TONEY ATKINS COMMENTARY
It Really Is A Crime
DAYTONA
BEACH, FL -- For years, I've kept my itchy typing fingers still on the
subject of crime in the Black community, but if we don't tackle the
problem now, when will we do it?
Blacks get upset when crime statistics show that some of the top
hotbeds of crime are in the Black community. A former co-worker at the
Daytona Times, who often appeared to be a bit prejudiced against
whites, displayed anger on numerous occasions, claiming that Blacks who
were accused of breaking the law were prominent on television news
shows as opposed to the number of whites shown being arrested or
standing in a courtroom.
That sometimes seemed to be true, but I recently kept a personal survey
of the alleged lawbreakers pictured on television. On many occasions,
whites who had been arrested for one thing or another outnumbered
Blacks. Besides, if you don't commit the crime, you don't get the
television time. Simply, the best way to avoid being on a local
newscast as an accused criminal is not to commit a crime -- and that's
true for Blacks and whites.
Let's face facts. There is a lot of crime in the Black community.
Blacks sell drugs in the parking lots of convenience stores as well as
elsewhere in the community. Blacks have prostituted their bodies openly
in the Black community, sometimes in front of the Daytona Times
building, other businesses and even churches.
The "poor me" excuse for such criminal activities doesn't carry any
weight for either the law-abiding Blacks in the community -- and there
are a large proportion of them -- or for me. Newspapers have many
classified ads listing jobs. Some may be low-paying jobs in the
accommodations industry or washing dishes in a restaurant -- but it is
honest work and as respectable as anything anyone can do..
However, many minorities will claim there are no jobs available for
Blacks. I have had many business people tell me the contrary, but a
person of any color has to apply to get a job and then has to apply
himself or herself on that job to move forward and eventually make more
money. Some Blacks have admitted to me over the years that they are not
going to work at a menial job for little pay, and that there is more
money in distributing illegal drugs, along with being able to work on
one's own schedule.
Of course, drug dealing can result in violence, including fights, gun
battles, slashing with knives -- and let's be real. These things do go
on, and sadly, many people in the community are too frightened to
combat the problem. They lock themselves in their homes, with bars
covering the windows, and won't even leave the house at night because
they are scared. In nearly 15 years with the Daytona Times, I have been
told this by residents time and again.
If the police try to maintain peace in the community, the lawmen are
taunted and accused of brutality. A number of members in white
communities also hate authority and blame the police, especially if
they get caught committing a crime. Area police officers are basically
outstanding and do the best they can, and they handle alleged
lawbreakers equally, no matter what their color.
I'm not writing this from mere hearsay. I've witnessed the nightmare,
the danger. I've ridden through predominently Black parts of town where
many law-abiding Blacks would not go after the sun went down. They are
afraid they'll be robbed, shot, beaten ... or worse.
Police often seem to protect at least some Black offenders, for reasons
unknown. When my car was stolen by a Black man with a white woman about
15 years ago, a detective came by to see me about a month after the
stripped vehicle was found. He showed me mug shots of a number of
possible suspects. I pointed out the photo that most resembled the man
of my description. A young resident came by the office to give me a
person's name who was claiming to have taken my car, which contained
all of my earthly possessions. I notified the police. To my knowledge,
the individual who, by the time the detective talked with me, had
been jailed on another charge. He was never arrested for taking my
car, and I was urged by the detective not to write any more columns
about my harrowing experience in the newspaper. You figure it out.
On several recent occasions, after working late at the Daytona Times, I
would stand in front of the building, either waiting for a taxicab or a
bus (when there was service through the community south of Orange
Avenue after dark). Although I was never threatened, I was approached
many times by Blacks selling drugs or prostituting themselves. I
suppose that, in their minds, a white man in the Black community must
be after something more than a ride home.
With some humor laced with sadness, I could almost understand the
community's feeling of harassment when one night, a police car stopped
as I was waiting in front of the newspaper building. Two officers
emerged from the patrol car, wanting to know why I was there. They
didn't seem to believe my story about waiting for Votran until a bus
approached on Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard and I waved it down. The
officers allowed me to catch my bus.
That touches on a related fact. Votran halted its night service south
of Orange after several instances in which rocks, bricks and other
materials were thrown at buses as they passed. On at least one
occasion, the windshield on the driver's side was broken. A
spokesperson for Votran told meat the time that the company couldn't
afford to endanger their driversorpassengers. That makes sense, but the
policy hurts those in the community who wouldn't think of breaking the
law and who need rides to their jobs or to stores or entertainment
establishments after dark.
It is also true that drugs and prostitution abound on parts of
Ridgewood Avenue within several blocks in either direction from its
intersection with International Speedway Boulevard. The same activity
occurs on S. Atlantic Avenue on the beachside, particularly in a
several block area near the street's intersection with Silver Beach. A
mostly-white element is involved there.
When fear and dread keep Black residents trapped in their own homes, it is criminal.
There can be no excuse for anyone robbing, threatening, wounding or
sometimes even killing another person. When criminals rule the roost,
the henhouse is in trouble.
Instead of accusing the white establishment, the police and the
mainstream media of making an issue of pointing to parts of
the Black community as hotbeds of crime, perhaps Blacks who want peace,
who want to take a walk down the street or even desire to go shopping
after the sun sets need to unite and do something about the problem ...
something to take back the community and bring back the pride that once
was here.
The reader may think: That would take a miracle. It might, but miracles
begin with each of us. We can douse the hotbeds of criminal activity --
Black and white -- and live without fear. But that is not going to
happen by itself.
Will the creation of a new reality in the community begin with you?
-- Toney
Atkins, a veteran writer and former assistant editor of the Daytona
Times, takes sole responsibility for these comments, which may not
be the opinions of others involved with the Daytona Times.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
BLACKS AND CRIME HOTBEDS
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