Thursday's discussion on the high rates of incarceration among black males was very intriguing. It seems that the general outlook of our nation is that these men are the one's we think of when thinking of either a criminal, or a drug dealer. I agree that this prejudice comes from the fact that we see it all too often portrayed on television. It's unfortunate that even police offers are conditioned to think that most or all black men are criminals.
However, there is some supporting proof of why law enforcement in the US looks to inner cities to prevent crime. After watching 50 cent's autobiographical film "Get Rich or Die Tryin'," on MTV, I saw some of the violence that comes along with crack trafficking. In the movie, he basically buys an illegal pistol from some guy with a briefcase, and there is constant gun violence throughout the whole movie. I believe this violence, and other illegal activity such as prostitution and selling pistols is why we see more police in big cities.
Sean,
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple things that your post brought to my mind. The first is that we should always view all media with a critical eye. I am not disagreeing that there isn’t violence associated with drug trafficking (to be honest Im not sure one way or the other), but we need to critical about the sources that we gain that information from. "Get Rich or Die Trying" may have been an autobiographical film, but it is certainly made to appear more dramatic that the actual events. And although it depicted a lot of violence associated with drug trafficking, 50 Cents' film isn’t exactly statistical proof of crime rates, it is after all just a life narrative and individual perspective.
I also question your assertion that their is more violence related to drugs in the inner city than in the suburbs. Is that statistically true, and even if it is, what are the complex reasons why it is the case? If it is the case, does that mean that drug addiction in the suburbs is not just as damaging and troubling?
Also, we need to think about larger issues in relationship to the associations between drugs and violence. For example, how are inner cities created? How are they racially segregated and made into the impoverished neighborhoods (not all of the "inner city" is poor or primarily people of color)? Think about how inner cities are created through institutional policies of urban segregation and the housing market. What is the education system and economic opprotunities like in the inner city? Does this impact the drug use and subsequent violence surround drug use? Is the level of poverty higher in the inner city or in the 'burbs? How does poverty relate to violent crime, especially in relation to drug crime? Furthermore, where are the drugs coming from? Certainly their are lines of supply that funnel drugs into low income/African American communities? Who are these large-scale drug suppliers and are they being aggressively pursued by law enforcement? Many journalists and scholars have argued that the law enforcement themselves is responsible for funneling a large amount of highly addictive drugs into low-income communities. Check out the book Dark Allies by Gary Webb (among numerous others) for more information on the connections between the CIA and the initial rise of inner city drug use (specifically crack cocaine).
These are just a few of the more complex issues that we have to take into consideration when we instantly think that there is some natural violent element within inner city drug use that forces police to be more aggressive in the inner city.