Alabama
David Sher of The Comeback Town has written a response to John Bennett’s article on post-1963 Birmingham which recently appeared in The American Thinker:
“I can understand why Mr. Bennett was so confused. He assumed Birmingham and Jefferson County were the same entity. Why shouldn’t he? How would he know that Jefferson County has 37 municipalities and that Birmingham and Jefferson County are not interchangeable? …
The only reason Birmingham may be categorized as violent is that FBI crime statistics compare the City of Birmingham with other metropolitan areas. So the City of Birmingham is being measured against metro Nashville or metro Jacksonville. Metro Nashville and Jacksonville also have high crime urban areas, but they are balanced out with safe suburbs located within their city limits. Mt. Brook, Vestavia, and Trussville are not included in Birmingham’s numbers. The equivalent neighborhoods would be incorporated into other metros. Birmingham’s metro crime statistics are about average.”
Having lived in the Birmingham area, I am fully aware that Birmingham and Jefferson County (AL) are not interchangeable. No one would ever confuse Vestavia Hills or Trussville with Birmingham or Bessemer.
Out of curiosity, I went over to the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center and downloaded Crime In Alabama 2011. The “Crime By County” Report in Appendix B on page 78 provides some fascinating information about crime in Birmingham and its ring of White suburban municipalities in Jefferson County.
Here’s a summary of my findings:
Birmingham, which is 73.4% African-American, has 31% of the population of Jefferson County (AL), but accounts for 51.9% of index crime, 62.7% of homicide, 59.4% of rape, 64.2% of robbery, 64.5% of assault, 49.3% of burglary, 49.9% of theft and 58.6% of the motor vehicle theft in Jefferson County.
Bessemer, which is 74.2% African-American, has 4% of the population of Jefferson County (AL), but accounts for 9.3% of the index crimes, 11.6% of homicide, 7.5% of rape, 8% of robbery, 10.2% of assault, 8.3% of burglary, 9.5% of theft, and 12.4% of the motor vehicle theft in Jefferson County.
Fairfield, which is 94.6% African-American, has 1.7% of the population of Jefferson County (AL), but accounts for 3.7% of index crimes, 4.6% of homicides, 2.9% of rape, 5.2% of robbery, 2.7% of assault, 3.7% of burglary, 3.5% of theft, and 4.2% of motor vehicle theft in Jefferson County.
Birmingham’s largest White suburbs in Jefferson County (AL) are Vestavia Hills which is 90.4% White, Mountain Brook which is 97.2% White, Trussville which is 96.7% White, Hoover which is 75.1% White, Homewood which is 74.6% White, Gardendale which is 88.4% White, and Leeds which is 78.7% White.
Collectively, Birmingham’s White suburbs have a combined population of 207,706 which is 30.3% of the population of Jefferson County (AL). The White suburbs are roughly the size of Birmingham which has a population of 213,258 and which is 31% of the population of Jefferson County.
Birmingham’s White suburbs have 30.3% of the population of Jefferson County (AL), but account for only 13.8% of index crimes, 1% of homicide, 6.5% of rape, 6.1% of robbery, 4.8% of assault, 9.2% of burglary, 17.7% of theft, and 12.5% of motor vehicle theft in Jefferson County.
If we combine the crime in majority black Birmingham with the crime in majority black Bessemer and Fairfield, we find that these three cities account for 64.9% of index crime, 78.9% of homicide, 69.8% of rape, 77.4% of robbery, 77.4% of assault, 61.3% of burglary, 62.9% of theft, and 75.2% of motor vehicle theft in Jefferson County.
Undoubtedly, the actual black contribution to crime in Jefferson County (AL) is understated here due to the large numbers of black individuals present in Hoover and Homewood and especially in other cities such as Irondale and Hueytown which are too diverse to include in a head-to-head comparison of black and White civilization in the Birmingham metro area.
Note: In Appendix C: City Data, we find on page 95 that from 2010 to 2011 there was a 170% increase in homicide, a 125% increase in rape, a 143% increase in robbery, a 132% increase in assault, a 123% increase in burglary, a 99% increase in larceny, and an 82% increase in motor vehicle increase in Birmingham.
Who is responsible for this increase in crime? Could it be the same financially stressed black people who are responsible for the explosion of title pawn and payday loan businesses in Birmingham? Both are growth industries in David Sher’s “The Comeback City” (read: The Tragic City) these days.
Buh buh buh but you didn’t talk about the socioeconomic factors affecting Birmingham and the legacy of racism and discrimi…….. (vomits on keyboard)
Speaking of payday loan businesses:
Adam Carolla interviews ex mayor of San Francisco and current Lt. Gov of California Gavin Newsom. Newsom tells Carolla of the need to shut down Payday Loan businesses in the state to protect the Blacks and Mexicans. Carolla then asks why Jews Armenians and Asians don’t need to be protected from these evil businesses and Newsom spends the next nine minutes playing mental gymnastics trying to avoid saying anything bad about his brown pets.
The only reason Birmingham may be categorized as violent is that FBI crime statistics compare the City of Birmingham with other metropolitan areas.
Not true. The crime stats compare Birmingham with other cities, not metro areas.
So the City of Birmingham is being measured against metro Nashville or metro Jacksonville.
Not true. Nashville and Jacksonville have city-county consolidated governments, which are only part of their overall metro areas (MSAs).
Metro Nashville and Jacksonville also have high crime urban areas, but they are balanced out with safe suburbs located within their city limits.
If he dropped the “Metro” at the start of this sentence, then this would be true. But he’s being disengenous by using Nashville and Jacksonville as examples, because they are among the very few city-county consolidated governments (along with Indianapolis) in the country. Birmingham’s crime rate is being fairly compared with Detroit, Atlanta, Houston, Newark and every other city in the US.
Mt. Brook, Vestavia, and Trussville are not included in Birmingham’s numbers.
And the smaller, whiter towns in Wayne County aren’t included in Detroit’s numbers either. And the same could be said about every other city on the list, except Nashville, Jacksonville and Indianapolis. So what’s your point?
The equivalent neighborhoods would be incorporated into other metros.
He’s wrongly confusing metros with city-county consolidated governments again.
Birmingham’s metro crime statistics are about average.
Maybe, maybe not. But we’re comparing *cities* here, not metros. And it’s clear that the overwhelmingly black city of Birmingham is one of the most dangerous in the US.
Which brings up an interesting question. What if Birmingham consolidated with the rest of Jefferson County? Overnight it would transform into a white-majority city, a tiny majority of 51.4%, but a majority nonetheless. And the black percentage would plunge from 73.4% to 42.3%.
The ratepayers of whitopias like Mt Brook, Vestavia and Trussville probably won’t want to be joined at the hip with the ghetto-dwellers of central Birmingham, but this is one way to reclaim a once-great city from African barbarism to Western civilization. I don’t know if this is the right answer; how has city-county consolidation worked out in Nashville and Jacksonville? If it’s worked for them, then it might be worth replicating in Birmingham and all across the country.
A sad thing about the way things are: is that we have the illusion, all the time, that lower income creates crime. At a certain level (needing bare necessities) that can be true. But in reality, there used to be MANY (comparatively) lower income white areas with NO crime.
I always think of a beachfront trailer park down in FL that I saw on t.v. once. It was such a paradise that now some hotel wanted the land.
There are ranch houses smaller than trailers and one can easily imagine living in a trailer park with people you really liked and trusted, so it was a real community.
In the way things are, people feel pressured to “earn” simply so they can escape if thing “get bad.” That sort of thing. ESCAPE is, for many, their primary internal emotional (and often unconscious) motivator, and they don’t even know it about themselves.
Which was the real point of private property, and trying to make even poor people, “LANDED” people, so they can be in real communities, be settled, and grow things, improve their environment, not fear things will be taken away, not feel constantly unsettled and controlled. Oh well.
There’s no reason that the right kind of poor people couldn’t really live in a great way—- eating organic food (that they grow), reading good books, thinking about things, creating and building, improving their little area, (instead of trying to improve strangers) etc.
It’s a lukewarm race war everywhere in the country…
“It’s a lukewarm race war everywhere in the country…”
Not in the white counties it’s not.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QR6iSfTAJww/SWwBtzTLYyI/AAAAAAAAAAM/WWY5U6dpSKc/s1600/WhiteAlone1.gif
“There’s no reason that the right kind of poor people couldn’t really live in a great way—- eating organic food (that they grow), reading good books, thinking about things, creating and building, improving their little area, (instead of trying to improve strangers) etc.”
Gee Dix, I never took you for a hippie chick before.
Thanks for the link, Rudel.
The county by county map shows the south being the most non-White sectional region in the U.S.
The south is on the rise!
The south is now the canary in the birdcage. It will be the first section of the U.S. to take the brunt of mexican immigration. Don’t have the link on hand, but obama’s premature release of criminal illegal alien inmates(wetbacks) was primarily in southern states. The government is confident that zero push back will occur in the south as race replacement policies are thrust
People outside of the south should take note, this is what happens when apathy and ignorance takes hold.
The goal is to understand truth. What is the truth of this situation? If the truth is that African-Americans commit more crimes, what is the solution – at least in the African-American community?
If my own family, community or race is having a problem, it’s imperative that my family, community or race understands that problem and deals with it before it endangers another family, community or race.
I think we would see a significant decrease in crime statistics in Birmingham, and Jefferson county as a whole if the District Attorney’s office would do their job! Did anyone else see where the black thug that murdered five men in cold blood while they played cards will be OUT in 12 years because of the plea deal he was given by the DA’s office?????? ONLY 12 YEARS for killing 5 men during a robbery (and by the way, he killed them execution style!)
Here’s another example….Last year, two black thugs shot a single mother twice in the back of the head, wrapped her body in bed sheets and set her on fire in her bathroom after breaking in to steal her laptop and flat screen tv (They saw the boxes that the tv and laptop came in sitting out by the road next to the garbage cans)…Those two black thugs recently were given a plea deal by the DA’s office…..one got off completely free, and the other only got 5 years….he’s ALREADY out—
The DA’s office needs to start doing their job….PROSECUTING CRIMINALS instead of all the plea bargaining… If all they plan to do is Plea bargain, we need to get rid of most of the 30+ attorneys there, and hire arbitrators to take pleas…..
WE NEED TO VOTE THIS POOR EXCUSE OUT OF THE DA’S OFFICE, AND ELECT SOMEONE WHO KNOWS HOW TO DO THE JOB…