Another Day in the Death of America

by Gary Younge

  7. “Meet the Press Transcript: November 23, 2014,” NBC News, http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meet-press-transcript-november-23-2014-n255256.

  8. Leovy, Ghettoside, xix.

  9. Alexia Cooper and Erica L. Smith, “Homicide Trends in the United States, 1980–2008,” U.S. Department of Justice, November 2011, http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/htus8008.pdf,13.

  10. Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (New York: The New Press, 2012), 100.

  11. “Homicide Rates Among Persons Aged 10–24 Years: United States, 1981–2010,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, July 12, 2013, http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6227a1.htm.

  12. Anders Kelto, “The U.S. Is a World Leader in Gun Deaths,” NPR, December 7, 2015, http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/12/07/458815891/the-u-s-is-a-world-leader-in-gun-deaths.

  13. Bill Cosby and Alvin F. Poussaint, Come On, People: On the Path from Victims to Victors (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2007), 60, 73, 86, 87, 111, 137.

  14. Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation (New York: Random House, 1998).

  15. “Dr. Bill Cosby Speaks,” Rutgers University website, http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~schochet/101/Cosby_Speech.htm (accessed March 10, 2016).

  16. Ibid.

  17. Ibid.

  18. Michael E. Dyson, Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind? (New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2005), x.

  19. Ibid., 172.

  20. “Crime in North Carolina—1999 Annual Summary, Report of 1999 Uniform Crime Reporting Data,” North Carolina Department of Justice, shows Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s crime figures in 1999, when the city had a population of 520,829, see http://www.ncdoj.gov/getdoc/448ed7e5-b478-4177-bfde-afd95e5e103e/1999-Crime-Statistics.aspx (accessed May 13, 2016). “Year to Date Summary,” Charlotte Police Department, December 2013, shows the city had grown to a population of 792,862, see http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/CMPD/safety/CrimeStat/Documents/CS13Dec-MonthlySummary.pdf (accessed May 13, 2016). General downward trajectory of crime from 2002 to 2014 is shown here at “Crime Rate in Charlotte, NC,” City-Data.com, see http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Charlotte-North-Carolina.html (accessed May 13, 2016).

  21. Ibid.

  22. “Teen Pregnancy Mecklenburg County, 1995–2008,” Mecklenburg County Health Department, Epidemiology Program, December 2009, shows the pregnancy rate for 15–19 year olds in Mecklenburg county was 74.4 per 1,000 in 1999, see http://charmeck.org/mecklenburg/county/healthdepartment/healthstatistics/documents/teen%20pregnancy%20mecklenburg%20county%201995–2008.pdf (accessed May 13, 2016). “2013 North Carolina Adolescent Pregnancies Ages 15–19,” Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina, shows the pregnancy rate for 15–19 year olds in Mecklenburg County was 33.3 per 1,000 in 2013, see http://files.www.appcnc.org/data/map/northcarolina/2013_pregnancies_15–19_NC.pdf (accessed May 13, 2016).

  23. “2007 NC Resident African American Teen Pregnancies: Ages 15–19,” Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina, shows the pregnancy rate for African Americans was 84.8, see http://files.appcnc.gethifi.com/data/state-statistics/archived-state-statistics/2007_African_American_pregnancies.pdf (accessed May 13, 2016). “2012 North Carolina Adolescent Pregnancies by Race/Ethnicity and County,” APPC of North Carolina, shows that by 2012 the figure was down to 51.8, see http://files.www.appcnc.org/data/map/northcarolina/2012_pregnancies_15–19_by_race.pdf (accessed May 13, 2016).

  24. See Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, Quick Tables, “List of Available Quick Tables for the National Survey on Drug Use and Health,” 2011, at http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/quicktables/quickconfig.do?34481–0001_all.

  25. Jo Jones and William D. Mosher, “Fathers’ Involvement with Their Children: United States, 2006–2010,” National Health Statistics Reports, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, December 2013, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr071.pdf.

  26. Alexander, New Jim Crow, 93.

  27. Joseph E. Stiglitz, The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future (London: Allen Lane, 2012), 17.

  28. “Number of Interracial Couples in U.S. Reaches All-Time High,” CNN, April 25, 2012, http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/25/us/us-census-interracial/.

  29. Hope Yen, “A Census First: Black Voter Turnout Passes Whites,” NBC News, May 8, 2013, http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/08/18131900-a-census-first-black-voter-turnout-passes-whites.

  30. “Unemployment Rates by Race and Ethnicity, 2010,” Bureau of Labor Statistics, October 5, 2011, http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2011/ted_20111005_data.htm; “Poverty Rate by Race/Ethnicity, 2014,” The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/poverty-rate-by-raceethnicity (accessed April 12, 2016). Bruce Drake, “Incarceration Gap Widens Between Whites and Blacks,” Pew Research Center, September 6, 2013, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/09/06/incarceration-gap-between-whites-and-blacks-widens/.

  31. Michael A. Fletcher, “Fifty Years After March on Washington, Economic Gap Between Blacks, Whites Persists,” Washington Post, August 27, 2013, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/50-years-after-the-march-the-economic-racial-gap-persists/2013/08/27/9081f012–0e66–11e3–8cddbcdc09410972_story.html?wprss=rss_business&tid=pp_widget.

  32. Ian Millhiser, “American Schools Are More Segregated Now Than They Were in 1968, and The Supreme Court Doesn’t Care,” Think Progress, August 13, 2015, http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/08/13/3690012/american-schools-are-more-segregated-now-then-they-were-in-1968-and-the-supreme-court-doesnt-care/.

  33. Michael Harrington, The Other America: Poverty in the United States (New York: Scribner, 2012), 14.

  34. See http://www.bostonfed.org/inequality2014/papers/reeves-sawhill.pdf.

  35. Matt O’Brien, “Poor Kids Who Do Everything Right Don’t Do Better Than Rich Kids Who Do Everything Wrong,” Washington Post, October 18, 2014, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/10/18/poor-kids-who-do-everything-right-dont-do-better-than-rich-kids-who-do-everything-wrong/.

  36. Leovy, Ghettoside, 243.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  1. Joe Rodriguez, “San Jose: Teen Slain on Streets Named for Kids’ Tales,” San Jose Mercury News, November 24, 2013, http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_24593143/murder-fantasy-land-san-joses-44th-homicide-this.

  2. Ibid.

  3. Ibid.

  4. Malcolm W. Klein and Cheryl L. Maxson, Street Gang Patterns and Policies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 81.

  5. Amy Nilson, “Thanksgiving Marks Violent Crime on San Jose,” Crime Voice, December 3, 2013, http://www.crimevoice.com/2013/12/03/thanksgiving-marks-violent-crime-on-san-jose/.

  6. Rodriguez, “San Jose: Teen Slain on Streets Named for Kids’ Tales.”

  7. Robert Salonga, “San Jose: Police Seeking Tips in Deadly Weekend Shooting,” San Jose Mercury News, November 27, 2013, http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_24607174/san-jose-police-still-seeking-tips-deadly-weekend.

  8. “Official Crime Statistics,” Table 3, San Jose Police Department website, http://www.sjpd.org/CrimeStats/crimestats.html (accessed April 4, 2016); Dan Ivers, “Newark Had Nation’s Third Highest Murder Rate in 2013, FBI Says,” NJ.com, November 17, 2014, http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2014/11/newark_had_nations_third_highest_murder_rate_in_2013_fbi_says.html; “Crime in the United States, 2013,” Table 8 (Ohio), FBI website, https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/tables/table-8/table-8-state-cuts/table_8_offenses_known_to_law_enforcement_ohio_by_city_2013.xls (accessed April 4, 2016).

  9. “City of San Jose,” Bay Area Census, http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/cities/SanJose50.htm (accessed March 11, 2016).

  10. “San Jose Named Safest Big City,” Silicon Valley Business Journal, January 30, 2002, http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2002/01/28/daily37.html.

  11. “Official Crime Statistics,” San Jose Police Depart
ment website, Table 3 (property crime and violent crime combined), http://www.sjpd.org/CrimeStats/crimestats.html (accessed May 13, 2016). Compare to national statistics for 2012: “FBI Releases 2012 Crime Statistics,” FBI website, September 16, 2013, https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-releases-2012-crime-statistics (accessed May 13, 2016). Mike Rosenberg, “San Jose Crime Rate Surpasses U.S. average,” San Jose Mercury News, December 16 2013, http://www.mercurynews.com/pensions/ci_24737175/san-jose-crime-rate-surpasses-u-s-average-arrests-plummet.

  12. Robert Salonga, “San Jose: Suspects Identified in City’s Latest Shooting Deaths,” San Jose Mercury News, December 4, 2013, http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_24648168/san-jose-suspects-identified-citys-latest-shooting-deaths.

  13. See http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_29737765/san-jose-jailed-suspect-2013-killing-now-charged.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  1. There were 17.3 people per square kilometer in 2010: Wikipedia, s.v. “Sanilac County, Michigan,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanilac_County,_Michigan (accessed April 4, 2016). Compare to Finland, 17.98 per square kilometer in 2014: “Population Density (People per Sq Km) in Finland,” Trading Economics, http://www.tradingeconomics.com/finland/population-density-people-per-sq-km-wb-data.html (accessed April 4, 2016).

  2. “Quick Facts, Sanilac County, Michigan,” United States Census Bureau, http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/RHI105210/26151 (accessed April 4, 2016). Compare to demographics of Norway: Wikipedia, s.v. “Demographics of Norway,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Norway#Total_population (accessed April 13, 2016).

  3. Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, “Michigan Food and Agricultural Systems Profiles,” State of Michigan website, http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mda/County_Food_System_Profiles_292923_7.pdf (accessed April 4, 2016), and https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mda/Regional_Food_System_Profiles_292928_7.pdf.

  4. Kate McGill, The Beginnings of Marlette.

  5. Ibid.

  6. George Monbiot, “Rewilding Our Children,” website of George Monbiot, April 16, 2012, http://www.monbiot.com/2012/04/16/2125/.

  7. McGill, The Beginnings of Marlette.

  8. “2 in Airboat Report Being Targeted by Duck Hunter,” WNEM, November 5, 2013, http://www.wnem.com/story/23881130/2-in-airboat-report-being-targeted-by-duck-hunter.

  9. The Associated Press, “Teen Shoots Self in Foot While Hunting in Michigan,” Monroe News, November 29, 2013, http://www.monroenews.com/article/20131129/NEWS/311299907.

  10. “Boy, 12, Accidentally Shot in Hand,” Sanilac County News, March 19, 2014, http://sanilaccountynews.mihomepaper.com/news/2014–03–19/News/Boy_12_accidentally_shot_in_hand.html.

  11. Brad Devereaux, “Update: Marlette Elementary Student Shot, Killed at Sleepover Identified,” Michigan Live, December 2, 2013, http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2013/12/sheriff_12-year-old_shot_kille.html.

  12. Devereaux, “Update.”

  13. G. A. Jackman et al., “Seeing Is Believing: What Do Boys Do When They Find a Real Gun?” Pediatrics 107 (2001): 1247, http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/107/6/1247.abstract.

  14. Michael Luo and Mike McIntire, “Children and Guns: The Hidden Toll,” New York Times, September 29, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/us/children-and-guns-the-hidden-toll.html?pagewanted=all.

  15. Luo and McIntire, “Children and Guns.”

  16. “Gun Homicides and Gun Ownership by Country,” Washington Post, December 17, 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/nation/gun-homicides-ownership/table/.

  17. Linda L. Dahlberg et al., “Guns in the Home and Risk of a Violent Death in the Home: Findings from a National Study,” American Journal of Epidemiology 160, no. 10 (2004): 929–936, https://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/160/10/929.full; Andrew Seamen, “Gun Access Tied to Greater Suicide, Murder Risk: Study,” Reuters, January 20, 2014, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-gun-suicide-idUSBREA0J1G920140120.

  18. Michael Luo, “NRA Stymies Firearms Research, Scientists Say,” New York Times, January 26, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/us/26guns.html?_r=0.

  19. Sam Stein, “The Congressman Who Restricted Gun Violence Research Has Regrets,” Huffington Post, October 6, 2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jay-dickey-gun-violence-research-amendment_us_561333d7e4b022a4ce5f45bf.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Luo, “NRA Stymies Firearms Research.”

  22. Vivek Murthy, Twitter, October 16, 2012, https://twitter.com/vivek_murthy/status/258393687871074304.

  23. Zoë Carpenter, “Why the NRA Is Blocking Obama’s Surgeon General Nominee,” The Nation, March 18, 2014, http://www.thenation.com/article/why-nra-blocking-obamas-surgeon-general-nominee/.

  24. Mark A. Schuster et al., “Firearm Storage Patterns in US Homes with Children,” American Journal of Public Health 90, no. 4 (2000): 589–594, reprinted on RAND Corporation website, http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/reprints/2005/RAND_RP890.pdf.

  25. F. Baxley and M. Miller, “Parental Misperceptions About Children and Firearms,” Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 160, no. 5 (May 2006): 542–547.

  26. Catherine A. Okoro et al., “Prevalence of Household Firearms and Firearm-Storage Practices in the 50 States and the District of Columbia: Findings from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2002,” Pediatrics 116, no. 3 (September 2005), http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/116/3/e370.

  27. U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Department of Education, The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative: Implications for the Prevention of School Attacks in the United States, July 2004, http://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/preventingattacksreport.pdf, 27.

  28. Peter Cummings et al., “State Gun Safe Storage Laws and Child Mortality Due to Firearms,” Journal of the American Medical Association 278: 1084–1086.

  29. David C. Grossman et al., “Gun Storage Practices and Risk of Youth Suicide and Unintentional Firearm Injuries,” Journal of the American Medical Association 293 (2005): 707, 711–713.

  30. Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, “Innocents Lost: A Year of Unintentional Child Gun Deaths,” Everytown for Gun Safety website, June 2014, http://everytownresearch.org/documents/2015/04/innocents-lost.pdf, 12.

  31. A. L. Kellerman, “Injuries and Deaths Due to Firearms in the Home,” Journal of Trauma, Injury, Infection and Critical Care 45, no. 2 (August 1998): 263–267.

  32. “‘Someone Has to Answer for It’: Sheriff Seeks Charges Against Resident Where Boy Was Killed,” The County Press, December 11, 2013, http://thecountypress.mihomepaper.com/news/2013-12-11/News/Someone_has_to_answer_for_it_Sheriff_seeks_charges.html.

  33. Eric Levine, “Dad, Son Charged in Fatal Shooting,” Sanilac County News, February 19, 2014, http://sanilaccountynews.mihomepaper.com/news/2014-02-19/Front_Page/Dad_son_charged_in_fatal_shooting.html.

  34. Brad Devereaux, “Michigan Boy, 12, Gets ‘Intensive’ Probation in Shooting Death of 11-Year-Old Friend at Sleepover,” Michigan Live, May 7, 2014, http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2014/05/michigan_boy_placed_in_intensi.html.

  35. Brad Devereaux, “Father of 12-Year-Old Michigan Boy Who Killed Friend at Sleepover Gets Year in Jail,” Michigan Live, June 20, 2014, http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2014/06/father_of_boy_who_fatally_shot.html.

  36. “Father, Son Sued in Fatal Shooting,” Sanilac County News, May 27, 2015, http://sanilaccountynews.mihomepaper.com/news/2015-05-27/Front_Page/Father_son_sued_in_fatal_shooting.html.

  37. Quoted in Stephen P. Teret and Patti L. Culross, “Product-Oriented Approaches to Reducing Youth Gun Violence,” The Future of Children 12, no. 2 (2002): 119–131, quote on page 123, http://www.kean.edu/~jkeil/Welcome_files/Youth%20Gun.pdf.

  38. “The Smith & Wesson Sellout,” NRA-ILA, March 20, 2000, https://www.nraila.org/articles/20000320/the-smith-wesson-sellout.

  39. Michael S. Rosenwald, “‘We Need the iPhone of Guns’:
Will Smart Guns Transform the Gun Industry?,” Washington Post, February 17, 2014, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/we-need-the-iphone-of-guns-will-smart-guns-transform-the-gun-industry/2014/02/17/6ebe76da-8f58-11e3-b227-12a45d109e03_story.html.

  40. Dan Roberts et al., “Tearful Obama Tightens Gun Control and Tells Inactive Congress: ‘We Can’t Wait,” Guardian, January 5, 2016, http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/05/obama-gun-control-executive-action-background-checks-licenses-gun-shows-mental-health-funding.

  41. Joel Rose, “A New Jersey Law That’s Kept Smart Guns off Shelves Nationwide,” NPR, June 24, 2015, http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/06/24/325178305/a-new-jersey-law-thats-kept-smart-guns-off-shelves-nationwide.

  42. Rosenwald, “‘We Need the iPhone of Guns.’”

  43. Ibid.

  44. “Poll Finds Americans Skeptical of So-Called Smart Guns,” NRAILA, November 15, 2013, https://www.nraila.org/articles/20131115/poll-finds-americans-skeptical-of-so-called-smart-guns.

  45. Jeremy W. Peters, “‘Smart’ Firearm Draws Wrath of the Gun Lobby,” New York Times, April 28, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/us/politics/smart-firearm-draws-wrath-of-the-gun-lobby.html.

  46. Michael S. Rosenwald, “Threats Against Maryland Gun Dealer Raise Doubts About Future of Smart Guns,” Washington Post, May 2, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/threats-against-maryland-gun-dealer-raise-doubts-about-future-of-smart-guns/2014/05/02/8a4f7482-d227-11e3-9e25-188ebe1fa93b_story.html.

  47. U.S. General Accounting Office, Accidental Shootings: Many Deaths and Injuries Caused by Firearms Could Be Prevented, March 1991, http://www.gao.gov/assets/160/150353.pdf, 4.

  CHAPTER SIX

  1. Monica Rhor, “Immigrants from Around the World Are Transforming Houston,” Houston Chronicle, March 5, 2015, http://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/themillion/article/How-diversity-culture-demographics-of-Houston-6117301.php.

  2. John Berger, A Seventh Man: Migrant Workers in Europe (New York: Viking Press, 1975).