By Nadra Enzi

When White mobsters waged war on 1930s America with tommy guns blazing, they were met by a public and private alliance that matched them bullet for bullet in many cases until the major ones were either dead or imprisoned. The same held true for their post-Civil War predecessors who decided to conduct a personal war against banks, stagecoaches and trains in search of other people’s money….

Fast forward to 21st Century America and White gangsters still exist, as do their counterparts in the inner city whose reign of terror continues unchecked.

Liberals and pragmatists state that declaring war on urban street crime should primarily be done financially i.e. via programs and targeted investment to fill empty pockets before some percentage of the empty pocketed become urban pirates. While this line of reasoning has great merit I’d hate to think that some thug with a record of terrorizing broke Black folks and anyone else could get a few taxpayer dollars in his back pocket and immunity from his wrongdoing.

After making this statement some of my peers invariably trot out the (tired) example of White millionaire pirates from the suburbs whose plunders from the life savings of thousands left them without even a bruise on their dimpled cheeks, let alone a domestic declaration of war against them. This is what crime fighters face in the Black community, people waving the flag of under punished White wrongdoing as if doing so will erase the Jesse Jameses in our community whose gunfights go on and on without interruption.

Double standards in the administration of justice will never justify crime committed by someone from any ethnicity. It sounds good and isn’t incorrect to bring attention to, but at day’s end we still have our gangs and violence to deal with regardless of how easy other offenders get it.

Gang warfare is what we face in too many inner cities coast to coast, whether the gang in question is near-nation state status like the Crips and Bloods or small, local collectives of chaos who the police often dismiss as not being “real gangs.” Tell that to their victims and those living where these guys play real life crooks and robbers with high capacity magazines emptying loudly without much concern where rounds end up.

Anyone who knows me knows I’m not in favor of a police state but do strongly favor a self-policed state within the Black community where we preempt alot of the violence ourselves and in partnership with public agencies open to working with us as citizens and stakeholders.

We need Black versions of Elliott Ness: men and women who are “untouchable” to fast money and even quicker jail time and dedicated to using the law and imagination to take the fight to those who murder, rob and intimidate without fear of response from those around them.

Every generation there are dramatic up spikes in violence from a percentage of the young male population (now joined by large numbers of young women) who take up arms against society. Social workers, clergy persons, club owners, and everyday citizens in the inner city have to “man up” and face these angry, armed men and women.
Wishing them away hasn’t worked nor has begging and bribery in the form of endless tax payer funded programs.

The old school reluctance to discuss this openly has given aid and comfort to very destructive personalities whose sole purpose is to impose their will upon whomever they please. While gunning them down in the streets as law enforcement did their White peers in the late 19Th and early 20Th Centuries may be a bit much for modern tastes, mobilizing against them isn’t outside current comfort zones.

Increasingly, otherwise liberal Black residents are fed up with brutality and are too happy to tell anyone who’d take the time to ask. There’s an Elliot Ness within each citizen tired of the daily diet of fear and headlines demonstrating just how bad some decision making can get.

Gangsters are a recurrent problem in society, one that can only be met by an effective combination of force and prevention.

The Elliott Ness solution is one only for times of emergency like these when mobilizing against the opposition is the only thing left to do. We can stand idly by and continue defining down what being Black is until we’ve segregated even ourselves from each other, something already underway and picking up momentum with every resident who leaves the inner city.

This is a step beyond “tough love” by making the lawful removal or reform of violent personalities a priority on the order of getting the Voting Rights Act passed a generation ago.

Conventional civil rights work lost alot of its luster when the daily internal violations of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness failed to register even as a blip on their collective radar screens.

Much as I loved sparring matches with necks a little too red for their own good, turning a blind eye to what’s happening in the inner city wasn’t an option. While arguments rage about the ultimate cause of what ails us, not working to transition the inner city to a safer, saner consciousness is tantamount to a mass suicide pact. Black Elliott Nesses say to the nation and the world that America’s inner cities finally woke up, stood up and decided to be counted.

I can’t wait for that day of days. I think it’s nearer than some would imagine.
NADRA ENZI AKA CAPT. BLACK promotes crime prevention and self-development alongside his STREET TEAM OF AMERICA Concerned Citizens Group.
WWW.MYSPACE.COM/NADRASW1