The below quibbles on the meaning of 'murder'--please I have the
right to use the word with its common meaning, legalisms aside.
And the US IS a European nation, what language do we speak, where
did our laws come from, need we go on?
State murders ARE murders, and they do focus on 'minorities' only 23%
of such murders are 'white' (read Germanic).
wcm
>
> In a message dated 5/10/00 1:37:27 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> > The below loftily celebrates the state murders, peculiar to the US among
> > European nations. However no mention is made about the state's focus
> > on the poorest people (often African/Chicano)--and the historical
> > insight that these state murders are but a continuation of lynching.
>
> Incorrect, William. Providing perspective is not an act of celebration,
> murder is a legal term that does not equate to legal execution, and America
> is not a European nation. I also consider the use of terms such as "among
> highly industrialized nations," "European nations," "civilized nations," etc.
> to be racist code referring to predominantly 'white' nations. Are we to
> think it a lowering of standards to be compared to predominantly 'nonwhite'
> nations? How does the rationalization go -- "Oh yes, they do kill quite a
> bit more of each other but -- well -- they're not white don't you know".:-)
>
> As to your attempt to put a racial spin on it the crime statistics do
> not support your suggestion that "the state" is focusing on nonwhites.
> Presented here for your edification:
>
>
> Bureau of Justice Statistics
> Homicide trends in the United States
> www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide
>
> Homicide offending rates by race
>
> Rates per 100,000 population
> Year White Black Other Ratio of black to white
> 1976 5.1 44.7 7.4 8.8
> 1977 5.3 42.3 8.3 8.0
> 1978 5.5 42.3 7.0 7.7
> 1979 6.0 45.2 9.5 7.5
> 1980 6.7 49.9 6.2 7.4
> 1981 6.1 44.8 6.2 7.3
> 1982 5.8 39.8 6.8 6.9
> 1983 5.3 35.6 6.4 6.7
> 1984 5.3 32.8 5.2 6.2
> 1985 5.1 33.3 5.6 6.5
> 1986 5.4 36.8 6.4 6.8
> 1987 5.3 35.6 4.9 6.7
> 1988 5.0 40.3 4.3 8.1
> 1989 5.1 41.9 4.3 8.2
> 1990 5.6 46.9 4.1 8.4
> 1991 5.7 50.4 5.4 8.8
> 1992 5.2 46.8 5.8 9.0
> 1993 5.2 49.3 5.6 9.5
> 1994 5.0 46.1 4.9 9.2
> 1995 4.9 39.1 5.1 8.0
> 1996 4.5 35.8 4.7 8.0
> 1997 4.1 32.4 4.5 7.9
> 1998 4.1 28.3 3.5 6.9
>
> Number of homicide offenders by race, 1976-98
>
> Year White Black Other Ratio of black to white
> 1976 9467 10523 362 1.1
> 1977 9842 10133 414 1.0
> 1978 10293 10329 361 1.0
> 1979 11455 11227 503 1.0
> 1980 12935 12911 354 1.0
> 1981 11976 12145 354 1.0
> 1982 11524 10943 414 0.9
> 1983 10651 9941 415 0.9
> 1984 10709 9270 358 0.9
> 1985 10410 9548 415 0.9
> 1986 10981 10700 497 1.0
> 1987 10804 10496 404 1.0
> 1988 10417 12040 375 1.2
> 1989 10608 12707 391 1.2
> 1990 11790 14281 394 1.2
> 1991 12057 15665 545 1.3
> 1992 11135 14804 609 1.3
> 1993 11179 15844 614 1.4
> 1994 10895 15036 558 1.4
> 1995 10643 12931 615 1.2
> 1996 9844 11985 584 1.2
> 1997 9022 11005 575 1.2
> 1998 9051 9733 470 1.1
>
> Source: FBI, Supplementary Homicide Reports, 1976-98.
> See the methodology section in Additional Information About
> the Data for weighting and imputation procedures used.
>
> As you can see, Black Americans murder overwhelmingly out of all proportion
> to their percent of the population so it is to be expected that they would
> represent a high percentage of those who are on death row, yet they are still
> outnumbered on death row by white murderers.
> Yours,
> Issodhos
>
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