Whatever Happened to Hope and Change? Black Teen Murder Rate Surges

Naturally, the increased homicide rate is blamed on lack of social programs and the "easy availability" of guns, although those excuses fly in the face of out-of-control spending on social programs and incredibly strict gun control laws in cities where the homicide rate is highest.

But hey, why deal with facts when we can make excuses and pretend what we see isn't what we see?

The report primarily blames cutbacks in federal support for community policing and juvenile crime prevention, reduced support for after-school and other social programs, and a weakening of gun laws. Cuts in these areas have been felt most deeply in poor, black urban areas, helping to explain the growing racial disparity in violent crime, Dr. Fox said.

But Bruce Western, a sociologist at Harvard, cautioned that the change in murder rates was not large and did not yet show a clear trend. Dr. Western also said that the impact of the reduction in government spending on crime control would have to be studied on a city-by-city basis, and that many other changes, including a sagging economy, could have affected murder rates.

Conservative criminologists place greater emphasis on the breakdown of black families, rather than cuts in government programs, in explaining the travails of black youths.

Much of the increase, experts say, is a product of gang activity, in midsize and large cities.

“The aggregate national murder rate since 2000 has been impressively flat — not to say there haven’t been fluctuations in individual cities,” said Alfred Blumstein, a criminologist at Carnegie Mellon University. “But when you see a spike in a city,” he said, as in Chicago recently, “it very often involves young black males shooting other young black males.”

Clearly the community organized by the uber-cool Barack Obama is out of control. Both Chicago and Washington, DC, another city with high murder rates, have very strict gun control yet have high gun murder rates.

In an excuse that would be comical if it wasn't so pathetic, the fight against terrorism is used as an excuse. Yes, really.

The heightened attention to security after the 9/11 attacks might, paradoxically, have contributed to a decline in crime-fighting.

“One problem we faced was a disinvestment in policing in the post-2001 environment,” said Chief Edward A. Flynn of the Milwaukee police, who served from 2003 to 2006 as secretary of public safety in Massachusetts. “I witnessed homeland security become the monster that ate criminal justice,” Chief Flynn said, as money went to security equipment and communications and the number of police officers fell.

Of course now we're told we must "invest" in the gangsta culture that is the cause of the problem. Forget locking up the thugs. Let's throw money at the problem and hope it goes away. As of that strategy hasn't already failed countless times.

Still, Chief Flynn said, “any improvements will be temporary unless there’s more investment in the futures of our young people.”

Aren't we already "investing" billions in education and social programs? How much more do we need to "invest" before we see a return on our money?

If the murder rate among black youths continues to rise the next four years it will be interesting to see what creative excuses the media comes up.