Reports of “Massive Looting.” And pics of looting a Foot Locker! Kind of surprises me a bit (I know… nothing should surprise me) because the cop was led off in handcuffs. It wasn’t like he walked off a free man. But then what does looting have to do with justice? Whatever your “cause” is, looting will not help it (notable…
Tag: ghetto culture
Dirt bike crashes into car. Car driver assulted.
This dirt bike thing in Baltimore continues to be out of control. I can’t believe that 10 years after I first saw packs of these going around, they’re still a problem. I mean, other cities don’t have this problem. What makes Baltimore so unique? To ride an illegal dirt bike, especially on the sidewalk or through parks, needs to be…
Right-Wing Lies: The welfare of Larmondo “Flair” Allen
Am I really the only person who is skeptical enough to check the basic truth of emails before forwarding them to my 140 closest friends? I mean, it doesn’t take too long to go to Snopes The thing about mass-forwarded right-wing emails is that they are almost always never true. They’re like the headlines in the supermarket tabloid Weekly World…
Check out my dope suspenders!
I know you think it’s cool to be chillin’ with your pants hanging low, but funny things happen when your pants don’t stay up. For one, if you’re running and I’m chasing you and you’ve got one hand holding your pants up, I will actually catch you. Two, if you’re like Hector Quinones of the Bronx and kill three people…
Ghetto Reading List
In a footnote (p. 215) in Cop in the Hood, I list what I consider essential books in urban sociology (they’re not all about the “ghetto”). Somebody was nice enough to take the time to put this list on Amazon. It’s nice to see all these books in one place.
“Running only leads to more running”
A Chicago Tribunepiece on why the Fenger High School students fight. It doesn’t really answer the question. But then again it’s not like there is a good answer. What it comes down to seems to be the belief that kids from the projects are “invading” another neighborhood (with seemingly very similar socioeconomic characteristics) where the high school is. “As far…
Fight. Don’t Kill.
Thinking about the street fight in Chicago makes me think Frank Zimring and Gordon Hawkins’ 1997 book, Crime is Not the Problem. They distinguish between crime and violence and argue convincingly that America’s problem is not crime but violence. Other nations have as much if not more crime, they say. They just don’t kill each as much. Zimring and Hawkins…
Nasty street fight in Chicago
One 16-year-old high-school honors student student gets sucker-hit with a large piece of wood, then cold cocked, and finally stomped and beaten to death. All this caught on video in front of a large screaming (and sometimes cheering) crowd. Finally some nearby adults carry try and rescue him and carry him away, but it’s too late. Derrion Albert died. Foxhas…
“People have got to get indignant”
[Detroit Police Chief] Evans reiterated his sense that people feel Detroit is supposed to have crime. He said he goes out two nights a week and works the streets, stopping motorists who rarely have driver’s license, registration, insurance. “What I say is: ‘Do you drive north of 8 Mile like this?’ And they say, ‘Hell no! They’ll lock you up.’…
Blue-Light Cameras
I’m generally not a fan of flashing blue light police cameras. I think they’re a waste of money. So in the interest of fairness I should point out that one in Baltimore recently got a shooter convicted. Peter Hermann reports. Not surprisingly, the victim wouldn’t cooperate. In an unrelated case, Hermann talks about a brutal racist attack on a elderly…