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The study was conducted using data collected in 2009, which did not include the state of Florida and just a small portion of data from Illinois. The startling findings from the Center report suggests that Missouri’s rate of 34.72 homicides per 100,000 Black residents nearly doubles the overall national rate of 17.90. For whites, a paltry 2.92 homicide rate exists nationwide.

The study’s dubious numbers aside, Missouri has seen a drop in homicide numbers, reports the Kansas City Star. The murder rate for Black Missourians last year was 39.90. Within the St. Louis city borders alone, 125 of the 143 murders that occurred involved African Americans.

Professor of criminology Toya Like stated in the Star report that Missouri’s problems most likely stem from a late trickling down of drug and gang-related violence that was born during the explosion of crack cocaine that ravaged cities, such as Washington and New York in the ’80s:

That increase happened a little later here, said Like. That’s the most feasible explanation for these numbers.

According to the Violence Policy Center,  the top 10 states with the highest homicide rates are Michigan, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Indiana, Tennessee, Wisconsin, California, and Nevada.

Read the rest at the Kansas City Star.

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Millie Campbell (pictured), 76, and Betty Minor, 69, are a part of the group who have been blessing the city for the past six weeks. As Campbell drives with Minor in her blue Chevrolet through the 7th Ward, Campbell says:

Oh, God, we thank you for the blood of Jesus. Touch this block in the name of Jesus.

When Minor isn’t punctuating Campbell’s prayers with a number of “Hallelujahs” and “Glorys,” she adds:

Cover your children, Father God. In the name of Jesus.

While The Times-Picayune notes that a number of clergy, organizations, and youth ministries are all involved in the effort to stem the murder and mayhem that continues day by day in New Orleans, this small group believes that when a situation becomes to heavy to bear, one must take it to the Lord.

Campbell adds:

We got a problem, but we don’t know how to solve it. We’re taking it to the Spirit.

About two weeks ago, NewsOne covered the violence that raged in New Orlean’s streets, when four people were killed and 10 were wounded during a single weekend. At that unfortunate time, 11-year-old Keian Ester was shot in the back of his skull as he played Xbox in his home. Obviously, New Orleans isn’t alone in its black-on-black murder problem.

Just two years ago, the NY Post reported that the murder rate for African Americans was up 31 percent in the city of New York, with 60 percent of Blacks being the murder victims. And as if that weren’t enough, in Chicago, while all other races saw their murder rates decrease in 2010, UPI reported that African Americans weren’t so lucky:

Wesley Skogan, a crime and policing expert at Northwestern University’s Institute of Policy Research, said many African-American neighborhoods in Chicago didn’t see the decline in crime that white, Hispanic or other diverse neighborhoods enjoyed.

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While John-Hall reports that black males killing black males are a national issue, she uses her home city of Philadelphia as a case study:

Those gunshots that had you dropping to the floor on New Year’s Eve? You know, the ones that traditionally ring in the new year?

They’ve become nothing more than an S.O.S., warning us that yes, domestic terrorism is alive and well in a city where brothers kill brothers – Philadelphia.

Talk about black-on-black crime: According to stats from the Philadelphia Police Department, 75 percent of 324 victims killed last year were African American men, while 80 percent of those doing the killing were – you guessed it – black males.

John-Hall mentions Michelle Burton, a Black mother who lost her 24-year-old  son to gun violence. The killers have not been caught (even though the murder was caught on video according to the article) because no one is stepping forward to give police information on what happened.

“My son got killed a few feet away from here,” Burton told me. “They have it on videotape, but no one will speak up, no one will tell. . . . It’s not fair. I just want justice.”

But John-Hall suggests that the “justice” Burton wants is not up to the police to serve alone.

This article touches upon several key issues worth discussing. For one, is it true that the culture of “no snitching” is so ingratiated in the psyche of black men that city and federal government efforts to fight it are rendered useless? Think about it. How can police investigate crime if no one gives detectives information needed to solve these cases?

What is very disturbing is that a 2011 U.S. Department Of Justice study reports that Blacks are six times more likely to be victims of violent crime than whites. The same study reports that Blacks are eight times more likely than whites to be perpetrators of violent crime than their white counterparts.

Does this study suggest that Blacks are the only people committing crime? Not at all. The same study states that 84 percent of Whites are killed by Whites while 93 percent of Blacks are killed by Blacks.

What I took from John-Hall’s article was that Blacks, especially at the community level, must take ownership of their neighborhoods’ safety and security. It is us, not the police, government or any other entity that, that must ultimately police ourselves.

Let’s have a discussion about this in the comments section and on Facebook. But do read the rest of the John-Hall’s article at the Philadelphia Inquirer before joining the conversation.

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Big Shot Bob’s is more popularly known for its 100 different flavors of wings, but it was the “black on black crime” wing flavor that generated the negative publicity.

Channel 11 first learned about the controversy through our WPXI-TV Facebook page. A viewer wrote, “How about this for a story. There’s a place called Big Shot Bob’s house of wings and they have a featured wing called black on black crime.”

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DETROIT — Some Detroit City Council members say they’re concerned that an upcoming ABC Network drama will propagate a negative image of the city as dangerous and crime-ridden, and has asked the show’s producers to attend an upcoming council meeting to discuss it.

“Detroit 1-8-7″ – the title uses a former California police code for homicide – is set to begin airing in September. The show is shot from the perspective of a documentary film crew tasked with shadowing Detroit homicide detectives. The pilot episode was shot in Atlanta, but producers plan to shoot future episodes in and around Detroit.

“The title, itself is very negative – Detroit murder,” Councilman Kwame Kenyatta said Monday. “What they are using as a hook is Detroit as a murder capitol, where we manufacture murder as part of an assembly line.”

Cathy Rehl, a publicist for the show, did not immediately respond to phone messages Monday seeking comment.

Detroit earned the nickname “Murder City” after more than 700 homicides were committed there in 1974, and the city’s homicide and violent crime rates are routinely among the nation’s highest among large cities. During the 1970s and 1980s, the nation watched each year as arson fires lit up the night skies during the 3-day Halloween period known as “Devils’ Night.”

Under Mayor Dave Bing, the city has pushed hard to bring down its rate of violent crimes, and last year the rate dipped slightly.

Text continues after gallery …

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But city leaders have a long way to go in reshaping Detroit’s image, and they weren’t helped by a May shooting in which a sleeping 7-year-old girl was killed by an officer’s bullet during a police raid on her home. That raid was captured by a camera crew filming for the A&E crime reality show, “The First 48.”

Last week, Mayor Dave Bing forced Police Chief Warren Evans to resign after little more than a year on the job, in part because he was unhappy with the way Evans was pushing his own police reality show.

In a promo for the show, which would have been titled “The Chief,” Evans was seen holding an assault rifle outside an abandoned train station.

“It’s my job to keep the city safe. I’ll do whatever it takes,” Evans said in the clip.

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Luther Keith, who heads a coalition of community groups called ARISE!, said he thinks the city doesn’t get its fair share of positive news coverage.

“While this might be a series about solving homicides in Detroit, we hope that it recognizes there is more to Detroit than homicides,” Keith said of “Detroit 1-8-7.”

“It’s a reasonable expectation, at least to have one foot in the reality of Detroit,” he added. “There are people who live, work here and enjoy this community who aren’t touched by homicides.”

Detroit has welcomed moviemakers lured by state tax incentives.

Michigan’s film industry credit refunds 40 to 42 percent of a company’s qualified expenditures, one of the nation’s most generous giveaways.

Bing’s administration wants to take a business approach with the city’s growing film industry, mayoral spokeswoman Karen Dumas said.

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The show’s producers met with the city’s film office. The original trailer was scrapped because portions could have been viewed by some as negative toward the city, Dumas said.

But the city doesn’t plan to intrude on how the show is written or filmed.

“It would be unrealistic for us to micromanage the creative process,” Dumas said. “They don’t need our input or approval, and they don’t need to do it here.”

Councilman Andre Spivey said he didn’t know if the producers planned to attend Tuesday’s meeting, and that he didn’t know what sway the council could have over the show’s content.

“I don’t want to hold back the progress of the show,” Spivey said. “I don’t want other productions to be shunned away. Do we have economic benefit at the cost of our reputation?”

Moviemaking on a large scale is new to Detroit, and its residents have thin skin when outsiders criticize the city, he said.

Audiences equate similar shows set and shot in New York as entertainment. Spivey wonders if the same will be true of those shot in Detroit.

“We really don’t know how many businesses, how many people aren’t showing up because the reputation has kept them from coming to Detroit,” Spivey said.

For those who think Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s efforts to limit guns are a waste of time and a violation of people’s rights, consider the case of Micheal R. Bailey.

At 62, Bailey was a 20-year veteran police officer who was weeks away from retiring.

At about 6 a.m. yesterday, Bailey was coming home from one of his shifts, where he was assigned to guard Mayor’s Daley’s home, when he stopped outside his own South Side home to clean the Buick he had purchased for himself as a retirement present.

Up to three men approached Bailey in what police say was a possible robbery attempt. Bailey announced he was a police officer and then there was an exchange of gunfire. His son grabbed one of his father’s weapons and ran outside after the attack, but it was too late.

“We heard (his daughter) screaming, ‘They shot my daddy, somebody shot my daddy!’ ” neighbor Angelece Cook told the Chicago Tribune.

Click here to read more.

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From The Root

”Despite overall crime numbers falling in recent years, black-on-black [emphasis added] violence remains a prevalent issue,” the newspaper reported.

You can expect to hear these key phrases on a local television news report near you as temperatures–and tempers–rise this summer. Black clergy like Al Sharpton, prominent black thinkers like Kevin Powell, and writers at black journals like the Urban Politico will shake their heads at this ”black” scourge, self-flagellating that ”we gotta do better.”

Of course, any loss of life is cause to scream from the mountaintops. But explaining the tragedies by using loaded phrases like ”black-on-black” violence is dangerously wrong. First, in a country that is essentially still segregated (and not necessarily by black people’s choice) what race do you expect for both victim and perpetrators to be? Language like ”black-on-black violence” effectively smacks a racial label on problems that are socioeconomic and thus the collective, moral responsibility of every American.

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CHICAGO (AP) — First-degree murder charges were dropped Monday against one of four teens accused in the brutal beating of a Chicago honor student that was recorded in a cell phone camera video.

Eugene Bailey, 18, of Chicago, was arrested Sept. 26, two days after 16-year-old Derrion Albert was killed during a fight after classes let out at Christian Fenger Academy High School on the city’s South Side.

Prosecutors dropped the charge Monday with little explanation.

“While the charge against Bailey was brought in good faith based on witness accounts and identifications, additional information has developed during the ongoing investigation that warranted dismissal of the murder charge against Bailey at this time,” the state’s attorney’s office in Cook County said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for the office declined to elaborate, saying the investigation is ongoing.

Bailey spoke to reporters briefly as he left the Cook County Jail on Monday evening, thanking Jesus for his release and expressing remorse for missing Albert’s funeral while he was in custody.

“I just want to give a shout-out to Derrion’s family, his mother and grandmother,” he said. “And I’m sorry I couldn’t attend his funeral. He was a good friend of mine.”

A woman who answered the phone at Bailey’s home number hung up when contacted Monday for comment.

Bailey’s family has maintained his innocence, saying the Fenger senior wasn’t at the fatal fight and police misidentified him in the video.

Three other teens still face charges in the melee: Silvonus Shannon, 19; Eugene Riley, 18; and Eric Carson, 16. All are being held without bail. Their next court date is Friday.

A cell phone video shows a group of people striking Albert with boards and kicking him as he lay on a sidewalk. Albert, who was a sophomore at Fenger, has been described by police as an innocent bystander caught up in the fight.

Albert’s death and the disturbing footage of the beating quickly attracted the attention of President Barack Obama, who sent Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan to the city to meet with Fenger students, parents and administrators. Duncan, the former chief of Chicago Public Schools, said Fenger would receive an emergency grant of about $500,000 for counselors or other programs.

Federal officials also promised support for efforts nationwide to fight youth violence.

In Chicago, Mayor Richard Daley has introduced plans to add more police officers at schools and funding for after-school programs.

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Derrion Albert Is The New Emmet Till

Last week the beating death of Derrion Albert made national news, highlighting Black on Black crime among school children.

This week another incident of Black on Black crime rocked the nation. The former fiancee of a singer and popular reality show star, Kandi Burruss, A.J. was killed in a fight outside of a strip club he owned.

Fights and altercations are common place in clubs, strip clubs and concerts. One can blame children for being young and immature but grown men have no excuses.

What happened to AJ. happens all the time. Most times it doesn’t result in death. Way too often, people settle their differences over stupid issues by fighting.

A fight can start in the club over someone stepping on your shoes, bumping into you, or looking at you the wrong way.

A lot of fights in the club over girlfriends or boyfriends. If you are in a relationship with someone and they’re sleeping with someone else, they are not worth fighting over.

As children, young people are graded by how well they fight. Often times it is a way to earn respect.  People believe their ego is determined by their ability to fight. Simple disagreements often turn violent, because people want to prove how “gangsta” and tough they are.

Too often, stupid fights over girls, money or pride lead to injury. Often times fights turn to gun violence or stabbings, when people seek revenge. A lot of other times one on one fights turn to group fights.

There is enough Black on Black crime due to drugs and gangs. Violence over stupid issues only compounds the problem.

Fighting in the club not only endangers the people involved in the fight, but hurts other club goers as well. Too many concerts and clubs have been shut down because a few people decide to fight.

Violence is a way for uncivilized people to solve problems. People who cannot communicate a way to solve their problems, use fighting to prove their point.

People should go to clubs to have fun. When alcohol is involved, differences between people happen. Most club fights are over stupid things that people regret in the morning.

These fights reflect badly on both Hip Hop and Black culture. The better man is not the man with the better right hook, but the man who can solve his problems without using violence.

What happened to Derrion Albert was a tragedy. A tragedy that often happens in inner city communities. Because it was recorded, his murder has gotten national attention, while most other murdered Black teenagers are regulated to local news.

Hopefully, Derrion’s death will become a tipping point for the Black community and the country as a whole. Maybe, he will become a martyr  for Black on Black crime  as Emmit Till was to white racism, and the video of his beating will provoke the same anger against Black on Black crime that the Rodney King video did against police brutality

It takes a village to raise a child and we must look at the village before we condemn the children who killed Derrion, we must take into consideration their environment.

We cannot simply blame Black culture or the white made environment for Black on Black crime. When everyone blames everyone else, all we have is people making accusations and being defensive, and no one solves the problem.

One could look at the students who beat and killed Derrion as cold blooded, savage killers. But were they born killers? What prompted them to have such little regard for human life? In Season 4 of the Wire, we see how a bright eyed innocent 8th grader(Michael) turns into a cold blooded killer by the end of the season. While that was fiction, it is a reality that happens all the time in urban neighborhoods.

In places like Chicago, where school systems are overcrowded, the drop out rate is over  50% and gangs run rabid, violence in schools is a grim reality. For many kids, joining a gang is both a way of protection and acceptance.

The school system’s overcrowded classrooms, apathetic teachers and outdated or missing supplies make it hard for students to have an opportunity at a decent education. Rather than turning to music, art, sports or education, students turn to gangs. Gangs terrorize the neighborhood and other children, so kids often join gangs for protection against other gangs.

But still, the school system can not shoulder all the blame. Many of these problems come from the community itself. Poverty has bred crime from the beginning of civilization.  Drugs and guns combine to create a culture of violence. Single parent homes and overcrowded public housing helps to inflame the situation.

Many people have blamed Hip Hop culture on the beating. In recent years, Hip Hop has turned to a culture that exposed the crime and violence in the black community, to a culture that promotes it. Lil Wayne, The Game, and Snoop Dogg, some of the most popular rappers, have all promoted their gang membership.

Media companies like Viacom, Universal, and Clear Channel have all promoted these rappers directly to young Black children. For people in urban neighborhoods, who see nobody from their background achieve success outside of athletes and entertainers, rappers serve as role models. A great deal of rappers brag about their propensity to violence and illegal activities.

For too long, the government has seen Black of Black crime as a Black problem. It is an American problem that all Americans must come together to fight. Community activists, government officials, teachers, Hip Hop artists and athletes should come together and reach out to kids who are at risk of violence. Students must be given alternatives to gangs. Children who are involved in after school activities are much less likely to get caught up in violence.

There are no simple solutions to Black on Black crime. The problem has it roots in slavery, Jim Crow, housing segregation, poverty, guns, drugs and Black culture. There is no specific group of people or issue that can shoulder the blame for Derrion’s death.

I applaud Bow Wow and Nas for addressing the situation. Hopefully more athletes rappers and entertainers who young people look up to will do the same. Politicians and community activists should also address the issue. I am glad the the White House has addressed this issue and has sent Eric Holder to investigate the problem. Still the White House and entertainers alone cannot solve the problem.

Black on Black crime and failing urban schools are not a Black problem, they are an American problem. A problem that requires an American solution. No one issue should be blamed for the death of Derrion, but one united country can fight to deal with the causes.