Jason Riley of the WSJ with 2 doozies this week re: blacks in Chicago

quote:

---

"In the roughly 84 hours from 3:10 p.m. Thursday until 3:30 a.m. Monday, gunfire struck 82 people, 14 of them fatally," reports the Chicago Tribune.

So here we go again. Another spate of shootings that feature, almost exclusively, young black and brown men. Another liberal clarion call for more gun control.

---

quote:

---

And another collective dodge of the real problem, which is ghetto culture. If recent history is any indication, this debate on the left will be largely fact-free. So let's throw some facts out there.

Many places with less-restrictive gun laws have less gun violence than Chicago, which already sports some of the toughest gun restrictions in the country. The gun-ownership rate in rural areas is higher than in urban areas—a Gallup poll last year found that rural Americans are more than twice as likely to have a gun in the home than those living in large cities—yet urban areas have more gun violence. And finally, the gun ownership rate among whites is significantly higher than among blacks, yet gun violence among blacks is much more common. In 2010, blacks, who make up just 13 percent of the population, were 55 percent of shooting homicide victims. And 90 percent of black murder victims are killed by other blacks.

The problem is not our gun laws. Nor is it our drug laws, or racist cops, prosecutors and judges. The problem is black criminality, which is a function of black pathology, which ultimately stems from the breakdown of the black family.

---

quote:

---

Referring to the president's recent request for an additional $3.7 billion to keep foreigners from crossing the Mexican border illegally, Mr. Jackson said, "If we can find $4 billion for those children—and we should—we can find $2 billion for Chicago. There are more children involved, and more have been killed, and more have been shot."

---

quote:

---

Aside from whether you think Congress should approve Mr. Obama's request, Mr. Jackson's suggestion that another $2 billion from Washington will fix what ails black Chicago is laughable. The rampant ghetto violence we see there and in other urban settings stems from a defective black culture—a culture that black leaders like Mr. Jackson studiously avoid discussing. Another $2 billion will not get black men to pull up their pants, finish school, get a job and take care of their children. Rather, the money will go to people like Jesse Jackson, who will use it to line their own pockets and keep the focus on what others can do for blacks instead of what blacks can do for themselves.

---