A Slogan for the Summer: Violence Is American As Cherry Pie
Activist H. Rap Brown (a.k.a. Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin) made the declaration used in today’s headline in 1967, as parts of the Civil Rights movement turned more militant in the face of ongoing repression.
I’m willing to predict that this year (and maybe next) will be another pivot point in U.S. history, as the grievances of various segments of our citizenry choose violence as the Tylenol for the Angry and the Disturbed.
There are three fronts to watch with this phenomena; the unhinged, the streets, and the Trumpanistas.
From ABC News:
At least four major U.S. cities were reeling from an onslaught of mass shootings over the weekend that left at least 39 people wounded, five dead and police officials alarmed that the surge in gun violence is a prelude to a bloody summer as the nation emerges from the pandemic.
Police in Austin, Cleveland, Chicago and Savannah were all investigating on Sunday mass shootings that erupted over a six-hour streak that began around 9 p.m. on Friday and spilled over into Saturday morning.
Although it’s probable some of these events were gang/drug/domestic violence-related, the frequency of individuals reaching a breaking point where using humans for target practice is increasing
There have been at least 270 mass shootings in the US in 2021, according to data compiled by CNN and the Gun Violence Archive; roughly 40% higher than at this point in 2020 and 65% higher than this point in 2019.
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https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1403768928325754882?s=20
While crime overall is down in most cities, murders and violent assaults are up. The New York Times reports that murders are up by an estimated 18% for the first three months of 2021. We haven’t seen those kinds of numbers since 1995, when Rudi Giuliani was Mayor of New York City.
The generally accepted reason for the decline in crime since that era has been a large part of the population aging out of the years where criminal offenses are likely to occur. Now, we may have to rethink that.
There will be even more bad news in 2021, not because of crime increases (not knowable), but because the primary statistical measure (the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report) has been replaced by a more all-encompassing National Incident Based Response System (NIBRS).
While the newer system should provide a better picture of the “why” about offenses, confusion within local agencies, and the reporting on multiple crimes per incident (now usually only the most serious offense) will undoubtedly lead to headlines destined to have a positive impact on law enforcement budgets.
Just as pressure is ramping up for more reforms to the criminal justice system, political fear mongers will be sounding an alarm, pointing to changes already made, and lobbying for more incarceration as their proposed solution. Look for a new term to replace the 1990’s "super-predator" as the boogieman used to justify all this.
Throwing more people behind bars and/or executing them with the same poison gas used by the Germans in concentration camps (Arizona!) may provide an opening for expanding our penal systems (We’re already #1 worldwide in prisoners to population ratio), but it won’t really solve much.
We can get into the old causation vs correlation arguments, but the fact remains that two statistical markers are connected to what we’re seeing; rising economic inequality and the simply ludicrous amounts of armament being acquired by the citizenry.
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There’s violence of the mental health and criminal kind, and then there’s real violence or the implied threat of violence created by a perceived failure of the political system.
Nowadays, statistics tell us domestic terrorism incidents have soared to new highs in the United States, driven chiefly by white-supremacist, anti-Muslim and anti-government extremists on the far right.
It’s the implied threat of violence we need to take seriously as the year unfolds, because authoritarian rhetoric and the “wink, wink” encouragement by Republican lawmakers is driving people to stochastic terrorist acts.
Republicans in Florida, Tennessee, and Oklahoma have enacted legislation mitigating legal responsibility for people who drive their cars into demonstrations. Similar bills are pending in a half-dozen or so other states.
https://twitter.com/TheTNHoller/status/1404409868728012803?s=20
In addition to the various pieces of legislation inspired by rarely-substantiated claims of voter fraud, the people who do the nuts-and-bolts work of running elections are quitting in large numbers.
From Reuters:
Election officials and their families are living with threats of hanging, firing squads, torture and bomb blasts, interviews and documents reveal. The campaign of fear, sparked by Trump's voter-fraud falsehoods, threatens the U.S. electoral system.
From the Associated Press:
There is no shortage of job openings for local election officials in Michigan. It’s the same in Pennsylvania. Wisconsin, too.
After facing threats and intimidation during the 2020 presidential election and its aftermath, and now the potential of new punishments in certain states, county officials who run elections are quitting or retiring early. The once quiet job of election administration has become a political minefield thanks to the baseless claims of widespread fraud that continue to be pushed by many in the Republican Party.
The exits raise a pressing question: Who will take these jobs? Barb Byrum, clerk of Ingham County, Michigan, has an idea.
“These conspiracy theorists are in it for the long haul. They’re in it to completely crumble our republic, and they’re looking at these election administrator positions,” said Byrum, a Democrat. “They’re playing the long game.”
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The United States sat atop the world’s nations in 2018 when it came to calculating gun ownership, with 120.5 civilian firearms per 100 people.
It isn’t getting any better. January 2021, showed the largest increase in gun sales since figures started to be recorded in 1998. Last year, gun sales in the United States rose 40%, with a total of 39,695,315 sold to people who passed a background check.
And then, thanks to the wonders of the internet, there are “ghost” guns, firearms made from kits or by 3D printers. Nobody knows how many there are, but seizures are increasing yearly.
An overwhelming majority of Americans favor what are now being called “gun safety” laws. And an overwhelming number of legislatures have no interest in such things.
In Texas, a “constitutional carry” law allows anybody over 21 to carry a gun. In Missouri, Gov. Mike Parson signed the “Second Amendment Preservation Act” on Saturday declaring all federal gun laws past, present and future to be invalid in the state.This includes taxing, tracking and registration of weapons.
Here in California, a Federal judge ruled this past week that wanna-be assault rifles are no more dangerous than Swiss army knives, and repeated the internet-driven falsehood about more people dying from the coronavirus than mass shootings.
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What’s the point of all this? Well, nothing’s going to change without your help. People who think everything is hunky-dory now that the Former Guy is gone need to think again.
Moms Demand Action is a grassroots movement fighting for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence. They have a San Diego chapter that’s been very active. And they deserve your support.
Every single seat in every election nationwide needs to be fought for on the basis of defeating the wave of hate and disrespect for democracy so prominent nationally. In the coming months, I’ll be offering up suggestions for organizations and campaigns worthy of support.
Enjoy the summer. Be safe. And start planning what you can do.
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PS. The nutters are going to take another run at overturning the 2020 general election at various points this summer. With the Republican Party unwilling to acknowledge the danger to democracy posed by the January 6th assault on the Capitol, the probability of gun violence is very high.
Hopefully at least some of them are wasting their money (supposedly $1200) on the fake August inaugural tickets making the rounds on social media.
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