From Mona Charen:

The City Journal is rapidly becoming the indispensable magazine in the United States today. It focuses on urban matters, but in doing so manages to cast light on the key questions that preoccupy public policy -- crime, race relations, family structure, entrepreneurship, education, the environment and religion. What distinguishes its writers is total candor and zero tolerance for twaddle. Top Stories

One writer with a particularly sensitive claptrap detector is Heather MacDonald. In the summer issue, she tells "The Truth About Cincinnati." Miss MacDonald reminds us that the response to every urban riot in the United States seems to follow a script. First comes a limp condemnation of violence. Next, we find the hunt for "root causes." The graybeards then announce that the riot was a "wake-up call" about white racism and police brutality. Accordingly, commissions are established and public/private partnerships launched all with an eye toward increasing "economic opportunity" for blacks. The Cincinnati case followed the script to perfection. Every national news organization repeated the cry about "15 black men" supposedly shot by Cincinnati police for little or no reason since 1995. One of these was Harvey Price, who hacked a 15-year-old girl to death and then, wielding a steak knife, held police off for several hours. He was shot when he lunged at a cop with the knife. Another was Jermaine Lowe, a parole violator wanted for armed robbery who fled in a stolen car when he saw police. He crashed the car into another vehicle and began firing at the police. He was shot and killed. Another was a 23-year-old with 18 felony charges and five convictions. He had just pistol-whipped, robbed and shot at three persons in an apartment hallway, and then aimed his gun at police. You get the idea. As for Timothy Thomas, whose death touched off the riots, he was wanted on 14 counts. When police demanded that he stop, he led them on a long chase through the back alleys of one of Cincinnati's worst neighborhoods. Cornered, he reached for something in his waistband. A cop did not wait to determine whether it was gun. Do you blame him? Miss MacDonald thinks Thomas' shooting was a tough case that might raise questions about excessive use of force. Well, if police tell you to stop, then stop. Only two other cases of the 15, according to Miss MacDonald, even lead to questions of police misconduct. Four of the most recent shootings were by black officers. And a number of cops have been murdered during the past four years, as well. "In fact," writes Miss MacDonald, "a Cincinnati cop is 27 times more likely to die at the hands of a black man than a black man is to die at the hands of the Cincinnati police." The liberal press is in a time warp. Each new outbreak of black violence is simply plugged into the "Kerner Commission" pigeonhole. Rioters are sending a signal, they insist. You know the mantra "two nations, separate and unequal, white racism, economic discrimination." But what all of these chin-pulling exercises overlook is that most of the rioters are criminals and, conversely, most blacks do not feel an overpowering desire to make off with microwave ovens, TVs, booze and furniture from local merchants whenever life throws them a curve. Seventy-two percent of those indicted for riot-related crimes already had long criminal records. And what sort of signal would rioters have meant to convey when they torched an anti-poverty agency? One group offering financial assistance and job training to Cincinnati's poorest citizens lost $50,000 to fire and theft. Cincinnati has a number of black leaders who disdain rioters and believe in traditional modes of progress: hard work, committed families and personal morality. Miss MacDonald interviewed several. But the press prefers angry blacks, because, as Miss MacDonald puts it: "Liberal whites need black anger to prove the persistence of racism among their unenlightened neighbors, which they alone can atone for by the noblesse oblige of liberal paternalism. Thus, to reinforce their own sense of moral superiority, they confer racial authenticity only on blacks like Damon Lynch (a provocateur), self-proclaimed angry victims of American bigotry." So a crowd of criminals torches a neighborhood, and makes off with TVs and VCRs after another black criminal is shot by police, and like clockwork, the "national conversation" is all about white racism. When will it be OK to tell the truth?

-- (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), July 30, 2001

Answers

My understanding is that since the riots and the associated criticism of the police by the usual suspects, the Cincy cops have developed a case of blue-flue when it comes to aggressively policing the ghetto. The not surprising result is an increase in crime. Most of the victims of the crime wave are black.

Like I said, this is my impression. I have no links. I would be pleased to be wrong.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), July 30, 2001.

The mentality of a lot of (young?) blacks is that they can scream racism if they are apprehended and/or shot while in the commission of a crime. It's as pathetic as crying racism when they are fired for not showing up for work for a week. They have learned to not take responsibility for their own actions and place the blame anywhere but on themselves.

It is way past the time to tell them that BS doen't fly any more. And it shouldn't.

-- Cherri (jessam6@home.com), July 31, 2001.

Is that the real Cherri?

-- J (Y2J@home.comm), July 31, 2001.

me thinks an imposter

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), July 31, 2001.

It's the real me. Why shouldn't I feel that way when it is thr truth? I've seen it happen a hundred times.

-- Cherri (jessam6@home.com), July 31, 2001.

Cherri,

Because victimology has at its core the implicit demand for government redress, be it new laws, 'reparations', new programs, etc. What's the benefit to calling yourself a "victim" if not to 'get' something from someone else, and I thought you were all for the redistributionist line.

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), July 31, 2001.

There you go again, looking for consistency. Do you believe that all people are cut out of monolithic, ideological molds?

Oh sorry, I forgot that is was you and J. Hi J how's the arsenal?

-- Jack Booted Thug (governmentconspiracy@NWO.com), July 31, 2001.

I thought you were all for the redistributionist line.

No I am not. And I believe I expressed that opinion on this forum in the past.

-- Cherri (jessam6@home.com), July 31, 2001.

Lars,

Check this out (from last month):

http://enquirer.com/editions/2001/06/30/loc_police_frustration.html

-- RC (randyxpher@aol.com), July 31, 2001.

RC--

Thanks. I knew I had seen such articles. Sad.

Cherri--

I was sure that your post was legit. I have seen you make similar remarks about Seattle.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), July 31, 2001.

Jack Booted Thug,

Well oiled.

It's not just the inconsistency from the "Cherri" poster between her typical incredible hatred of Bush (and things conservative), and her quite conservative belief regarding certain young, black males that leads me to believe that this isn't the real Cherri. It is also the fact that in three posts, there have been no misspelled words ("thr" was most likely a typo).

The story on the real Cherri is that she has dyslexia, and that is why she is such a horrific speller. While it is certainly possible that this poster is the real Cherri, I have serious doubts about that being the case.

-- J (Y2J@home.comm), August 01, 2001.

J, Due to my dyslexia I misspell. At times letters that I should type with my right hand get typed with my left- in the correct order. I do know the correct "word" I am using, such as since, sense, cents etc., where a lot of people do not appear to. It is because I tend to spell words as they sound (logically) and not by all those obscure rules they tried to teach me in school. As a child I read the entire dictionary, I loved learning the meaning of words.

I have also been using my spell checker and make an effort to practice the correct spelling of words I have spelled wrong all of my life. I actually spell check and find no errors at times which is encouraging. When in a hurry I do not reread my posts or bother to make sure the spell checker "passed" a correctly spelled word that has an incorrect meaning. One of the problems with my dyslexia is that smaller words tend to be more of a problem than words with more letters. I can stare at a three letter word and it will not register... it doesn't look right even when it is. I don't "recognize" it. Also in times of high stress and emotional upsets, my dyslexia gets worse. Spelling better shows me that I am coming to terms emotionally with the deaths of my parents.

It is never safe to have and hold onto a preconceived idea. Things change.

-- Cherri (jessam6@home.com), August 01, 2001.

Cherri,

I do not claim to know much about dyslexia; I only brought it up because I have seen it mentioned about you on this forum.

I am very happy to hear that your situation has improved. I cannot judge whether or not your dyslexia has improved due to you coming to terms with the deaths of your parents. The very fact that you attribute the improvement to your coming to terms with their deaths makes me believe that it is highly likely that it is so. What I do know is that I have noticed a marked improvement in your spelling recently.

Now back to your above posts. You do realize that you will be labeled as a racist for making such observations, don't you?

-- J (Y2J@home.comm), August 01, 2001.

You do realize that you will be labeled as a racist for making such observations, don't you?

Perhaps. But that doesn't bother me. If I were to (and I have) make similar statements to most black people I know personally, they would not only not think saying it made me a racist, but more often than not, agree with me.

When the blacks were beating up the whites during "Fat Tuesday" celebrations last February, I wrote to the "Seattle Weekly" (our non-conformist city paper) and reprimanded those who were saying that "pointing out the black bigotry shown by the perpetrators was unfair and biased". I stated that bigotry from blacks against whites is just as reprehensible as bigotry from whites against blacks. I had no problem useing my own name.

It would be rather hypocritical of me not to believe the way I do.

-- Cherri (jessam6@home.com), August 01, 2001.

I have two brothers who have dyslexia. Both are highly intelligent and successful in their jobs (both in IT), but have great difficulty writing their thoughts down in print and email. I've read enough of Cherri's posts over the last 3 years to recognize that she does indeed have dyslexia. Spell check only helps if you can recognize the correct spelling as displayed by the spellchecker. Please judge Cherri by her content, not by her spelling.

Cherri, sorry if this sounds patronizing; it is not meant to be so. I don't agree with many (if not most) of you viewpoints, but criticism of viewpoints based on trivialities is lame.

-- Spindoc' (spindoc@no.way), August 02, 2001.

sorry if this sounds patronizing; it is not meant to be so.

Spindoc', It does not sound patronizing to me, no problem. As a matter of fact I appreciate your input on dyslexia. A also appreciate your attitude towards trivialities and the tendency of some to focus on them rather than the subject of a post.

-- Cherri (jessam6@home.com), August 02, 2001.