Well, why did you start by citing travel advisories, then?
Anyway, even from your own Wiki cite, I can see that for the decade 2001-2010, the USA had a higher homicide rate than Kenya, Djibouti, Somalia (!), the afore-mentioned Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Burkina Faso. These are all sub-Saharan countries, with a combined population of approximately 280 million people.
I think your thesis might need a bit of work…
Not Ireland! You take that back!
I kid, I kid. Half the cabbies in Cork are from Nigeria.
Well the Italians are a swarthy folk…
This is as ignorant as your racism.
Hmm… I don’t know about that. They all look white to me.
Granted, this guy looks a bit shifty, but so would anyone in that outfit.
The link that I gave you was right about Djibouti and Burkina Faso, probably wrong about most of the others, and certainly wrong about Kenya and Somalia. The authority I trust most on this is the State Department.
There is a high rate of crime in all regions of Kenya, particularly in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, and coastal beach resorts. There are regular reports of attacks against tourists by groups of armed assailants.[1] However, the most common crime in Kenya is carjacking so the criminal can commit an armed robbery. “Snatch and run” crimes are becoming more common on city streets.
The crime rate in Djibouti is low compared to industrialized countries.
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/rwinslow/africa/djibouti.html
CRIME: Pervasive and violent crime is an extension of the general state of insecurity in Somalia. Serious, brutal, and often fatal crimes are very common. Kidnapping and robbery are a particular problem in Mogadishu and other areas of the south.
Entrenched poverty in Sierra Leone has led to criminality. Visitors and resident U.S. citizens have experienced armed mugging, assault and burglary. Petty crime and pick pocketing of wallets, cell phones, and passports are very common especially on the ferry to and from Lungi International Airport. Law enforcement authorities usually respond to crimes slowly, if at all. Police investigative response is often incomplete and does not provide support to victims.
Crime is a serious problem throughout Cameroon that increased in some areas of the country in 2010. U.S. citizens should exercise caution when traveling in Cameroon. Internet-based crime based in Cameroon is escalating rapidly, and U.S. citizens, including insurance companies and other institutions, should be extremely skeptical of any financial transactions that involve sending money for goods or services. Crimes against property, such as carjacking and burglaries, have often been accompanied by violent acts and have resulted in fatalities. All foreigners are potential targets for theft with possible attendant violence. Armed banditry has been a problem throughout all ten regions in Cameroon.
CRIME: Pick-pocketing, purse-snatching, and various types of scams are the most common forms of crime confronting visitors [in Ghana]. Travelers have reported these types of theft at crowded markets, beaches, parks, and tourist attractions. Incidences of violent crime, such as armed robbery, are on the rise, including reports of armed robberies in expatriate residential areas. Victims who resist attackers run a high risk of serious physical injury. Take security measures, such as traveling in groups and avoiding travel at night. Avoid travel in communal taxis.
The U.S. Department of State warns U.S. citizens of the risks of travel to Nigeria and continues to recommend U.S. citizens to avoid all but essential travel to the Niger Delta states of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers; the Southeastern states of Abia, Edo, Imo; the city of Jos in Plateau State; and Bauchi and Borno States in the northeast because of the risks of kidnapping, robbery, and other armed attacks in these areas. Violent crime committed by individuals and gangs, as well as by persons wearing police and military uniforms, remains a problem throughout the country.
CRIME: Minor street crime is very common in Senegal, particularly in cities. Most reported incidents involve pickpockets and purse-snatchers, who are especially active in large crowds and around tourists. Aggressive vendors, panhandlers and street children may attempt to divert the victim’s attention while an accomplice carries out the crime. To avoid theft, U.S. citizens should avoid walking alone in isolated areas or on beaches, particularly at night, lock their doors and close their windows when driving, and avoid public transportation. U.S. citizens should not walk on dark streets at night, even in groups.
The crime rate in Burkina Faso is low compared to industrialized countries.
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/rwinslow/africa/burkina_faso.html
Free translation: “I’m gonna find a cite that proves what I want it to prove, no matter HOW much I have to distort it or run down my own previous cites to do it!”
I especially love how it’s either the murder rate, the violent crime rate, or the “risk assessment” blurbs of the State Department that you cite, based ONLY on how well they “prove” your worthless, idiotic thesis.
I think we should evaluate individuals as individuals, rather than as members of a race. I do not think we should discriminate on the basis of race alone,
but that it is legitimate to discriminate on the basis of what correlates with race, when those qualities are relevant.
I have read people complaining that black students are more likely to be expelled from public schools than white students. That would bother me if it could be proven that blacks are not more likely to be unruly than whites, but it cannot be. In fact, black students are more likely to be discipline problems.
Also, we should not assume that black under representation in certain fields and professions is the result of racial discrimination if it can be proven that blacks are less likely to be qualified for those fields and professions.
Because blacks do have a much higher crime rate than whites, racial profiling is a legitimate way the police can proactively deal with crime.
If it can be proven that racial differences in intelligence and crime are primarily determined by genetics there should be an end to affirmative action, forced school busing, and AFDC, and a harsher criminal justice system. Those are directions the United States has been moving in since at least 1980.
One more point: I am in favor of efforts to reduce economic inequality, but I think they should be made without reference to race or sex. The emphasis should be on strengthening labor unions, raising the minimum wage, and on a well financed public sector of the economy paid for by steeply progressive taxation, rather than on affirmative action programs. Affirmative action programs discriminate against white men, especially working class white men, and contribute to the fact that most of them vote Republican.
Have you not see that documentary* with Tom Cruise about pro actively dealing with crime? Didn’t work out well did it? I think one of the bald fellas died.
NDD:
I’m sure we can all forsee the fallout if such studies were to prove genetic differences. Some would suggest that these studies not be done at all, in case they do in fact prove this. They say that this would do more harm than good. I can forsee a many closet-racists come out of the closet, and become MORE racist, and LESS likely to judge individuals based on individual merits. I’m sure we can both agree that this would be bad.
How do you see the pros/cons upon society if this were to happen? How would you suggest we deal with it?
Also, you say:
Isn’t this judging individuals based on group behaviour, instead of on their own individual merits? Doesn’t this make your support of racial-profiling contradictory?
Wow, this is the best-supported pitting I’ve seen. You’ve nailed this guy to the wall.
I’ll respond, albeit keeping it short.
Since race is really a construct, without scientific validity, what we should do is ignore studies showing that and laugh at their authors.
I’m dead serious. I’m white? What the hell is white? To paraphrase the immortal Samuel L. Jackson, “‘White’ ain’t no country I ever heard of! They speak English in ‘White’?!”
My Celtic ancestors would drop dead before they’d consider themselves the same race as their Norman oppressors, and the Normans wouldn’t have hesitated to call Celts a “race;” going farther back in time, both would have drawn steel on someone who called them Roman. And many, many different groups became amalgamated into the concept of “white” when certain Americans wanted to exclude other groups but did not want to risk being outnumbered by them. Thus the outcast and much-maligned Irish “race,” riddled with crime and poverty, “graduated” into the white mainstream, as did the swarthy Italians later on, gangsters and all.
Definitions of race change because it’s made up.
.
As a person of Asian descent, I demand that something be done about the shocking crime rates in the black, white, Hispanic and Native American communities.
The definitions of race vary. But that doesn’t mean there are no definitions. I am sure there are shared genetic features between those that identify themselves as African-American. My hypothetical suggestion is that a violence-gene or an intelligence-gene, or collection of genes, is found within these people.
To simplify: Imagine if we found the “violence gene”. Surveying the American population finds that 15% of people who identify themselves as non-African-American have the gene. But 85% of the people who identify themselves as African-American do carry the gene.
So WTF would you do now? Such results would clearly be meaningful - at the very least, because it would most certainly change the way society behaves and acts. How would/should we deal with such a revelation?
Race profiling is considered by many to be a reason New York City has one of the lowest crime rate of any large city.
<insert joke about Wall Street here>
You can be sure of it all you like; that doesn’t mean it’s true.
You’d be wrong, though. The Khoi-San ethnic group in Africa is (relatively) distinct from the Bantu groups that overran them, but descendants of both consider themselves African-American over here, having been misled by the widely-held illusion of race.
The question is akin to, “What if gravity reverses itself? It COULD happen!”
So what? It’s not going to happen in either case. “Race” doesn’t consistently exist for this kind of “science” to prove things about. Just as with people who warn us of gravity’s impending reversal, the correct answer is to point at them and laugh.
Neither of those cites say a thing about racial profiling.
Well, now, one can certainly identify ideologies that correlate with crime. For instance, someone who believes that rich people don’t deserve to keep their money is obviously much more likely to steal than someone who rejects that notion. Ergo, the police ought to be keeping a close eye on New Deal Democrat. A few phone bugs and hidden cameras might be a good investment (to which he would have no objection, given his stated position that he sees no value in rules against that sort of thing).
