America's "Most Dangerous City" is a COLONY

[nattyreb]

Bro. Osayande is DA TRUTH! Nuff respect due!
(From Sis. M. {South Jersey native})


America ’s “ Most Dangerous City � is Actually a Colony
by Ewuare Osayande | November 30, 2005

This past November 14, Camden , NJ was designated “ America ’s Most Dangerous City � for the second year in a row by Morgan Quitno, a Lawrence, Kansas-based corporation. Many within the city have derided the claim calling it unfair. The truth of the matter is that not only is the claim unfair, it is unjust. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Although many city officials are up in arms about the title this year, last year those same officials used the designation to bring more police into the city to “crack down on crime.� They claim that there have been fewer homicides this year (Quitno’s data is based on 2004 data) as a result of the crackdown. But that is only half the story. Of all the reporting done around this, no one has discussed the reasons why crime is even committed in Camden or any other city in this country.

A more accurate title might be Camden is the “ America ’s Poorest City � as it is certainly the poorest city in the state of New Jersey . Sociologists have been writing studies for years tying crime rates to poverty rates. According to federal and state statistics, the majority of those convicted of crime in Camden fall way below the poverty line and many never got their high school diploma. Fact is that crime in America is a product of poverty multiplied by lack of education. But those facts won’t sell papers or corporate reports, so it doesn’t get covered.

Camden’s city-boosters talk up the redevelopment efforts, yet fail to address how the poor are going to afford to live in their native city once the new homes have been built. Construction companies currently working in the city are under no mandate to hire local labor. Thus many of Camden ’s youth have no viable recourse. Yes, there are a few non-profit ventures working to transition the poor into stable jobs. Yet, these groups do not have the resources to address the overwhelming numbers of people struggling to make ends meet in the city.

Furthermore, Camden ’s Black and Latino majority population have had their voices and votes silenced for the past several years since the state all but dismantled democracy and instituted state-rule via chief operating officer Randy Primas in the Spring of 2001. Even though some citizens still vote every election year, the exercise is futile because, in the end, the state still calls the shots. Camden is a colony.

If governmental corruption was the cause for the take-over, then why aren’t the feds running the state of New Jersey after McGreevey stepped down in November 2002? Just months prior in the spring of 2002 McGreevey’s lover, Cipel stepped down as the head of homeland security for the state after Republicans wanted to question his credentials. The governor, not wanting his affair with Cipel exposed, had him removed from the office yet continued to keep him as personal aide even as he continued to pay him an annual salary of $110, 000 a year. Cipel remained one of the highest paid employees of the state of New Jersey , even though he had no real job description. McGreevey announced his resignation in August of that year only after Cipel would threaten him with a sexual harassment lawsuit after he was let go as McGreevey’s aide just weeks before. Is this not an example of governmental corruption? Of course it is. Yet no one called for the federal government to take the reigns in New Jersey .


The real reasons for state takeover of Camden , NJ have nothing at all to do with corruption, unless we are discussing the corrupt ambitions of the state and its corporate backers. Just as in any colonial situation, the colonizing agents seek to exploit the resources of the colonized territory. State officials and their corporate-backers seek to turn Camden into a money access machine they can take tap for years to come. But before they can cash-in, they have to get out the populous that poses a problem to their plan: the poor.

In order to gentrify the city, the poor must be confined or removed. By bringing in more police to quash the poor, the state is able to project the image of safety and security. The hope is that this will attract suburbanites and corporations into the city.

In the end the designation “ America ’s Most Dangerous City � works to criminalize Camden ’s majority Black and Latino citizens thus creating a justification for their wholesale removal and/or elimination. This is quite comparable to when this country’s founders called the Indians “savages� and commenced a genocidal campaign to remove them from the landscape so that they could claim the land for themselves. They are pouring money and resources into the City of Camden , not to educate, employ and house the poor of Camden , but to arrest, harass and lock them down.

Camden is a colony and its citizens are have been targeted once again for removal. I wonder if Americans will applaud and call us patriotic if we followed the example of the first colonialists when they defied the British crown and rebel against the state of New Jersey .

Camden native Ewuare Osayande (www.osayande.org) is a political activist and poet. The author of several books including his latest work entitled Blood Luxury. He is co-founder of P.O.W.E.R. (People Organized Working to Eradicate Racism). He can be reached at OsayandeSpeaks@hotmail.com.


AMERICA ’S MOST DANGEROUS

Copyright 2005 by Ewuare Osayande



are we America ’s most dangerous?



are we

more dangerous than Bush in Iraq ?



are we the reason why

the price of gas is so high?



are we as dangerous as the bombs

being dropped from the sky?



are we as dangerous as the robbery of our votes?



what makes us so feared?



is it the way we talk?

the way we walk?



is it our faces

so dark?



our nappy hair



could it be our genes that give you such a scare?



who is it among us that gives you the most grief?



is it our grandmothers that cause you to contort in fright?



or is it our babies that Bennett wishes we had decided to abort?



no?

then certainly it must be our youth



those that overpopulate the prisons

cause they can’t afford justice



who don’t make the laws or write the books



are they the real criminals

or the ones being crooked?



are we as dangerous as

the dirty water we drink

or the toxic air that stinks?



as dangerous as the boarded up buildings on our block

when we are denied loans to turn them into homes?



are we as dangerous as winter when we can’t afford heat?



are we as dangerous as disease with no HMO?



are we as dangerous as the drugs

that find their way under the radar screen

of your high-tech surveillance systems

onto our streets?



are we as dangerous as the guns

we don’t manufacture?



as dangerous as the cops that kill us at will?



are we as dangerous as an all-white jury?



could it be that

you are afraid that your children

will take up after the ways

you taught us

when we were your slaves?



could it be the fact

that we are all that stand

between you and the real estate

you crave?



are we as dangerous as your ancestors that killed off the Indians then took their land?



is that what you have planned for us too?



are we as dangerous as your ego?



yes, we know we are dangerous



just not in the way you mean



see we are as dangerous as love

something you clearly

have no knowledge of



we are as dangerous as survival itself



as dangerous as the fire of a Molotov cocktail being hurled into the sky



we are as dangerous as the reasons why Paris went up in flames



we are as dangerous

as the desire to be free



we are as dangerous as the truth



we are as dangerous as Rosa Parks

when she refused to give up her seat



we are as dangerous as ourselves

when we refuse to give up these streets


cause we are as dangerous as destiny