Friday, February 16, 2007

Possible Sighting Of Elephants In Drawing-Room

Well, the BBCs report of David Cameron's interview on the subject of dead teenagers is still in 'this is a problem that affects all of us' country.

But the further away from the liberal blind eye you move, the more people seem to be opening their eyes.

Even the Indie seems, while still tiptoing, at least to be tiptoing around the actual problem.

There are sensitive issues involved. These latest shootings have fallen under the category of so-called "black-on-black" crime. It is clear that there is a significant lack of positive role models for young black boys. Black fathers often play too small a role in the lives of their children.

Makes a change from the usual stuff about demonising single mothers, doesn't it ?

The Indie is still the Indie though.

There are wider social issues here too. Deprivation must bear some of the blame.

In the 1920s there was deprivation - real as well as relative - which makes Peckham look like the wealthy place it is. There were also a couple of million young men around who'd served in World War One, and an awful lot of trophy pistols on the top of the wardrobe. And low crime - including gun crime.

Joseph Harker in the Guardian is a lot closer.

This is not about guns ... Much attention has focused on the fact that many victims, and their killers, are black - which is impossible to ignore, though it makes many people uncomfortable ... Fathers have continued to abandon mothers, who feel they have to cope even though they've lost their traditional support. Children have often been the ones to suffer ... This is not to blame single parents for their circumstances. It takes a mother and a father to raise a child.


The Times hits the nail :

Gun crime has risen inexorably in the past two decades — despite a dip of 14 per cent last year. But it is highly localised, and involves the Afro-Caribbean population disproportionately ... At heart is the breakdown, or often complete absence, of family structure, especially within the black community ... It is not just a question of money: millions have been spent in Brixton and elsewhere in South London since riots 20 years ago. It is a question of changing a culture ...

While the Telegraph gets the problem but misses a solution.

The truth is that the laws relating to possession of guns are nowhere near tough enough.

As a commenter said :

It is foolish to talk of mandatory minimum sentences. You know who will get these: the farmer who has an irregularity in his paperwork, not the gang member. For the former is an easy collar for the police (driven by Home Office targets) yet the latter is not. So the farmer does 5 years, 10 years, 15 years (whatever wins the politicians auction) and the gangster never even gets caught.

I think we've seen a few of these already.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you bring Jamaica to Peckham you should expect the customs and culture of Kingston to be reproduced in London and Birmingham...what is missing is policing as in Kingston, Jamaica.


What are the sales of The Indie on these estates in Lambeth, Peckham, Brixton, Tottenham ?

Any chance of supplying complimentary copies so the populace could become acculturated instead of wasting fre copies on fat businessmen in Holiday Inn ?

Anonymous said...

Voyager - Why do businessmen have to be "fat"?

Anyway, it's the people in "relative poverty" today who are fat because they're too bovine to follow a sensible diet and too self-indulgent to forego sweet things, and too planted on the couch in front of their plasma TVs.

Anonymous said...

If I were prime minister, I would arrogate unto our country the right to deport people back to their country of genetic origin if they cannot behave in Britain. This would mean third or fourth generation incorrigibles.

Anonymous said...

^ I think that's a BNP policy, in fact, or close to it anyway.

Anonymous said...

It is a question of changing a culture ...

Good luck. I mean you screwed ours up so good luck with theirs

Anonymous said...

Voyager - Why do businessmen have to be "fat"?

Well Verity let me explain as one in the business world to one who has not noticed.

The propensity to sit on seats, planes, cars, trains causes build up of adipose tissue and often a panniculus. The sheer boredom of travelling, waiting, meetings etc causes consumption of alcohol, snack foods, junk food and foods high in trans-fats to increase the accumulation of adipose tissue.

The fact that employment hangs by the slender thread of hierarchical satisfaction tends to make the businessman subservient to a chaotic and incompetent boss who dumps crap on him at the very last minute that increases stress and familial friction.

The sublimation of fear and frustration in alcoholic libation is a consequence of this activity.

I have observed this feature in several countries and several of my colleagues and surmise it is especially prevalent among married businessmen.

I still think it would be far better to give complimentary copies of The Indie to disaffected urban youth than overburdened executives awaiting an infarction

Anonymous said...

If I were prime minister, I would arrogate unto our country the right to deport people back to their country of genetic origin if they cannot behave in Britain. This would mean third or fourth generation incorrigibles.

I would go further and omit the good behaviour caveat but how would this work in practice? The receiving countries obviously would not cooperate without a considerable incentive or threat of force. There would be all sorts of legal issues to sort out. We should work on the legal framework should the need arise.

saltynick said...

Laban says...

The Times hits the nail: It is a question of changing a culture...


Not so. The Times positively avoids the nail. It is really a question of changing a race.

The 'Black Crime' profile is not a London thing, or a British thing. It's common and unique to Blacks across Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

So how do you change a race? And who but a 'supremacist' would claim the right to try?

Anonymous said...

I think what is needed is tougher gun laws, and the banning of private ownership of handguns. Whoops we tried that, no effect whatsoever, apart from gun crime soaring, but plenty of photo opportunities for politicians. Guns off streets etc.
Malthebof

Anonymous said...

Well said Nick. Ive nothing to add - just want to let you know you are not alone in drawing the conclusions you do.

Anonymous said...

And we can't change a race, or at least we can't do it in a feasable timeframe. Laban often speaks of the assimilatability of the Eastern Euros who came here in the 20s - was this perhaps in some related to their genetic similarity to the natives of Britain? And if we cannot assimilate the brown hordes, should we perhaps keep them out, stuck in the self-created racial prison that are their own countries?

Anonymous said...

This episode at least gives us the chance to throw the presiding sophistry back in the faces of those who pronounce it. For example, note the frequent, unchallenged used of the term 'institutionalised racism' - an assertion which those who utter it seem to believe is an argument. I think we should turn this warped thinking back on its practitioners. For instance:

Why do 'we' have these yoof problems, erm with black children:
INSTITUTIONALISED CRIMINALITY...

SNAP!

Anonymous said...

I once got a job tutoring in prison and spent a LOT of time with criminals - including the ethnic variety. (incidentally a disproportionate percentage were foreign - even in the late 90s. I suspect, based on studying these people longer than any sociologist, that secretly there is satisfaction in some quarters that our poilce are now having to walk around holding guns in urban areas because of these shootings. They were forever trying to impress on me that I didn't understand life in the hood etc. Like I was some kind of plastic creature who didn't understand real life. They are making it like their heroes in the black ghettos of USA.

saltynick said...

Thanks, againstthewall.

I think most of us know these truths, but we really need to understand how it came to pass that we dare not speak them.

It's a very curious and unnatural situation that has developed, where obvious and undeniable truths are obscured and lied about by our power elites.

If you're not already familiar with it, Alex Zeka's blog, majorityrights.com can help on that.