This makes me so sad: Justice Dept. Report Finds Blacks Comprise Nearly Half Of U.S. Murder Victims

[CatWoman]

Washington, D.C. (AHN)-A new report released by the Department of Justice finds that African-Americans comprise almost half of all murder victims in the U.S., despite making up only 13 percent of the population.

In 2005, of the 16,500 murder victims in the U.S., some 8,000, or 49 percent, were black. Along with being victims of an estimated 8,000 homicides, African-Americans were the victims in 805,000 other violent crimes, including rape and aggravated assault, and were at the greatest risk of any ethnic group for rape or sexual assault crimes, outside of American-Indians.

The report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics also finds that when broken down by gender, black women comprise 35 percent, or 1,200, of the 3,500 female homicide victims in the U.S. in 2005. Young black men between 17 and 29 had the highest murder rate, accounting for over half, or 51 percent, of all African-American murder victims.

Other grim statistics included in the report was the high proportion of "black-on-black" crime, with 9 out of 10 black murder victims killed by other blacks, as well as the proliferation of guns, with three out of four, or 77 percent of black homicides involving firearms.

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7008163776

[iconoclastic cat]

1. And all that black leaders do is get on TV and rail against it.

This has gone on for so long, I worry that it may never end.

[CatWoman]

2. i just don't understand it

I'm at a loss.....

WHY???!!???

[myrna minx]

3. When I've watched the A&E program "the first 48"

it just breaks my heart to see the families who are left devastated by a horrible homicide. But, I must say that seeing these numbers has the same heartbreaking effect on me. These numbers are so shocking. :cry:

[NYVet]

4. FBI stats also show that the perps are

also a majority of blacks.

[CatWoman]

5. and that's the saddest part of it all

blacks killing blacks :cry:

[emilyg]

7. It is sad.

[sandnsea]

6. It is tragic

I think the ravages of slavery and Jim Crow have created cultural 'disturbances' that we haven't even begun to analyze. I think entrenched poverty is like PTSD and actually changes the hardwiring. I think having no place to escape to, like a reservation or even Mexico, creates another layer of anxiety. Then there must be the knowledge that African Americans did the labor to build much of this country, and still aren't acknowledged for that, after all this time. The attitudes and the bigotry, it's all so entrenched in this country that I don't know if it will ever completely change. George Bush can be the President, in large part due to pretending to sound like a redneck hick. No black man will ever get passed the city council if he doesn't look and sound like Sidney Portier. That's a reality and it shouldn't be. I don't know how a child grows up in all of that without having to harden some of their soul just to survive.

[Igel]

8. You know, I haven't seen any stats on crime rates in

the 1920s through 1950s, broken down by race.

A quick Google search didn't turn up anything relevant. Maybe I'll rummage tomorrow when I'm sufficiently bored. Maybe they didn't even break out the stats by race back then.