Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Students Shot Execution Style in Newark - Community Outraged


Victims Were Lined Up & Forced to Kneel Down Before Being Shot

One of the 4 victims managed to survive.

Some in the Community are now calling for the resignation of young Mayor Cory Booker. I guess they expected Booker to perform a miracle in a year (overnight in relative terms), in a community that was literally allowed to rot over a period of decades. He can't perform miracles.

Even the father of one of the victims stated that "it's not about the Mayor, it's about the Parents... not raising their kids right". A courageous statement from a grieving father. Bill Cosby was right on time.... We just don't have enough Cosby's and enough fathers, like the one mentioned above. But I believe that this street culture that is promoted and glorified, is also playing a role.

I suppose the Thug Culture apologists would say that the suspects are just poor victims in this case.... The thugs and the culture are not to blame.

When will this urban genocide end? When parents start parenting like they are supposed to... and when the underlying culture of violence and degenerate values is finally rejected.

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USAToday

Newark-- The murder of three college students left residents of Newark shaken and angry Monday, prompting a march on City Hall and providing a major challenge for the city's new reform-minded mayor.

Mayor Cory Booker, 38, a Rhodes scholar and Yale-educated lawyer, was elected last year and promised to make public safety his top priority.

Crime has fallen during the last year, including a slight drop in the number of murders. But five killings over the weekend — including the execution-style slaying of the college students — jarred the mayor and the city. "This breaks the heart of our city," Booker said.

The murders took place around midnight Saturday behind Mount Vernon Elementary School in a middle-class neighborhood. The victims had no record of being in trouble and were seen as success stories for the city's school district.

The four students, ages 18 to 20, were listening to music in a well-lit playground behind the school shortly before midnight, Newark police said.

Three of the friends were lined up against a school wall and killed by gunshots to the head. The murder victims were Terrance Aeriel, 18, Iofemi Hightower, 20, and Dashon Harvey, 20. Natasha Aeriel, 19, Terrance's sister, was shot in the head but survived and was in fair condition Monday at a local hospital. Police were looking for about five men allegedly involved in the killings.

Two of the students were juniors at Delaware State University. Two others planned to attend the school this fall.

"They were great kids," said William Freeman, security chief at Newark public schools. "We're all grieving. We're a struggling district, but we have success stories, and it's so painful to have it end this way."

He said police suspect robbery was the motive. No arrests have been made. Newark has had 60 murders so far this year, down from 63 a year earlier. But the bloody weekend threatens to damage the city's effort to rejuvenate itself.

Newark has a new performing arts center, and an 18,000-seat sports arena is under construction for the New Jersey Devils pro hockey team.

"This is certainly a hard blow because the city has a new reform mayor who's trying to create a vibrant 24-hour downtown," says James Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.

The arts center, arena and other attractions depend heavily on suburban residents feeling the city is safe, he says. "People not having fear is crucial, but it's not something you can turn around overnight," he says.
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Additional Report From The Houston Chronicle

Report From the New York Times

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this! I am so tired of reading blogs from blacks and from left leaning, clueless liberals that always either want to blame white folks, the media, or a lack of money as excuses for the insanity going on in our community. Black folks have been poor and disenfranchised for decades, but we have no always been loose with our morals and our lives. It is time we got"real" with our state in this world and began acting like our greatgrand parents-with a code of pride and of ethics and a desire to be more rather than just demanding more because of our race and/or slavery.

rikyrah said...

Reading this story is heartbreaking AI.I know I keep on saying this, but I have to repeat it:

THE VERY SOUL OF THE COMMUNITY IS BEING DESTROYED.

This is just mindboggling.

We are truly lost as a people.

Constructive Feedback said...

I am saddened that 4 young people, all of whom were either in college or on their way to college were shot dead or seriously injured as the one person who survived is. This is not to say that the others in the community who are not in college are worth any less. The bottom line is that in their departure from the long suffering community as they headed to Delaware State University was their chance to expand their knowledge and avoid living the lives of desperation that the street offers.

Unfortunately some evil hand from the streets reached out and grabbed these promising Black youth just before they could exit the barrel.

The symbolic statement of the killer(s) to these 3 now dead young people was "Who do you think you are, trying to escape from these grounds that we control? You think you are smarter than us?"

Jovan said...

When I first read your post I took a step back and asked why people would immediately leap to the conclusion that "Thug Culture" (i.e. black culture) was to blame for this madness. The automatic assumption that other Black youth were to blame for this is indicative of just how many have internalized the messages of the dominant culture.
Glorified violence is so ingrained in American culture and Black people do not corner the market on senseless violence.
The idea that parenting is the magical key to unlocking societies problems is laughable. Our parents are not the only way that we learn or unlearn social behavior.

Brian said...

J.

The fact that this case appeared to be interracial, does not change the fact that Black on Black crime is a very serious problem, in Newark and across the country. This particular case does not weaken that argument one bit.

The facts are clear. Blacks make up about half of the murder victims in this country, despite being 13% of the population. (1) (2)


Blacks are more likely to be murdered, more likely to commit murder, (3), more likely to be imprisoned, have more children out of wedlock... these are all facts.

And although Rap Culture may not be the direct cause of these conditions, it has exacerbated them, by reinforcing certain values and certain lifestyles that run counter to improving the conditions in Black urban communities. Rap music & rap culture is not enhancing the value of marriage... the value of education, the value of modesty, the value of decency, the value of raising children in a positive environment, the value of respect for elders, the value of respect for women, the value of managing money wisely, the value of hardwork, nor has it helped to improve the image of Black people, or worked as a catalyst for Black Pride, etc. It runs counter to all of these things.

And while good parenting is not a magic bullet that will fix everything... it could go a long way towards dealing with the problems that the so-called "Black community" faces, especially when it comes to young Black men. We have a situation now where about half of Black males are now graduating from high school in some cities. (although most eventually go on to get a GED). (4) (5) (6)

Plenty of studies have shown that for the most part, children who are in households with strong positive parental involvement tend to do better. And children raised with both parents also generally tend to do better. (7)

So I don't see how you could write off parenting as a serious issue.... It may not be the only factor impacting the "Black community" but there is no denying that it is an important factor. That goes for Rap culture as well, which has been reinforcing the negative behaviors that contribute to the problems that many Black Americans face, particularly Black youth.