Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Dodging Emails Versus Dodging Bullets

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by

James A. Bacon
in ,

Erik Nielson, University of Richmond professor whose expertise is hip hop culture and African American literature. His recently published book is “Rap on Trial: Race, Lyrics and Guilt in America”

by James A. Bacon

What the Richmond Times-Dispatch considers news this morning…

Headline: “Task force creating Richmond police oversight board publicly calls out Chief Smith.”

Excerpt: “At some point, the unwillingness to engage with this body does start to feel like arrogance. I don’t think we can overlook it,” task force member and University of Richmond professor Erik Nielson said during a public meeting Wednesday. “If you’re watching a task force creating a civilian review board that could potentially just co-opt your authority, and there’s nothing. It makes me feel like they don’t believe it or they’re just not going to deal with it. They think they can get out of it.”

Here’s what WTVR considers news today:

Headline: “Widow tired of dodging bullets in Richmond neighborhood.”

Alice Tripp, 80, resident of Powell Road in South Richmond. Photo credit: WTVR

Excerpt: “You don’t even want to be in front of the windows. You don’t even play your television too loud. You go to bed and cover your head,” said Alice Trip who has lived near Powell Road for five decades. … “I heard a lot of gunshots, but that’s nothing new because we hear them quite often,” Tripp said about Thursday night. “It seems to be part of life now.”

Questions for readers:

  • What are the odds that Erik Nielson lives on Powell Road — or any other crime-ridden neighborhood where he fears for his physical safety?
  • Is it possible that Richmond Police Chief Gerald M. Smith has more pressing matters to attend to than answering Nielson’s texts, emails and phone calls?
  • If there is arrogance on display, could it be the arrogance of a white university professor lecturing a black police chief?
  • What does the RTD coverage of the “the police chief won’t answer my emails” story say about the world view of its reporters and editors? Is the news staff more likely to share the preoccupations of white university professors — Richmond’s cultural elite — or working class residents living in a poor neighborhood?

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42 responses to “Dodging Emails Versus Dodging Bullets”

  1. Publius Avatar
    Publius

    But remember…Black Lives Matter…except when they don’t…
    Yes, all you people who like to virtue signal, go live in Ms. Tripp’s neighborhood for a few weeks. You might have a slightly better appreciation for any policeman trying to keep order. Not an easy job. When the criminal is pointing the gun at you, where is the community peace officer to talk him out of it?
    Maybe the task force members, to get an understanding of the job, should ride the night shift with some cops in some of the crime ridden districts?

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      But they had these problems in these neighborhoods all along – long before BLM , right?

      So the police are saying ” don’t hold us accountable or we will stop protecting your neighborhood” ?

      But killings have been going on in bad neighborhoods all along so they’re telling folks in the “good” neighborhoods: “If the folks in the bad neighborhoods hold us accountable, we’re gonna stop protecting you guys in the good neighbhoroods” ?

      Compare this country to other countries on police killings and ask why we are more like 3rd world countries rather than other developed countries?

      1. Publius Avatar
        Publius

        Because of the absence of a father and cultural Marxists bent on destroying the family and hyping up a statistically false narrative that police are killing blacks… Out of millions of interactions a day…
        Occasionally, a white policeman shoots a black suspect, less often than suspects shoot policemen of all races. But stoke irrational fears so blacks resist arrest and more likely to end up with a bad outcome, perpetuating the Marxist narrative. Meanwhile, how many people got shot in Chicago, Memphis, Louisville, wherever last night? How many black? How many shot by another black? The police deserve respect. If a bad cop, get him out…oh, that’s right, the police union and the big city pols have their own corrupt relationships and the union may get away with protecting the bad cops…

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          So the father is “absent” cuz the police are arresting him for weed and petty drugs and locking them up for years or that he received no decent education or what?

          The police DO deserve respect and that’s what these videos are harming the police in general BECAUSE the Police will not be held accountable for the bad cops.

          They protect them. They deny and hide facts. They act like they did something wrong and don’t want it to get out – and in the process they harm the 99% good cops.

          Don’t blame those the bad cops are savaging. It’s not them – it’s the COPS.

          1. Publius Avatar
            Publius

            Larry – you are a waste of time – One Note Johnny, always playing the same tune…
            Jacob Blake had how many kids with how many women?
            There are plenty of black fathers not in jail for petty crimes, but they aren’t at “home.”
            In fact, an intact family probably lowers the money. Totally perverse incentives. The answer would be quit paying to have kids out of wedlock. Sorry for that tough truth.
            This applies to all races, not just blacks. Quit paying kids to have kids and quit allowing fathers to shirk their duties.

          2. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            re: “one note” and the “tough truth”.

            If that were actually true….

            First off, what does this have to do with police misconduct?

            Second, how many divorces are there where Dad is “gone” and Mom (usually but not always) ends up with the kids?
            Gonna make laws that prohibit divorce ?

            And in terms of jail – have you seen the incarceration rates between blacks and whites? How do you explain that? Let me guess, it has something to do with race, right?

            Fourth – you need to truly understand the tax laws – it’s not what you think. Low income folks with kids get earned income – whether they’re a couple or a single. It’s called the Child Tax Credit, not the “single mom credit”.

            Fifth – your “truth” is more your “belief” which is based on things you don’t understand or don’t want to.

            Is this “problem” with the missing dad also present in other developed countries, for instance?

          3. Publius Avatar
            Publius

            I will waste my time with you, one more time so others will learn why interacting with you is a waste of time.
            1. What does this have to do with police misconduct? Police generally go where there are crimes. That is where they are needed. So interactions happen in those areas. And if there will be violence, usually justified, it will be in such an area. How many of the publicized incidents happen in areas like Windsor Farms or along Cherokee Road?
            2. Another logical fallacy, bringing up divorce and the mother usually getting possession. The particular pathology we are seeing is a dramatic increase in babies without getting married, so divorce is another of your typical diversions. But, I’ll go there – no fault divorce has been a disaster. Meanwhile, bring back shame and use of the word bastardy…
            3. See answer 1 as to where crime occurs. I think this is unquestionably intertwined with lack of a stable home with the presence and disciplining force of a father.
            4. I guess all the years I prepared taxes made me not understand tax laws… Did you know unmarried couples will negotiate from year to year as they each file head of household on how many children they will claim? Yeah, that happens. People respond to monetary incentives. We have subsidized illegitimacy and we have more of it, and this has led to greater social disfunction. Moynihan warned of this at the beginning and he was no conservative.
            5. Truth is still truth. People respond to incentives. California is a natural paradise and lost population. Virginia is doing it’s best to chase people away. The unitary tax will be another straw…which one will break the camel’s back?
            6. You have wasted my time on illegitimacy previously by citing unmarried mothers in Europe and Iceland. I am talking about what is going on here. The circumstances of Joanna Angusdottir choosing to have a baby without marriage probably more reflect that almost all Christian influence is gone, yet the “mother and father” – such dangerous words! – are likely living as a couple and staying that way. But I don’t care – it’s Iceland! What is happening here and how to fix it?
            And the answer to that question is not by ever listening to or instituting anything Larry says, which we are witnessing not work all across the country right now.

          4. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            Over the weekend – shootings all over the country.

            Are you so sure they only happen in “certain” places?

            re: single, divorce , whatever.

            happens in all kinds of neighborhoods dude – not just “bad” ones. Do you have anything more than stereotyping going on in that noggin?

            having babies out of wedlock – yep – happens all over the world these days so do they have police killings in those other countries because single people have kids and live in “bad” neighborhoods?

            See, my thing is the obscene contradictions in your philosophy – which is not unusual, there are a bunch of you…. these days and a good thing ya’ll are not actually involved in trying to deal with the issues but just mostly pontificating from on high, ignorati blather on steroids…

          5. Publius Avatar
            Publius

            Oink oink.
            Where do you live Larry?
            You have no points. You have distractions and whataboutisms. Go ahead and do your shooting analysis. In Chicago there are very specific neighborhoods where the vast majority of shootings occur. This holds everywhere. It is disproportionately black. Why?
            See Larry – you are the racist…the Neo-racist, fully bought into CRT and the inability to see anything other than in terms of race. You are a One Note Johnny and keep looking for canards to not have the facts change your mind, then you castigate in broad generalizations those who disagree with you.
            I am taking you apart as a public service.
            People make choices. People respond to incentives. Having a baby out of wedlock is not a wise choice, black, white, red or yellow or purple. Subsidizing illegitimacy is not a wise policy.

          6. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            here’s some fact for you:

            https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/sites/default/files/images/chamie-chartPicture1-500px858.png

          7. Publius Avatar
            Publius

            Let’s see the full extent of Larry’s brilliance.
            More people everywhere are having children out of wedlock.
            Therefore, it is good.

            More people are fat. Therefore it is good.

            More people are espousing Marxist beliefs, therefore good…

            Wrong on all counts.

            If I actually wanted to inflame you Larry, I would use your “logic” to say something like…
            Charts prove more blacks are shooting blacks; therefore good…if you belong to the Klan…oh, right, That was Dem Antifa then! So now we have Antifa and BLM and the Dems doing the new and improved Neo-Racism of CRT…

          8. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            Never said it was good. Said that it happens in a lot of other countries and they don’t attribute it to CRT or kill people who do it and live in poverty, etc.

            Do all these other countries also provide “perverse incentives” and that’s why out-of-wedlock is common the world over?

            And why don’t other countries kill the folks who have out of wedlock kids and live in low income neighborhoods who don’t “comply”?

            And why are you talking about blacks shooting blacks if you say you’re not talking about race?

            Drugs and Alcohol “wars” were not really about Italians and other immigrants but today it IS about blacks?

            really?

          9. Paul Sweet Avatar
            Paul Sweet

            I wonder whether the low rates for South Korea and Japan could be related to why so many of them get into schools for the gifted.

          10. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            “taking me apart”. You’re comical guy.

            You talk CRT then say white, red and yellow.

            which is it?

            People all over the world have babies out of wedlock but only in the US do we apparently justify killing them and especially if they live in a “bad neighborhood”.

            https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/sites/default/files/images/chamie-chartPicture1-500px858.png

            Like I said, the good thing is you are not actually involved in policy and of course the bad thing is that there are others like you…

          11. Eric the half a troll Avatar
            Eric the half a troll

            As single parent households have risen on a per capita basis, urban crime rates have actually dropped. So… nope…

          12. Publius Avatar
            Publius

            Oh…wow! I’m convinced because the half troll who is a full troll says so! Or maybe I could see the “study”
            Maybe there is still localized crime in specific areas. Maybe there is some gentrification going on…which all you Leftists hate. Logical fallacies don’t work on me. The experts haven’t exactly covered themselves with glory…so I like to see the actual facts and all underlying assumptions and see if that matches my conclusion.
            Here is my bald assertion – Marxism is bad.

          13. Matt Adams Avatar
            Matt Adams

            Do you have the statistics to validate that statement, or is it just something your boss said?

          14. Eric the half a troll Avatar
            Eric the half a troll

            Hey! Happy Monday morning to you as well, Ace! Uneventful weekend for you, I trust. Welp, back to the old grind…

          15. Matt Adams Avatar
            Matt Adams

            “Eric the half a troll Matt Adams • an hour ago
            Hey! Happy Monday morning to you as well, Ace! Uneventful weekend for you, I trust. Welp, back to the old grind…”

            So I’ll take your non-answer as indication you don’t produce the data.

            So again, you’re lying.

            Be sure to let everyone know how your court case goes on Thursday.

          16. Eric the half a troll Avatar
            Eric the half a troll

            Ahhh… that stellar Conservative “logic” at work again….

          17. Publius Avatar
            Publius

            Matt – understand that this is the tactic to lower the level of discourse. Then they call you names. Full Troll didn’t provide the facts, you called him, he calls you stupid. Don’t take the bait. Larry keeps changing the subject rather than respond to facts. “See, you keep talking about blacks killing blacks so you are racist.” No, All people killing others is wrong; it is disproportionately more so among blacks. Why? I say lack of fathers, lack of good male role models and subsidizing illegitimacy. Larry says illegitimacy is up everywhere. So what? Still doesn’t make it good. Still doesn’t mean we should encourage it, much less subsidize it.

            I learned this tactic well over a 3 day ordeal with tag team trolls concerning HCQ. They would cite “studies” and demand I show official clinical studies, which didn’t exist then, and of course their “studies” were faulty and sometimes intentionally so. Then they would call me a liar, then stupid, and try to bait me into stooping to their level.

            Jim Bacon has remarked about Dick Hall Sizemore. Dick and I once agreed and I think we feared the world would end. Dick posts thoughtfully and merits response. But don’t get pulled into the baiting… Save yourself the time and aggravation.

          18. Eric the half a troll Avatar
            Eric the half a troll

            Psst… I’m not Matt…

          19. Publius Avatar
            Publius

            No fecal matter Sherlock – with no offense intended to James C. Sherlock…
            But Matt and I are still waiting for your study…

          20. Eric the half a troll Avatar
            Eric the half a troll

            Well, Doc, given that you have already begun arguing against the stats above, it seems like there is little need for me to reproduce them (yet again) here. You can argue cause all you like but the fact of the matter is that as single-parent family rates have risen crime rates have dropped. If you seek to establish a causal relationship between crime and single-parenting, you first must show a correlation, the decades-long historic data shows an inverse correlation.

          21. Matt Adams Avatar
            Matt Adams

            “If you seek to establish a causal relationship between crime and single-parenting, you first must show a correlation, the decades-long historic data shows an inverse correlation.”

            That’s completely false statement. All of literature and studies prove the exact converse of what you just said.

            https://www.mnpsych.org/index.php%3Foption%3Dcom_dailyplanetblog%26view%3Dentry%26category%3Dindustry%2520news%26id%3D54

            https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17768274/

            It’s fairly evident you don’t understand causation or correlation at all.

          22. Matt Adams Avatar
            Matt Adams

            So again, instead of posting the data to validate your claim you just act like the child you are.

          23. Eric the half a troll Avatar
            Eric the half a troll

            I’m not the one pouting and stomping my feet because someone won’t play your little game when you so demand.

          24. Matt Adams Avatar
            Matt Adams

            “Eric the half a troll Matt Adams • an hour ago
            I’m not the one pouting and stomping my feet because someone won’t play your little game when you so demand.”

            Asking you to source your opinion isn’t pounding ones feet nor is it a game. You made a statement, if you cannot validate said statement with data than it’s considered false.

          25. Publius Avatar
            Publius

            Matt – see? This is why you don’t engage fully with the trolls. Now you are supposedly being a child and stomping your feet, while he still can’t provide the data. All people who can think, which generally excludes the ED types (emoting Democrats, but I was being childish on purpose to p!$$ them off), understand that correlation does not equal causation.
            I will say this again – don’t get in a fight with a pig. The pig likes it and you just get dirty. The simplest thing is to just disengage from the time waste with an “oink oink.”

          26. Matt Adams Avatar
            Matt Adams

            Political Parties have nothing to do with it, there are ideologues on both sides and both are equally wrong.

            Our residents trolls are just that, trolls and ideologues who lack the basic understanding of the topics they comment on. They are incapable to using reason or logic.

  2. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    “Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.”

  3. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    This post is unfair and somewhat confusing. You refer to a RTD headline “this morning”. I read the entire paper this afternoon while sitting in my backyard. There was not a single story about the panel set up to make recommendations for a citizen review board. Later I found the story on the website, dated May 21. (I was out of town last week and must have missed that story in the print edition.)

    But on to the unfairness. You imply that the RTD is not concerned about “working class residents living in a poor neighborhood.” Here are some headlines from the print and website editions today:
    “As gun violence grips Roanoke, one family has paid a heavy toll”
    “Vigil honors slain woman, 18, found in Henrico apartment”
    “Two children injured in shooting at Petersburg apartments.”

    I don’t understand why you are so dismissive of the story about the citizen review board panel. The city council established the panel and directed it to provide recommendations. It would seem that the panel needs to get the perspectives and comments of the chief before it can may any recommendations. Also, it would seem that the chief would be anxious for the panel to hear his perspective. The recommendations of this panel could significantly affect the future workings of his department.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      Dick – it’s the narrative that some believe and often based on ignorance and stereotyping. It’s a refusal to understand some of the real harsh realities and underpinnings of some of these issues and a preference to assign blame rather than actually deal with the tough issues.

      We’ve had “tough neighborhoods” long before now and mostly in cities with immigrants and no blacks initially.

      Organized crime and gangs have been with us since the country started allowing Italians and others to immigrate!

      And we had a very successful and educated black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma and what happened:
      https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/tulsa-race-massacre

      And guess what, NOT in the public school textbooks!

      1. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
        James Wyatt Whitehead

        Horse Hockey Mr. Larry. Incidents such as the Tulsa Riot over shadow other historical events such as D Day or Chosin. Modern history textbooks in public schools are strictly from a left handed viewpoint now.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          re: “over shadow”.

          Hey James. I never learned about Tulsa in public school. Did you? Did you teach it in your hstory?

          My bet is that very few actually were taught about Tulsa or the Red Summer or quite a bit “history”.

          Or it was presented this way:

          https://blackhistorycollection.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/7.jpg?w=840&h=518

          1. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
            James Wyatt Whitehead

            Dude. Wake up. Nobody uses that stuff any more. Those students who read that book are now dead or in a nursing home. Check out the Savvas publisher of textbooks. All you have to do is sign in to see what a modern view is like. If you examine the Savvas interpretation of World War 2 you would come away with the view that Tuskegee Airmen, Navajo Code Breakers, the Waves, and Nisei Regiments did most of the fighting. Not diminishing their contributions. But what about the rest of the story? Oh yes I taught Tulsa. I taught the Danville Riots. Black history was always highlighted as a PART of the American story. Not THE story and the last word.
            https://www.savvas.com/index.cfm?locator=PS344o&PMDBSOLUTIONID=6724&PMDBSITEID=2781&PMDBCATEGORYID=815&PMDBSUBSOLUTIONID=&PMDBSUBJECTAREAID=&PMDBSUBCATEGORYID=&PMDbProgramID=154303&elementType=onlineSample&elementID=

          2. WayneS Avatar
            WayneS

            Regrettably, JWW, that text book was used in 4th grade Virginia history classes until at least the early/mid-1970s.

            It was used in my class in 1974, and I am both alive and living at home (for now).

      2. WayneS Avatar
        WayneS

        “Organized crime and gangs have been with us since the country started allowing Italians and others to immigrate!”

        Wow.

    2. James A. Bacon Avatar
      James A. Bacon

      Hey, Larry G, Nancy Naive, and Eric the Half Troll, read Dick’s comment and learn. If you think a post is unfair, this is how you make your point — with logic and evidence, not snark and distraction.

      Yeah, I took a cheap shot at the RTD when I posted this. Based on years of observations, I still think my observations about the newspaper are largely true, but I did not make the case in this post, and Dick was within his rights to call me for it. Although I do not relent on the larger issue — the extraordinary bias of the RTD — I do concede the validity of the points in his comment. In particular, I concede that I might have been hasty in dismissing the complaints of the task force.

      By addressing the topic as he has, Dick has opened up the subject for a potentially productive exchange of views.

      As my old headmaster used to say, read, learn and inwardly digest.

      1. Eric the half a troll Avatar
        Eric the half a troll

        “If you think a post is unfair, this is how you make your point — with logic and evidence, not snark and distraction.”

        Where’s the fun in that?!

        1. WayneS Avatar
          WayneS

          Not bad, Eric, not bad. You’re no Nancy Naive but you’re showing some potential…

          😉

      2. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        Dick is a patient man. I would submit that the original blog post (and others) are pretty much uber opinion and some of it just plain not factual, borders on misinformation.

        You and Steve complain mightily about VPAP’s assessment of BR not being “news” – but many of the blog posts – like this one are abundant evidence they are not. When have you admitted this?

        I don’t have the patience to read stuff that is just flat out “interpretation” of facts . For instance, how many times have you accused media of “extraordinary bias”? And how many times have you reference stuff that is just flat out misinformation and lies – way beyond “bias”?

        Dick is a patient man, I’ll grant that but just watching you and Sherlock whip on him the other day for his HONEST comments was confirmation of the “bias” in BR.

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