When you hear news like this:
Compton’s homicides
A turn for the worse in this deadly problem is a concern for the region.After years of steady improvement, Compton’s homicide rates have taken a disturbing turn for the worse. Three murders Tuesday have added to the city’s total of 54 killings this year.
If the trend continues Compton could exceed New Orleans as the murder capital of the United States. That startling fact ought to make the whole Los Angeles region take notice.
Sheriff’s Department leaders and city officials don’t have a ready explanation for the spike, but gang-related violence is the most likely culprit. With an estimated 8,000 gang members in a 10-mile city, any uptick in gang violence will have a dramatic effect.
The city’s decision in 2000 to disband its police department and contract with the County Sheriff’s Department has so far served Compton well. But it’s time to take a fresh look at the city’s patrol numbers.
…you realize that you are dealing with a city that is in need of real reform. However, due to Comptons relatively small size and its low revenue, most people don’t take the effort.
Well apparently, Bill Cosby certainly does:
Cosby bringing his issues to Compton
Today he’ll hold “Call Out” meetings, part of his controversial effort to address tough topics in black communities.Bill Cosby, who ignited a firestorm of debate among African Americans when he chastised poorer blacks on issues ranging from bad grammar to the squandering of opportunities provided by the civil rights movement, will take his crusade today to Compton, a city plagued by a skyrocketing murder rate, a dismal school system and other urban ills.
Cosby, currently touring the country’s lower-income communities, will host a “Call Out” at Compton High School. He says he wants to address what he feels is “apathy” in the area and engage residents in a dialogue revolving around parenting, education and social responsibility.
“I do believe we need clarity on what is protection for our youth,” Cosby said Monday in a phone interview. “Education should be as important as your child’s cough, your child’s sneeze, runny nose or high fever. That is part of the protection.”
The event marks Cosby’s first nonperforming appearance on the West Coast since last year, when his headline-making remarks won praise and criticism from blacks.
At a May 2004 NAACP ceremony commemorating the anniversary of the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education desegregation decision, Cosby said, “These people marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education and now we have these knuckleheads running around…. I can’t even talk the way these people talk: ‘Why you ain’t,’ ‘Where you is’ … and I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk…. Everybody knows it’s important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can’t be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.”
Some in the black community congratulated Cosby for his bluntness, saying his comments were painful but accurate. But others felt his tone and some of his words were harmful and elitist. The message inspired a book-length response from University of Pennsylvania humanities professor Michael Eric Dyson: “Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?”
Cosby, who lives in New York, said he was not surprised by the negative reaction: “What they are yelling about has to do with the pain that comes with having the covers pulled off, and responsibility being put in its proper place. I don’t feel a challenge from them, I hear them yelling and crying out. I’m looking at the murders and the things that say glaringly, ‘There’s danger, something is wrong,’ and I’m asking my people to wake up.”
Local political activist Earl Ofari Hutchinson said this week that Cosby’s “comments were vital, but the problem was the framework. It gave the impression that it’s only one group that has lousy parents and drug addiction. That was not what was intended, but that’s what resonates. It reinforces negative stereotypes about African Americans. There’s an overwhelming majority of parents who are doing the right thing.”
The Compton event is being organized by photographer Howard Bingham, and has no official association with the city’s unified school district. The two sessions are free to the public, but require tickets, which are available through the Compton City Clerk’s office or at Compton City Hall.
At 4:30 p.m., Cosby plans to moderate a session dedicated to foster parents and their children, and grandparents raising children.
“I want to give them information on the wonderful opportunities in the junior colleges and community colleges,” he said. “The beauty of these colleges is that you can walk in with a young adult, and they will help you find courses and education in areas you are interested in. If young people have made a mistake in life, they’re not dead in the water. They can recover and become what they want to become.”
A second session at 6:30 p.m. will focus more closely on Compton, which has been struck by a sharp rise in homicides. At least 54 people have been killed so far this year, 11 more than all of last year. At today’s event, Cosby says, he will talk about of the city’s most famous former residents — tennis champions Venus and Serena Williams.
“The Williams sisters came right here from Compton,” he said. “The examples of achievement are there on every level of this family — father, mother and children.”
Although Compton has suffered for years under a reputation of being a haven for gangs and criminal behavior, Cosby said he has sought in the past to turn the image around. He once suggested to a Compton politician, whom he declined to name, that the city should honor the Williams sisters with a parade. “I said, … ‘They exhibited the mental toughness of being African American in this world, and now they’re worldwide celebrities.’ ”
That was three years ago. “There’s been no parade, nothing to honor this achievement,” he said. “It’s the mind-set of many of our leaders who can’t or won’t get past this apathy. These are the questions that I want to ask.”
Good for Cosby, I strongly support him in this effort, and hope that this is not his last visit to the city, and hopefully, his visit will encourage others to do the same. Compton could certainly use the help.
Update: The Los Angeles Times covers the event here.
What would be even more effective , would be for reguler people who are from compton(or any other poor city or neighborhood) not to leave soon as they become successful. Being that most of my friends are hispanic , I see a trait that I wished I saw more in my own tribe. If you go to the north side of FT.Worth(the prodominatly hispanic area of my city), you will see buisness owners living nextdoor to construction workers, mexicans in this area dont usually leave “el norte” as soon as they get a good job or as soon as their cellphone shop, car lot, insurance agency or what ever takes off .
MY people are a bit different , as soon as a brotha get’s a good job , starts a successful business or gets an athletic scholership , you will here a sucking sound as he heads out of “da hood” so fast he breaks the sound barrier.
His visit can’t hurt, right? I hope other join him in his efforts.
I wonder how Cosby was received by the community…
Not well I’m affaid, he has’nt been viewed as black since “I-SPY”, and his rants against the black community a few years back doesn’t help.
How does ‘his rants’ against the black community not help? Please elaborate.
no his rants dont help, dont get me wrong I agree with alot he says , but the problem is he is too far removed from the back community, is too old, and he is not good at getting his point across to toadys black youth.
while it is true he grew up in the projects of philly , that was 50 years ago. since then he has lived a life that young black males cant relate to.
I’ll try to make a comparison , paul rodriquez has often made simular statments about the latin community , yet he does not get flamed for it(even when he was still famous) I feel its because he still has a “I’m one of you” Feel. So when he makes statments like “hey vatos quit fighting over land you’ll never own” he does not come off as judgemental.
chriss rock is another example , like bill cosby he often airs our dirty laundry , but he does it in a way that does not seem like a nagging uncle, more like a cousin who is saying “you guys are trippin”, and he points out clear goals by comparing us to other groups, not by saying we should be like them , but by show and telling the end result. It’s like he is telling us about a new hussle or scam , it just turns out to be a legal scam(stop trippin and you’ll get somewhere). And pluss young blacks are more likely to listen to a chriss rock , because he still seems like one of us(he was still livin in bedstie up until 88 and his first role was of a crack head).
I agree with everything you said, but I still think his rants help, whether they help alot or just a tiny bit is a different story, but they help nonetheless.
Thank God for Bill Cosby!
He’s on the mark; it’s time that people start engaging in self-accountability, rather than feeling and assuming perpetually the role of a victim.
This happens, albeit on a smaller scale, within the “Latino community.” And surprisingly, it’s often put forth by the “educated” among us. Of course, their evidence is often non-excitant, and if they do offer any it usually pitifully and laughably weak.
I know my manner seems rude, but should unproven allegations that are damaging to “minorities” be left unchecked? I find it so aggravating that so many are so willing to blame just about every social ailment affecting Chicanos directly or indirectly on “white” people. This perpetual feeling of seeing one’s self or group as a victim is detrimental to our primary cause.
new orleans is the true murda capital compton cant beat us
Nope, not true at all. Although it is not something to brag about, Compton has beat New Orleans in murder/capita, see here.
This is even more telling when you consider that Compton is a very small city compared to New Orleans, covering only 10 square miles.