Media Blames Black Mayors - Not Bush - for Rising Homicides

From the New York Times castigating Mayor Booker in Newark to the San Francisco Chronicle’s almost absurd attack on Oakland’s Ron Dellums, the message is clear: black mayors, not the white elite in Washington D.C., are failing to serve the needs of minority communities. Where is our Martin Luther King, Jr, to speak out against such nonsense?

Two recent murders have brought renewed attention to the rising violence in African-American communities. And in both cases, the media has exempted the federal government from responsibility, while blaming recently-elected black mayors.

In Oakland, the murder of journalist Chauncey Bailey by individuals connected to Your Black Muslim Bakery led Chronicle columnist Chip Johnson to engage in another attack on Mayor Ron Dellums. According to Johnson, Bailey’s killing “signaled the abysmal failure of the city's elected leaders to come up with a strategy to address the violence.”

After unfairly criticizing Dellums’ handling of the garbage lockout---for which all sides praised him to the hilt---Johnson now claims Dellums lacks a strategy to reduce violence.

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