Our Views: National focus on BR crime

The presence of a front-page story in a recent edition of The Wall Street Journal that outlined Baton Rouge’s epidemic of murders should be a wake-up call for everyone in this community.

The Journal profiled a number of U.S. cities, including Baton Rouge, that are plagued by high numbers of murders in which young black men are killing other young black men. That problem is far from exclusive to Baton Rouge, obviously, but as the Journal pointed out, violent crime affects everyone in a community, even those far beyond the poor neighborhoods where such crimes take place.

Here’s a telling paragraph from The Journal’s article, reported by Cameron McWhirter and Gary Fields:

“People who dismiss high homicide rates in poor, mostly black neighborhood’s as someone else’s problem ignore the cost to society, from police efforts to social services for victims’ families, said Chuck Wexler of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington, D.C., think tank that conducts research on criminal justice initiatives. His group calculated the national cost for gun homicides alone in 2010 was more than $43 billion. That encompasses victim costs like lost productivity and medical care, as well as costs for police, prosecution, courts and prison. It also includes costs to the offender’s family.”

As of Friday, there had been 73 murders committed in East Baton Rouge Parish so far this year. By the end of August last year, East Baton Rouge Parish had recorded 56 murders. The total number of murders in the parish for 2011 was 81.

Baton Rouge law enforcement officials have recently joined with churches, civic groups and other interested parties in an attempt to reduce violence in the toughest neighborhoods of Baton Rouge. Similar efforts have seemed successful in other cities, and we hope those efforts prove helpful in Baton Rouge. We’re glad that this initiative was mentioned in The Wall Street Journal article. This new effort sends a message that Baton Rouge isn’t simply accepting the high level of black-on-black violence as an inevitable reality.

However, getting front-page coverage in the nation’s leading business journal for high levels of violent crime isn’t the most promising signal that Baton Rouge can send to potential investors.

That’s all the more reason, we believe to get our crisis of crime under control.

Comments

1) Comment by nimby? - 04/09/2012

could it be blacks in Houston , Atlanta value an education . and to say our local justice system is the reason blacks are killing each other is ridiculous . there is such a thing as prejudice within races ...

2) Comment by ex-louisianian - 03/09/2012

I will add that there is a long report in the Times-Picayune that shows that LA's criminal justice system actually institutionalizes crime -- the poverty and the household breakdown and the drug trade are all consequences of it and not direct causes. Crime, or, rather, criminal justice, is a huge industry in this state (and in the US at large. The Soviet Union in the 1930s was never as incarcerated as the US is now).

3) Comment by ex-louisianian - 03/09/2012

One person wrote: "... our failed judicial system is suppose to be the resonsible party to enforce such harsh punishment the criminal element will think long and hard before committing a crime for fear of the punishment." Louisiana already has /the planet's highest incarceration rate/ ... "tough-on-crime" is a stupid bumper sticker slogan that manifestly doesn't work. I will repeat what I've said before: what makes Baton Rouge so much more of an exception than Atlanta or Houston, which have similar demographics, yet have lower crime rates than BR? What do those cities have in place to lower the crime rate that remains so beyond the possibility of anyone in BR to manage?

4) Comment by The_Host - 03/09/2012

When you steal everything you have easy access to it no matter what. Poverty does not make you kill people. My family was dirt poor without the governments help and they didn't kill people and claim it was due to their lack of wealth! I work with many blacks and you never hear them talk about any of these issues, it is as if these things never happen. There is even one guy that belongs to all the Black Men groups that claim to be doing something but all he ever does is take a weekly trip to their convention each year that the company pays for and doesn't come out of his vacation time. This guy is NEVER going to actually do anything about all this and neither are the other blacks he gathers with in the name of lifting up the black community. Mind you if I belonged to a organization that had White in its name and was for the select purpose of enabling white people I would be called a racist. Heck I am all ready called a racist just for mentioning the hard truth. I'm sorry but you just can't make sense out of the black communities reaction to when a white kills a black compared to when a black kills other blacks. Do they just check out the perps skin color and only then decide whether to become outraged or not based on just that information alone? It appears as such to me. Put up a list of the top ten most violent cities and I bet you will find they have two things a large black population and liberal politicians.

5) Comment by CountryBoysCanSurvive - 03/09/2012

leftbr ...I see they have let you out of Our Lady of la-la land again. I also see your treatment didn't work again. Perhaps stronger meds?

6) Comment by nimby? - 02/09/2012

so does the third ...

7) Comment by DMJ - 02/09/2012

War on drugs. Easy access to guns. Poverty. Two of these problems have easy solutions.

8) Comment by nimby? - 02/09/2012

a recent incident near LSU took away my last bit of compassion . why should I care for someone who has no regard for my life or the lives of my family ? this is a culture war within the black community , its blood is spilling over onto innocents . black leaders should not be afraid to point fingers ; Kip isn't . if you feel you must arm yourself get proper training . respect your piece , keep it stored securely . and if need be don't be afraid to use it ...

9) Comment by Terd Handler - 02/09/2012

It is silly to try to blame law enforcement for the murder rate. They have made arrests in almost all of the EBR murder cases, so they are doing their job. Too bad the Advocate doesn't report the murder arrest rate, but they obviously have their own agenda, which is to sell newspapers. One of the main problems is the DA's office, which goes easy on these killers. When was the last time Hillar Moore had a death penalty conviction? Has he ever had one?

10) Comment by [e-mail] - 02/09/2012

leftbr has a point, as do all of the posters, but I maintain that until we insist in public that our values should be public values there will be no solution, just charades that do nothing but drain more and more taxpayer money taken from a citizenry that is unwilling to criticize unsavory, immoral, and unhealthy lifestyles that have become the downfall of our youthful oriented society. I don't want to sound like a preacher,because if truth be told I'm no different from the rest of us; but the bald fact is that left alone things get worse, not better, until the whole thing crashes.

11) Comment by ABayouBoy - 02/09/2012

"Choot-Em". Problem solved. Don't have to worry about the failed judicial system or prison overcrowding.

12) Comment by leftbr - 02/09/2012

It certainly doesn't help when you have such corruption in law enforcement!!!!!! The crimes within the law enforcement community are ignored by the heads of those departments, or the heads are involved as in the case of the coverup of the sheriffs Baker captain's step-daughter. It was evident after the New Orleans cases of police corruption that there needs to be more attention paid to the number of "BAD COPS" who are allowed to patrol the streets of our cities with a sense of entitlement because they are given a badge and gun. There presence is no threat to the real criminals, if they can get away with it guess we can to. Sid was fully aware of the criminal activity within his department in the case of the step-daughter of one of his, the Baker sub- station's captain. Officers Steve Young, Tanner Jenkins, Casey Lilly, Shaun Pitre, McAllister , internal affairs, and the list goes on were all involved in the coverup to protect the "little girl" of Captain Harris. As long as the citizens sit back and say it is what it is, there is no hope of turning things around. You can't expect anything to change by just complaining from your couch.

13) Comment by Cousin Dave - 01/09/2012

Nobody gives a flip about most of these murder victims, and rightfully so. Live by drugs, die by drugs.

14) Comment by Chucky - 01/09/2012

Instead of gold teeth hat turned around pants on the ground just some good old black pride is needed in the community, if you cannot call names how will they know what they are acting like ?

15) Comment by tradewinns - 01/09/2012

the problem is those involved in crimes do not read the WSJ. crime is not stopped by police, they solve crimes after the fact to arrest the criminals. our failed judicial system is suppose to be the resonsible party to enforce such harsh punishment the criminal element will think long and hard before committing a crime for fear of the punishment. our criminal system is a joke to criminals.

16) Comment by nimby? - 01/09/2012

we are asked not to profile , jump to conclusion ; cries of racism . now a major publication brings this to the worlds' attention via the front page . shall we continue to ignore the obvious ? brutal honesty , the truth hurts . Kip cannot do this by himself . need more leaders within the black community to step forward , not be afraid to offer criticism where it is due ...

17) Comment by Whatnow - 01/09/2012

@[e-mail], I agree with what you say, but when the breakdown of society affects the city as a whole, steps have to be taken by that city. IMO, Mayor Holden is the responsible party. He has waited too long and let the crime get out of hand. He has his priorities screwed up. Who wants the infrastructure all nice and pretty when people are too scared to see it? Our judges are too lenient and our prisons have revolving doors. It's time to get tough on the crime and he is not the man to do it. People need to remember this embarrassment come election time for mayor and judges.

18) Comment by [e-mail] - 01/09/2012

Part of the truth is easy to come by; the real culprit is the breakdown of society, i.e. when a community accepts or ignores a lack of morality as being OK. Not for most of us, it's true that we don't want to live that way; but we all say that we can't tell anyone else how to live and we don't dare to criticize their lifestyles. We accept the idea of people not working for what they get, i.e. whole generations of people on welfare for all their lives. We don't fault or criticize pregnancy out of wedlock, we turn a blind eye to public depravity, and we've allowed our public schools to become political footballs and a cash cow for public unions. "Physician, heal thyself."

19) Comment by speakthetruth - 01/09/2012

I disagree with the reported costs. The police and courts are entities that are in place regardless of the crime rate. Granted, the cost of hiring more police officers to patrol the higher crime rate areas is an additional cost but that doesn't apply in Baton Rouge. BRPD has the same amount of police officers as cities with less crime. I wish the article would have gone into the politics of each of the cities. The downfall began with the election of Mayor Holden. I cannot speak for other department in the (Baton Rouge) Parish, but with BRPD the selection of the Police Chief based solely on color of skin and not qualifications, the failure of BRPD to provide protection to the citizens of BR was eminent. The selection of unqualified people in leadership positions, by an unqualified chief, put a stop to the programs that were in place to control the street crimes that lead to murder. Now the department is playing catch up by re-implementing these programs such as BRAVE and other zero tolerance programs. I wonder if the other cities in the article experienced the same politics within their police departments. I speak the truth.....