When the moral outrage button doesn’t work
on October 10th, 2006 at 11:02 am
Over the past few days/weeks while much of mainstream media has been tripping over the former Rep. Mark Foley “scandal” (which btw it has been revealed that he DID NOT have sex with underage boys nor did he proposition them), here are a couple of the real world issues that has been taking place right under our noses.
From LA Times:
A 3-year-old girl, fatally shot as her family arrived home after a Sunday afternoon trip to McDonalds, was intentionally targeted by a teenage gang member who fired at point-blank range, police said Monday.
The announcement, which came as detectives sought the public’s help in finding the killer, prompted new anxiety in the Southwest Los Angeles neighborhood of Baldwin Village, which has struggled with gang violence for decades…
LAPD Deputy Chief Charles Beck said the killer approached Kaitlyn, her father and her 6-year-old sister as they were getting out of the car outside their apartment building.
He shot and wounded Cesar Avila, a glass worker, erroneously believing that he was a member of a rival gang. He then aimed his gun at Kaitlyn and shot her once in the chest, police said.
“This wasn’t an accident or case of her getting caught in the fire,” Beck said. “He intended to kill her. This was callous killing. It is beyond even what gangsters consider usual.” (more…)
From Nola.com
For prostitutes working the streets of New Orleans, the post-flood era has sparked a boom in business, largely owing to the influx of an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 out-of-town workers away from their families with money to blow, police said.
It’s “like the Super Bowl” for sex workers, said Deputy Chief James Scott, commander of the Police Department’s Intelligence Division, from his division’s headquarters in a trailer…
Suspected prostitutes in today’s New Orleans, where a lack of bed space in the Orleans Parish Prison has authorities routinely transferring hundreds of prisoners accused of more serious crimes to out-of-town jails, are often being given municipal summonses rather than jail time for lesser offenses such as solicitation. And even when suspected prostitutes are taken into custody, they’re often back on the streets in a matter of minutes, Scott said.
With the lure of big money and small consequences, he said, the city has attracted out-of-town prostitutes who ply their trade mostly in the French Quarter. (more…)
I bring these two particular issues up because that have taken place in cities that have been considered “ground zero” for moral outrage. Back in 1992 when White LAPD officers apparently crossed the line in subduing a suspect, folks became angry from coast to coast. The frustration gave birth to riots that resulted in more loss of life, roughly over 800 buildings being destroyed, and the loss of many jobs and businesses held by Blacks in the Los Angeles area. Today, it is believed that a kid (Black) INTENTIONALLY shot and killed a 3-year old and you barely hear anything about the incident. If “whitey” wasn’t the one holding the gun, the whole incident is seen as just another rumble in the jungle amongst beasts.
When Kanye West proudly stood in front of national television announcing to the world that “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people”, he was only voicing the opinions of many throughout the United States who felt the same way. Though they will never admit it, politicians and “leaders” from all over the country used the Katrina situation to justify their “status” by portraying poor Black Americans as too dumb and too ignorant to help themselves–underscoring the need for further government charity. Folks wasted no time clothing themselves with the plight of these poor, defenseless and naive victims while wagging their finger towards a government that let them down. In order to display their “righteousness” in this situation, some even visited New Orleans after Katrina just long enough to hand out some food and clothes while occasionally telling a reporter “How could our government do this?” Well since Katrina, crime has gone back up, and according to this latest article so has prostitution. Where are all the breathless reporters now? Where is all the online discussion about THIS particular situation? While many of us were so anxious to link the whole Katrina situation to racism by arguing for days about two pictures taken by two different photographers and reported by two different news agencies, the rising crime rate in New Orleans seems to lack “sexiness” in the online community.
Let’s face it, we are a two-faced society. While I will not take the time to elaborate in this post, it also amazes me how on one hand it is considered fair game to make fun of those with special needs, the poor, single mothers and other ethnic groups while at the same time we are ready to crucify a politician for using the N-word 30 years ago. The truth is, moral outrage these days isn’t outrage at all. For the most part it serves only as the occasionally self-pat on the back to make many think that they actually stand for something.
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