Pubdate: Mon, 21 Jul 2003
Source: Wilmington Morning Star (NC)
Copyright: 2003 Wilmington Morning Star
Contact:  http://www.wilmingtonstar.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/500
Author: Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues)

KILLINGS BLAMED ON DRUG CULTURE

Blacks Often The Victims

GREENSBORO - Christopher Harmon died in January when he was shot in the 
head outside a nightclub.

While some of the city's most hardened detectives described the shooting as 
cold-blooded and senseless, the death of the 20-year-old North Carolina A&T 
junior was the latest in a familiar pattern in Greensboro.

Since 1993, 60 percent of the city's homicide victims and more than 70 
percent of the offenders were black men. Those numbers are higher than 
across the state and nationwide, where 40 percent of all homicide victims 
and about half their killers were black males during that same period.

Five of the city's 17 homicide victims this year and a majority of the 281 
slayings since 1993 were shootings of black males ages 18 to 34, the News & 
Record of Greensboro reported Sunday. Killings have become so common that, 
in some neighborhoods, they are something of the mundane. Residents seemed 
indifferent when Bozi Baare, a 31-year-old immigrant from Niger, was gunned 
down last month in his Lexus in northeast Greensboro.

"Nobody cried, nobody screamed, everyone just stood around talking about 
it," Greensboro homicide Detective David Spagnola said.

Nearly a third of Greensboro's killings in the past decade have been 
drug-related. Police statistics show that number has jumped to almost 40 
percent in the past five years.

Drugs are a big reason why the city has bucked a statewide trend of 
decreasing homicides, authorities said.

Across the state, homicides are down 30 percent from 1993. In Winston-Salem 
they dropped 60 percent in that time; in Raleigh homicides decreased 25 
percent.

Greensboro had 31 homicide victims last year, 10 of which were killed 
during drug disputes, police said. In 2000, more than half of the city's 
homicides were drug-related.

Most drug-related homicides have more to do with money, said Norman Rankin, 
a Greensboro homicide detective.

"I haven't seen a murder where they went in and killed that person because 
they wanted their drugs," Mr. Rankin said. "They want the money. They know 
the drug dealers have the money."

Police also attribute a proliferation of guns - especially in poor, urban 
areas where blacks make up the majority of the population - as adding to 
the number of violent crimes.

"Nobody gets beat up anymore. It's too easy to get a gun," Mr. Spagnola 
said. "It's gotten to the point where I'm afraid to make a stop if I'm 
unarmed."

Sociologists cite a lack of role models and structured activities to keep 
children away from drug-infested streets as a reason why more young black 
men choose to pick up guns.

"They don't have the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, trip to Spain during the 
summer. They don't have ways in which to escape these situations that lead 
to homicide," said Saundra Westervelt, an associate professor of sociology 
at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. "If you let the kids in 
the Boy Scouts loose in the world without anything to do, they will find 
situations that lend themselves to homicide."

When left to roam, men are more likely to be lured to dangerous 
environments, Dr. Westervelt said, which may explain why women comprise 
only 17 percent of the city's homicide victims.
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