L.A. is averaging about 20 murders a month, and none of the major presidential candidates is talking about it. Most of the victims are black or brown.
The death of Jamiel Shaw Jr., a high school football player who had been recruited by Division 1 colleges, recently brought this sad conflict to the headlines again. Shaw was shot dead a few blocks from his home by a recently paroled Latino gang member. Shaw had never been involved with a gang, and his parents had taken great pains to keep him on the straight and narrow. He was killed because of the color of his skin. Shaw's story created national headlines, not only because he was a football player, but because his mother was serving in Iraq when she got the sad news.
Cases like this fill you with rage and frustration. Rage because of the sheer stupidity of this war, which consists of two underprivileged groups killing themselves over territory which neither of them really owns. It's like a pair of mangy dogs fighting over the scraps thrown from the table. Black people are aware of our place in American society, but if Latinos think that mainstream American society holds them with less contempt than black people are afforded, I suggest that they listen to AM radio or the FOX News channel .
The shrinking economy has caused the nation to lash out at immigrants. (This usually happens every 10 years.) And since Latinos are the main face of the illegal immigration problem, especially in Southern California, they are bearing the brunt of the anger. States are passing laws that bar landlords from renting to illegals, and the atmosphere is so negative that anyone who even looks like a Latino is suspect.
America has made a lot of racial progress but Latinos have yet to be "let into the country club," the way the Italians and the Irish were. Those groups were once regarded as social pariahs and barred from the upper echelons of society, but over the years they became "whitened," to the point that most Italian or Irish Americans see themselves as part of the mainstream.
The Black-Brown war is frustrating because these are two groups which ought to be working together on common causes such as failing schools, access to healthcare and unfair sentencing. Some black conspiracy theorists would suggest that the Black-Brown war is secretly motivated by the man, who is practising that age-old tactic of divide and conquer.Sound crazy? Well consider that during apartheid rule in South Africa, the government armed the Zulus to create conflict within the black liberation movement.
I am sure there are multiple reasons why there has been a lack of government action on the war in LA, but I have to wonder if this lack of action is caused by race? I have to wonder if an armed group of white men were killing black men in the streets (or vice versa) there would be more outrage. There is the nagging feeling that mainstream America feels that as long as the blacks and Mexicans are killing each other, it's not our problem. And on a more sinister note, the war keeps their numbers down.
The war in LA seems to be a clear case of being a national emergency. When neighborhoods are being ethnic cleansed and innocent men are executed in broad daylight, law and order has broken down. I don't what it takes for the governor or the federal government to declare a state of emergency, but the warfare on LA's streets is at a critical state.
To end LA's gang war we need to institute dusk to dawn curfews (in certain neighborhood), have a visibly increased police presence, institute stop and search warrants and, if needed, include the National Guard in security operations. Some violence-torn neighborhoods are essentially war zones, so after serving in Iraq, I am sure they would adapt quite well.
The residents of these neighborhoods also need to get more involved in the political process. Unfortunately these neighborhoods often consist of blacks and Latinos, two groups that are apathetic about the political process. Government works at glacial speed, but it does work. If the citizens of these communities kept up a steady letter writing campaign and made daily phone calls to their local, state and federal officials, I am sure they would sit up at and take notice. If the residents threatened to automatically vote out incumbents unless the violence was reduced, the politicians would get the wheels of government moving. Marches and creating memorials are fine, but now is the time for direct action.
I am sure implementing all these suggestions would have civil liberties group up in arms, but desperate times call for desperate measures. The other option is to sit back and wait for the next innocent person to die.
