Tiny Grenades of Truth
columnist: A.H. Dowden

Topic: Poverty
Crime and Poverty in Minority Neighborhoods

---

This is taken from one of the message boards I frequent. It's an ongoing discussion about crime and poverty and all the intricacies they entail as well as answers to the many causes behind it all.

---

by A.H. Dowden
(Libertarian)
Friday, March 14, 2008

This is taken from one of the message boards Ifrequent. It's an ongoing discussion about crime and poverty and all the intricacies they entail as well as answers to the many causes behind it all. There is no doubt of a direct correlation to the breakdown of the American family unit and regression of American societal norms. Read on...

Comment by an obvious liberal drone:

"already mentioned one possible solution:

Significantly increase the time abusers spend in drug treatment programs.
Don't put these people back on the street until they are cured.

I suspect other solutions you wouldn't find acceptable, c_t_c. [CTC is another poster on this particular board] The real answer to the drug and crime problem amongst the poor in this country is give them an opportunity to climb out of poverty. Give them a real education. Clean up their neighboorhoods. Make their lives worth living.

Put a police presence in the neighboorhoods that are non-confrontational and supportive. Make the police people that the local community wants to go to to report crimes.

Increase the exposure of people like Bill Cosby who are trying to fight the gangster mentality that is corrupting the black youths of our country.

I don't know the solution. I just know that what we are doing now ain't it.

My answer:

Again these are short-term 'maybes' that may have little to no impact. We need to treat the disease not the symptoms. See my previous post for my solutions.(I will repost below this entry for the blog)

1. Drug addicts are never cured. And it simply doesn't work unless the addict has hit rock bottom and wants more than anything to change forever. Being off of drugs sounds great to a lot of addicts but turning their backs on the lifestyle and everyone they've ever known is a much tougher sell when faced with the reality of perpetual drug treatment.

2. Poor people reject a real education in favor of being cool or "gettin mine" or being a hustler every day. Educational opportunities are what you make of them. The real answer is in finding and fixing the key reasons people squander the educational opportunities already afforded them. Which I might add are far more comprehensive and far-reaching than anything any one of our grandparents ever had.

3. Nobody cleans up your neighborhood for you. You have to do it yourself. To prove my point about societal norms, how many people living in poor neighborhoods, that would like them to be "cleaned up", are aware of and/or in charge of a family member/child that is running the streets and on a collision course with a prison sentence? That's the real problem, not "Gollum" Giuliani's broken windows.

4. What makes a life worth living? Money? Purpose? Achievement? Success? Service? Material things? Family? The fact is the answer to that question depends on whom you're asking. Our bill of rights and constitution lay the groundwork that makes these things a reality for us. But the choices we make will determine our outcomes. Poor people don't make good decisions. Mostly out of lack of judgment or hasty ignorance or poor upbringing. Good judgment and careful decision making, along with recognizing opportunity and planning for your future are LEARNED BEHAVIORS. In other words nobody is born a healthy productive member of American society by default. Uber rich kids destroy their lives all the time. Being a good person and living the good life you desire are things that are first ingrained as virtues and then we are taught by someone that has done it, how we can go about doing it ourselves. One thing is certain though; it usually takes long term exposure to a healthy and successful adult or family for these things to be learned. We can give out all the money in the world to people that don't have it, but it won't fix the dysfunctional and destructive behavior that is at the root of the problems.

5. Human beings are loyal creatures. We see our nephew grow up and we know him to be a generally good natured kid with dreams and aspirations like any other normal kid. We root for him in life. When he starts hanging out with the wrong crowd, wearing the "crack dealer uniform" and getting in trouble, we still think of him in terms of being that good kid we know. When he get's picked up for being on the corner with a group of known drug dealers... being the loyal creatures we are, we think, surely it was a coincidence right? I mean, the cops just see a minority kid and automatically think he's no good right? Wrong. The people in crime ridden neighborhoods usually set themselves up in opposition to the police. We defend the problem kid based on what we know he could've been with proper guidance. We suspect the police and distrust them even though they were just busting drug dealers in a neighborhood that everyone is crying about wanting to be "cleaned up." Poor people need to take a step in the direction of the police and support them if they want their communities to turn around. At the same time they need to take responsibility for their kids and make the commitment and self-sacrifices needed to keep them out of trouble. And the police need to work with a strong community watch group that is dedicated to stopping the cycle of crime and violence that ruins lives. That means not just anonymously reporting crime from behind the curtains but actually assisting detectives when everyone claims "they didn't see anything" or when people refuse to testify. That behavior is self-defeating and lies solely at the feet of the people living in poor communities. Are police overly weary of minorities? To a degree I'm sure. But who wouldn't be after 20-30 years of being right on that hunch? In a world where a 10 year old kid might cap you to gain juice for his clique, police cannot afford to be "non-confrontational."

6. Bill Cosby felt the full brunt of the seemingly systematic reproach of the black American community. Things were said like "he's trying to lump us all in together" and "there are plenty of good and responsible black parents out there" knowing full well that he wasn't stating that ALL black Americans were bad people. Obviously there aren't "plenty" of responsible parents out there or we wouldn't have anything to discuss. It was an interesting reaction to watch that's for sure. The black American community, from what I could garner through the media outlets, was apparently at odds with itself which is something you don't see much. A lot of black Americans stood up and said 'Yeah! He's right' But still others went on the attack. The fact that Cosby is attacked over semantics on an issue that is so vital smells of something much deeper rooted than conventional wisdom is ready to admit.

7. You're right... what we're doing now "ain't it" but picking the proverbial thorns off of the thorn bush won't get it done either. If we don't eradicate the mindset and stop the cycle of mental as well as financial poverty nothing will change.

*********************

My post on the solutions side of this discussion:

The sheer number of people in prison is a marker of the direction of our society in the last 50 years. We need to step back and see the larger picture. Most people, who do more than experiment with drugs, i.e. get into long term abuse that negatively affects their lives, do so to wash away some form of pain or to escape the reality of their grim situation. Is it any wonder at all, that the increase of this type of behavior can be directly correlated to the breakdown of the family unit, a soaring divorce rate, an outlandish out-of-wedlock pregnancy rate, and a rebellion against societal norms? One could hardly begin to argue against this point. The more narcissistic/materialistic we become, the worse it get's. We as a nation can and should change things and we have a few immensely powerful vehicles to do so called local, state and federal governments. Our local and national governments should be encouraging "healthy norms" through parenting programs, marriage counseling, public service announcements, father-son groups, mother-daughter groups, free financial planning and awareness classes, community mentoring groups, strong crime watch groups, family health, nutrition and fitness classes etc etc etc. Before all of my fellow conservatives jump me over the money for these programs, let me say that the federal government WASTES more than enough of our money to pay for these programs. Not to mention what the individual states squander. And before you start in with numbers I will make you a guarantee, at some point, as you sat so vigilantly watching your individual state's budget and federal spending, your Senators and Representatives stole millions for a pork barrel project. So-called conservatives all across this country sit idle and even re-elect dirt bag pork hungry republican'ts every year. If we get out of the UN, bring our world police home and pass the Fairtax plan, there would be 100X the amount of money needed to fix our own societal ills instead of those in foreign countries.

And now I leave you with a quote from Dr. Ron Paul on the issue of racism that speaks volumes to the idea of giving black America the credit it deserves and believing that they are more than capable of finding solutions to the problems that have become so pervasive.

"Racism is simply an ugly form of collectivism, the mindset that views humans strictly as members of groups rather than individuals. By encouraging Americans to adopt a group mentality, the advocates of so-called "diversity" actually perpetuate racism. Their obsession with racial group identity is inherently racist. We should understand that racism will endure until we stop thinking in terms of groups and begin thinking in terms of individual liberty."

Congressman Ron Paul

Did you like this article?
If you did, Thumb It!
2 thumbs so far

2008 A.H. Dowden, all rights reserved.
Published: Friday, March 14, 2008
Last modified: Friday, March 14, 2008

The views expressed in this article are those of A.H. Dowden only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. A.H. Dowden is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.

Report violation by A.H. Dowden of Nolan Chart LLC's terms of use policy.