(The full story on page A38 at bottom right, with pictures!)
There are items of information to which the human mind is resistant. Take the certainty of death, for example. All but the youngest of us know this, yet very few people go through their day with even a background awareness that I will die someday, and it could be today. It might be impossible; consciousness of our inexorable mortality would amplify every fear we harbor, making the simplest decisions and actions exercises in risk avoidance. That’s among the reasons the Church exhorts us to practice mortification, an exercise that promotes the recognition of our common fate.
Moving back to secular considerations, it’s a well-documented fact that a strong majority of violent crimes and crimes against property in these United States occur in a small minority of locales. One who is determined not to be a victim of such a crime would naturally be advised to avoid those locales – especially, not to live in one. But when we deal with persons who already reside in such a district, the advice tends to fall upon deaf ears. The tendency is to wave the argument and the supporting evidence aside, perhaps with a flip “It hasn’t happened to me yet” for a grace note.
And here we come to Daniel Greenfield’s recent piece on the subject:
A groundbreaking study by John R. Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center, revealed that “1% of counties have 21% of the population and 42% of the murders” and “2% of counties contain 31% of the population and 56% of the murders.”
The 1% of bloody red counties include such Democrat strongholds as Philadelphia, New York City, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Dallas, D.C., Miami-Dade, Milwaukee, San Diego, St. Louis, Chicago’s Cook County, L Houston’s Harris County, Detroit’s Wayne County, Memphis’ Shelby County, Phoenix’s Maricopa County, Cleveland’s Cuyahoga County, and many others.
Biden won Cook County, the bloodiest county in the country, by 66%. He won Los Angeles County, the second bloodiest, by 71%, Harris County by 56%, Philadelphia by 81%, New York City by 76%, Wayne County by 68%, and Shelby County by 64%.
One could reach various conclusions from the above alone. The first would be that Democrat governance fosters crime. The second would be that anyone who is risk-averse should stay the hell out of those 2% of “bloody red counties.” The third – and I say this without rancor toward anyone – would be that 31% of the population of this country is either blind to the risks it faces or completely BLEEP!ing nuts.
The population of the U.S. currently hovers near to 330 million persons. 31% of that figure is over 102 million. That’s a whole lot of blindness and / or lunacy. But there we are: approximately one out of every three of our fellow Americans falls into one of those two categories. Finer determinations are left to the individual reader.
Still, there are other conclusions to be drawn, assuming one has the patience and the informational resources to delve into the demographics of those bloody red counties:
- Cook County, IL: 24.0% Hispanic, 43.9% black.
- Los Angeles County, CA: 44.6% Hispanic, 11.0% black.
- Harris County, TX: 40.0% Hispanic, 18.9% black.
- Philadelphia, PA: 12.3% Hispanic, 43.6% black.
- New York City: 28.6% Hispanic, 25.5% black.
- Wayne County, MI: 5.2% Hispanic, 40.5% black.
- Shelby County, TN: 5.6% Hispanic, 52.1% black.
- Maricopa County, AZ: 29.6% Hispanic, 5.0% black.
- Cuyahoga County, OH: 4.8% Hispanic, 29.7% black.
All the figures above are from the 2010 census.
Certain conclusions leap out of such figures. I shan’t belabor the point, other than to repeat two favorite bits of advice. The first is from the late and deeply lamented “Ol’ Remus” of The Woodpile Report:
The second is from the badly mistreated John Derbyshire:
(10) Thus, while always attentive to the particular qualities of individuals, on the many occasions where you have nothing to guide you but knowledge of those mean differences, use statistical common sense:
(10a) Avoid concentrations of blacks not all known to you personally.
(10b) Stay out of heavily black neighborhoods.
(10c) If planning a trip to a beach or amusement park at some date, find out whether it is likely to be swamped with blacks on that date (neglect of that one got me the closest I have ever gotten to death by gunshot).
(10d) Do not attend events likely to draw a lot of blacks.
(10e) If you are at some public event at which the number of blacks suddenly swells, leave as quickly as possible.
(10f) Do not settle in a district or municipality run by black politicians.
(10g) Before voting for a black politician, scrutinize his/her character much more carefully than you would a white.
(10h) Do not act the Good Samaritan to blacks in apparent distress, e.g., on the highway.
(10i) If accosted by a strange black in the street, smile and say something polite but keep moving.
Keeping these bits of advice firmly in mind could be critical in preserving your life and property. Besides, I love all my Gentle Readers! For any of you to get killed would make me sad. So stay alert! And wherever you live and must travel, do have a nice day.
