Gun violence aimed at Black males triggers concern

[SecularMotion]

WASHINGTON – Several new studies confirm what most people have suspected all along: No group is harmed more by gun violence than young Black males.

“While 13 percent of Americans are Black, in 2010, 65 percent of gun murder victims between the ages of 15 and 24 were Black,” revealed a report by the Center for American Progress (CAP). “Forty-two percent of the total gun deaths of individuals in this age group were of Black males.”

This trend has continued, the report noted, even as crime rates decline.

Another report on gun violence by the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) mirrors the CAP findings.

http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2014/03/04/gun-violence-aimed-at-black-males-triggers-concern/

[Fumesucker]

1. You can thank the drug war for much of that killing

From your link.

Neill Franklin, a 34-year law enforcement veteran of the Maryland State Police and Baltimore Police Department, said that the proliferation of guns in the Black community is directly linked to the growth of illegal drug markets there and the failed War on Drugs.

Franklin worked as a narcotics agent early in his career and is now the executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a nonprofit group of current and former law enforcement members that advocate for reform in existing drug policies in the United States. Franklin said that guns were tools of the trade for managing the drug territories.

Franklin said that there’s no major drug organizations controlling drug traffic in the cities anymore, just little independent drug dealers on the corners fighting for market share and the “stick up boys” robbing the drug dealers.

Part of the violence can be attributed to the way disputes are settled on the streets.

[Bonobo]

2. The rates of incarceration tell the story.