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Re: Omaha ALL OVER national media lately

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 8:33 pm
by S33
2 steps forward, 3 steps back, for Omaha.

Omaha, Nebraska: The Most Dangerous Place In America To Be Black

http://www.ibtimes.com/omaha-nebraska-m ... ck-1548466" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
While news of gang killings and other forms of mayhem in the grim streets of Philadelphia, Chicago, New Orleans, Oakland, Calif. and other metropolises dominate headlines, the city with the highest incidence of black murder victims might raise some eyebrows: the seemingly peaceful, farming state of Nebraska's largest city, Omaha, a city of 420,000, located along the banks of the Missouri River

Re: Omaha ALL OVER national media lately

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 8:41 pm
by guitarguy
Seems to be a bit of a stretch making that statement about the city.. Chicago has some pretty insane gang violence right now.

Re: Omaha ALL OVER national media lately

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 8:44 pm
by S33
I was just speaking about the news headlines. I mean, what else could look worse for a city than "so and so city is most dangerous for blacks."

That just doesn't sound good...

Re: Omaha ALL OVER national media lately

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 8:46 pm
by guitarguy
If we're talking about North Omaha it's only dangerous for blacks because they are constantly involved with gang violence. The headline makes it seem like Omaha is terrible to its Black community when thats not really the case at all.

Re: Omaha ALL OVER national media lately

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 8:55 pm
by S33
guitarguy wrote:If we're talking about North Omaha it's only dangerous for blacks because they are constantly involved with gang violence. The headline makes it seem like Omaha is terrible to its Black community when thats not really the case at all.
I guess that's what we get with a journalist from NY. It's Omaha... In Nebraska, so the city must treat it's minority neighborhoods like 1960 Birmingham.

Re: Omaha ALL OVER national media lately

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 10:00 pm
by 2Adam29
The problem is, the black folks in Omaha are getting into a lot more violent deaths per capita than other places. There must be an underlying factor there. Saying just, "oh there's more people dying in Chicago" ignores the fact that chicago has a lot more people to be dying. Why is the small group of people we have here killing themselves at a much higher rate? Just like Chicago, most of our black residents are not involved in gang activity, if you have evidence to the contrary I'd love to see it.

Re: Omaha ALL OVER national media lately

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 10:12 pm
by S33
2Adam29 wrote:The problem is, the black folks in Omaha are getting into a lot more violent deaths per capita than other places. There must be an underlying factor there. Saying just, "oh there's more people dying in Chicago" ignores the fact that chicago has a lot more people to be dying. Why is the small group of people we have here killing themselves at a much higher rate? Just like Chicago, most of our black residents are not involved in gang activity, if you have evidence to the contrary I'd love to see it.
There's a few things to address here...

First of all, we agree. The issue is clearly a per-capita issue, and that is where the "most dangerous" distinction came from.

Second, no, not all of Omaha's black youth are involved in gangs. In fact, quite the opposite. But... the violence is almost always a result of gang related activity.

Lastly... North Omaha's black population consistently ranks in our nation's top 5 poorest and most blighted black communities. I think it might be fair to say both the poverty and crime issues are closely related.

My issue with that journalist is his implied assumption that North O is neglected by the rest of the city, thus remaining segregated and impoverished, when the reality is that North Omaha suffers from a complete lack of internal leadership, and the most damaging thing to North Omaha, is North Omaha itself.

But, of course, you will not find a journalist from NYC to actually scratch beneath the surface when he has a due date to publish his piece of |expletive| article. It always makes for a good piece with buzz words like "violence" and "homicide" and "African Americans" and "Neglect", then mix them all into a single article, well, you have an award-winning Pulitzer piece.

Re: Omaha ALL OVER national media lately

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 11:17 pm
by bigredmed
Learning in school is not socially acceptable. You end up unemployable. You have no role in society. You turn into a criminal sperm donor. The larger society enables your decline by erasing the costs of your failure.

Re: Omaha ALL OVER national media lately

Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 12:16 am
by Garrett
A commercial from Performance Ford was briefly on the Colbert Report, so I mean that's nice. We'll just pretend that makes up for everything.

The Most Dangerous Place In America To Be Black

Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:50 am
by Omaha_Gabe
http://www.ibtimes.com/omaha-nebraska-m ... ck-1548466" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The Violence Policy Center (VPC), a Washington, D.C.-based research and advocacy group that promotes gun control, determined that in 2011 (the latest year in which comprehensive national data is available), 30 blacks (including 27 in Omaha) were murdered that year in Nebraska -- meaning, the state had a black homicide rate of 34.4 per 100,000 people, double the national average of black victimization. Omaha (and particularly its black neighborhoods in the deprived northern and northeastern parts of the city) accounted for almost half of all recorded homicides in Nebraska -- which, overall, sported a relatively low murder rate of less than four per 100,000 people.

Re: Omaha ALL OVER national media lately

Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 1:55 pm
by bigredmed
North Omaha is what happens when we divorce actions from consequences till class B felonies happen, then are shocked that they happen.

African American kids and white kids are on a par when little. My kids come to see us in clinic and I ask about school at all visits for a variety of screening reasons. All kids who are not struggling have some class they like and look forward too. Most kids after 3rd or 4th grade have an idea of what they want to be when they grow up, and by middle school have some plan in mind. At that point, things change.

The African American girls who aim for professional careers keep doing that. Those who are happy with their initial plan stay the course. Those that are not, change. I saw a girl yesterday who had wanted to be a lawyer, but investigated her career choice and decided that there was more employment opportunities as a CPA. She is pretty typical of these girls. They may have wanted to be a doctor, but decide to be an engineer instead. The boys are the same till middle school, then they start acting "street" and showing up in gang colors and acting stupid (because they think that that is what is cool.) Some guys keep to plan, but these are kids who live elsewhere and have families that have middle class values to keep them in line.

Other groups do the same, but to a lower frequency, and regardless of race, once the "street" comes out, you can pretty well be assured that they are not heading anywhere (probably not even getting out of High School.)

When you have this happen, it is heartbreaking. You treat this sweet little kid for years and watch them decay in front of your eyes. The saddest conversation I have with them is that I can't be their doctor in prison. When they are looking at years, they realize that they are screwed. But then its too late.

We used to hold families dear. We used to expect men to step up and take on the role of the provider and the bread winner when the woman they were with got pregnant. Now they "disappear". Another generation gets to grow up with a sperm donor instead of a parent.