Street Combat – This Ain’t No Game! – Part 9 of 9, by Pat Cascio

Chapter Seven

Threats in the Future…Today?

Some so-called “experts” believe that future threats to our safety and well-being will come from our children. In a manner of speaking, they are correct in their assumptions. However, you need only watch the evening news to see that the future has already arrived. Read on.

Los Angeles, California District Attorney, Gil Garcetti, probably best summed it up when he said, “My God, this could happen to me . . . What is going on here?” Garcetti was in a news conference describing what was being called the “Wrong Way Shooting” of an innocent, little, three year old girl whose uncle turned onto a gang-infested street in Los Angeles. The precious little girl was killed by indiscriminate (gang) gunfire.

The Wave of the Future?

Gang violence is perhaps what the future holds, according to a number of recognized authorities in the field of criminal study, sociology, and psychology. Patrick F. Fagan, a Fitzgerald Fellow with the think-tank Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C., has an insightful and thought-provoking thesis on the subject of violent crime. In his thesis, Fagan stated, “Though overall crime rates have dropped slightly (emphasis added) in America in recent years, the frightening news is that both the level and viciousness of teenage crime have been rising steadily.”

On October 1, 1997, CBS news anchor, Dan Rather, reported Department of Justice figures showing that adults committing murders has dropped by 27 percent. On the surface, this appears to be good news. However, in this same news report, Rather reported that murders committed by teens has risen 141 percent! How does this bode with Fagan’s statement about an overall drop in crime rates? You be the judge!

Professor James Fox, a North Eastern University Criminologist stated, “Thirty-nine million children, 11 years old and over don’t have full-time adult supervision between the hours of 3:00pm and dinner time.” Fox further said that this is a “recipe for a coming crime wave. By the year 2005 a blood bath of teen violence will occur.” I’ve got news for Fox, it is already happening! Fox’s solution to the problem has been to “spend more money on (social) programs.” This is clearly the view that most Liberals hold as a solution to all our problems; they say that it is necessary to spend more money! This approach hasn’t worked yet.

Adam Wolinski, a noted criminal justice “expert”, expressed his solution when he said, “We literally need 500,000 cops on the streets at a cost of 30 billion dollars.”

Neither Fox nor Wolinski have confronted the real root cause of violent crime in America. Rather, Patrick Fagan believes that the cause is “the breakdown of the family.” Statistics and history back-up Fagan’s thoughts on this all-important subject.

While many so-called “experts” in law enforcement tend to point toward poverty or racial make-up as the primary cause of teen violent crime, Fagan pointed toward failed government programs that actually encourage the break-up of the family.

Washington, DC’s Answer

The 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which was nothing more than cleverly disguised gun control and social spending by the Clinton Administration, is just the latest example of an experiment doomed for failure. It provided for billions of dollars in new spending, and it also added at least 15 new social (or should that be “socialist”) programs, on top of the already overburdened welfare system, which has cost taxpayers over five trillion dollars since the ill-conceived War on Poverty that President Lyndon Johnson declared.

Fagan cited that “since 1965, welfare spending has increased 800 percent in real terms, while the number of major felonies per capita is roughly three times the rate prior to 1960.” Fagan continued, “Official Washington also believes that race is the second most important cause of crime.” Fagan disagrees! “However, a closer look at the data shows that the real variable is not race, but family structure and all that it implies in terms of commitment and love between adults and children. A major 1988 study of 11,000 individuals found that the percentage of single-parent households with children between the ages of 12 and 20 is significantly associated with rates of violent crime and burglary.” Taking this study at face value, it would appear that illegitimacy, not race, is the key factor in teenage violent crime.

It would indeed appear that the future holds a bleak picture for all Americans. Within the next twelve to twenty years the American illegitimacy rate is predicted to reach 50 percent.

Homicides Increase

The homicide rates of major cities have steadily increased according to Fagan. “Between 1989 and 1990, for example, the homicide rate for Boston, MA increased by over 40 percent; Denver, CO rose by 29 percent; Chicago, IL, Dallas, TX, and New Orleans, LA by more than 20 percent; Los Angeles, CA by 16 percent; New York, NY by 11 percent.” This is certainly street combat by any definition. Anyone who believes they are safer on the streets today than they were 25 years ago is sadly (and dead) wrong!

If indeed, as some “experts” claim, violent crime is a result of poverty and/or race, then why, during the Great Depression of the 1920’s, did the crime rate drop when many individuals and families were at their lowest rung on the financial ladder? Why then, during the recession of 1982, was there a dip in crime and not an increase?

Senator Phil Gramm of Texas rightly observed, “If social spending stopped crime, America would be the safest country in the world.” It is not!

The current Federal budget battle that is currently (and always) taking place in Washington, DC focuses (once again) on social(ist) spending. The Administration is determined to increase social spending rather than decrease it! Social spending buys votes! Sadly, it also buys a future of violent crime among our teens.

As Dan Rather stated, “Crime does not (emphasis added) come out of nowhere.” This was a surprising (and true) statement coming from the left-wing controlled press.

In past decades, the murder rate for young black males tripled, and it doubled for young white males. Why is it that the latest government statistics insist that violent crime is down overall? Could it be that certain crimes have been “reclassified” by the F.B.I. and the Department of Justice, and thus, are no longer classified as “violent”? Or perhaps, we’re being sold a false bill of goods, and the federal statistics are being “doctored”? You be the judge.

The Christian Broadcasting Network’s The 700 Club aired a news story that may have dispelled the myth that race and poverty are factors in teenage violent crime. Reporter Randall Brooks investigated the school system in Fairfax, VA, which has one of the highest (if not the highest) per capita income in the nation. At that time, Fairfax schools were the 11th largest in the nation, yet they were facing a steady rise in violent crime in the public schools and on the streets. Violent crime by teens was up 61 percent since 1991. Juveniles with guns in public schools was reported to be up 118 percent since 1989, and drug arrests of teens was up 208 percent. Clearly, high or increased income (or wealth) was not a factor in reducing teen violence.

CBS News correspondent, Bill Whitaker, reported that during the first three quarters of 1995 there were over 400 gang-related deaths in Los Angeles alone. This figure doesn’t take into account murders as a result of armed robberies, rapes, or other violent deaths, either. This figure only takes into account “gang-related” deaths where gang members killed gang members. How many gang members killed innocent civilians? The Los Angeles Police Department reported that more than 40 years ago, there were approximately 125 street gangs with a total membership of 25,000. Just about two decades later, Los Angeles boasted over 1,000 street gangs with a membership in excess of 150,000 members!

During all this time, social spending and social programs increased. During President Clinton’s administration, he funded (with your tax dollars) “midnight” basketball games, which promoted illegitimacy and did nothing to reduce violent crime with all his increased spending. Since then, other social programs were attempted.

Ben Kinchlow, the author’s friend and the former co-host of The 700 Club, cited a perfect example of what we’re talking about. On the program, Kinchlow presented a rich “uncle” who told all his male nephews to go out and sleep with as many young girls as they like. He said it was also okay for these young girls to get pregnant and have babies. This rich uncle said it’s all okay, don’t worry about it. The rich uncle says he will support the girls and their illegitimate children, as long as the nephews don’t marry them. The rich “uncle” in this case is “Uncle Sam”, and this is “his” policy.

By promoting illegitimacy and rewarding the participants, “Uncle Sam” is in fact promoting violent crime among our youth. This is yet another failed government “experiment,” and it’s not only a waste of tax payer dollars, but it also leads to the deaths of many honest, law-abiding tax payers.

Ora Watson is the Executive Principal of Town View Center, a public school in Dallas, Texas. This school is manned with closed circuit cameras and armed security guards. Watson stated during an interview on CNN, “We live in a ‘social’ environment where, unfortunately, security measures are necessary that were not necessary 25 years ago.” Truer words were never spoken. The failed social programs that were started by the liberal Democrats and supported by sympathetic Republicans have resulted in unprecedented security measures in our schools, homes, and on the street.

These so-called “security measures” promote the violation of our Constitutional rights, as outlined in the first, second, and fourth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America.

Increased social spending and the continuance of the welfare system, as it stands today, will only provide us with more violent (and deadly) crimes upon innocent Americans by our children. Indeed, the “threats of the future are here – today!”

Just remember the title of this book as you leave your home today, or next time you see a group of “children” approaching you.

Remember, this is Street Combat – This Ain’t No Game!