about the topic for fear of offending anyone that we don’t have an open and honest dialogue about it. If we are all honest with ourselves, we have to admit the black culture has a problem. - Fathers are not staying home; illegitimate child births in the black community are over 50%. While people feel that women should be empowered to have sex with whomever, whenever, a fatherless home with teenage boys is a recipe for disobedience. - The criminal culture in the black community is encouraged and lionized. When you have a culture that puts a bounty on the head of a police officer, or a culture that says to “kill cops,” or a culture that loots and riots when they have an unhappy outcome on an issue… you have a problem. The crime rates in the black culture (regardless of the victim) are much higher than the national average across all other cultures. - Hard work and success is demonized. How many times are successful black men villainized? They are called “Uncle Tom.” They are called, “Too white.” I’ve read articles about black-on-black violence against children who dare to try to succeed at school. - Poverty amongst the black community is a massive problem. The unemployment rate is still at recession levels. Why? You can’t tell me that every employer in the country is discriminating against black folks. That means the problem rests within the black community. I think it ties into the hard work piece: it’s easier to sit and collect state and federal benefits than it is to get a crappy job and pay the bills the honest way. All these, and more, are not the fault of individual mothers, father, or individual children. It is the fault of the culture and community leaders. I believe when you have people like Sharpton, Jackson, or any of the other micro-culture leaders spouting off about victimization, about how the “white man” is keeping them oppressed, it gives individuals the excuse they are craving to feel victimized and do nothing to better themselves.I think this would be universal across all melanin levels; people tend to be lazy if they are given the opportunity. If you have anyone in authority or power giving you an easy out to not have to work, and give you a scapegoat to explain why it’s not your fault that you are in the position you are in, people will follow that. It’s human nature. It just so happens that it’s happening in the black culture in our country.In the Brown scenario, a couple of the above-mentioned issues are what contributed to this loss. Criminality was lionized, success was demonized, and no-one was willing to step up to the plate earlier on and make the hard decisions for his well-being. It’s unfortunate that the outcome had to be what it was, but I believe it was only a matter of time before he bit off more than he could chew and ended up dead. It’s frustrating that our country as a whole is unwilling to come out and recognize that. All of that being said, I will not say that there is no racism in this country. I believe people are affected by their upbringing, their environment, and their individual experiences. Just like there are racist blacks, there are racist whites, racist hispanics, and racist asians. It simply exists. But that doesn’t mean on its surface it is wrong, only because racism is a set of beliefs. What you do with those beliefs… that’s where it switches to being wrong. We can’t be thought police; we can only be action police.And if we have police that are racist, and they act on those racist beliefs, that’s when it is wrong and they need to be removed from interaction with the public. That’s no different than if anyone in any culture refuses service to another culture simply because of their beliefs. That, again, is transitioning beliefs into actions. I think if we want to combat racism, at its core, we need to stop demonizing honesty and stop this politically-correct nonsense. If we can’t be honest about the issues, how can we ever solve them?

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    Wraithkin  over 9 years ago

    Sorry, had a couple firsts in there that don’t belong. lol

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    Wraithkin  over 9 years ago

    You bet Pea. I always enjoy civil discourse. We don’t always have to agree, and when we do? Awesome! And when we don’t, I like it when people such as yourself are also respectful and don’t get offended simply by the topic of discussion. Happy, non-offensive, non-denominational Christmas. ;)

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