My Two Cents -- "Stop the Violence"

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As someone who once spent 5 years as the Chief Spokesman/Public Information Officer for Michigan's prison system (MDOC), I can tell you without hesitation -- bad actions have bad consequences! (Several years ago when I did the research, there were more black men in Michigan’s prisons than in its colleges!)

What went down in the tunnel fight Saturday night between Michigan State and Michigan players is the latest example of an epidemic of violence in inner-city America. Every day in this country, an average of 8 (eight) young black men are killed in neighborhood violence.

Black men between the age of 18 and 30 are just 3% of the U-S population. Yet, they are nearly a third (32%) of ALL AMERICANS SHOT TO DEATH EACH YEAR.

Here's another reality of black life in this country – Homicide/murder is the “LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH” for African-American children (under age 18) -- responsible for 48% of deaths each year. For white children, homicide is the 4th leading cause after accidents, suicide, and cancer….responsible for 5% of deaths yearly.

On average, we have FIVE TIMES (5x's) as many black children killed each year in neighborhood violence (1100) as black folks killed in police encounters (215). To me, that FACT makes a 'joke' of the whole notion of a BLM (Black Lives Matter) movement. The only lives that matter enough for folks to get riled about are those taken by the cops.

Black children killed by stray bullets on playgrounds (like 7-year-old Janari Ricks in Chicago) or while sleeping in their cribs (like 6-month-old Delric Miller in Detroit), don't matter enough to prompt nationwide protest marches or wall-to-wall media coverage.

This crazy violence, this wanton killing of us by us, has got to STOP.

African-Americans are only 14% of the American population. Yet, we are 53% of all murder victims each year. We MUST DO BETTER!