Recent events in Waco, Texas involving an OK-Corral style shootout involving two biker gangs have once again focused the nation on the widely ignored phenomena of white-on-white crime.
Too often hidden in the shadows and generally disregarded by mass media, white-on-white crime is America's secret shame. Too many of us just say to ourselves, in a fashion which we should just frankly admit is racist, "Those people are animals. They deserve what happens to them. It's only a matter of time before they all end up dead or in prison."
That's just ignoring the root causes of white-on-white predation. Both the victims and the perpetrators of these crimes likely grew up on the mean streets of some non-gated suburban neighborhood. Often raised in homes where the father was absent, due to abandonment or imprisonment or his just spending all his time in the garage with a second-hand fridge full of Miller Genuine Draft, these faceless white youths just migrated towards the biker gang lifestyle. Many were forced to attend some of the worst junior colleges in the country, in shabby classrooms presided over by apathetic professors who had just given up on them, in a classic illustration of our failed educational system. Rootless and jobless because, let's face it, no one is going to hire you to sell shoes at Nordstrom's after you've shaved your head and tattooed an Iron Cross on your scalp, these young men drift into gang life at the tender age of twenty-six or seven. Subjected to a grinding cycle of poverty their whole lives, many of them, after buying an expensive motorcycle, multiple guns and lots of ammo, plus the requisite customized leather wardrobe, barely have enough money left over for an iPhone.
Once ensconced in the subculture, there's no escape except by the grave. Congregating in places where crystal meth is plentiful, beer in eighteen-packs is cheap and guns are everywhere (in other words, places like Texas), these Caucasian criminals own the streets, or at least the parking lots, especially the parking lots of places like Twin Peaks, the notorious breastaurant where the Waco guns blazed. "Wait a second," I hear you saying. "Aren't these white-on-white criminals supposed to be hanging out at clammy little strip bars where even the carpeting smells like a yeast infection? Or biker joints with a Harley-Davidson logo on every flat surface? What are they doing at Twin Peaks? I JUST HAD THE CHICKEN-FRIED STEAK THERE LAST WEEK!"
I hear you. And, more importantly, the management at Twin Peaks hears you. I guarantee you that right now the executive board of that dining establishment chain is birthing a bovine, or possibly excreting a unit of masonry, in response to the massacre on its premises, because they sure don't want to lose the business of all the white guys who barely have the nerve to sneak away from their wives for a chance to ogle some 19-year old waitress in a pushup bra, let alone the cajones to shoot it out with the Pagans.
But I digress. What I am saying is these are problems to be addressed. They are not just confined to Waco, although I admit the place is a hotbed of mass killings. Remember the Branch Davidians shooting at the ATF and the feds burning their compound to the ground in retaliation in '93? Talk about white-on-white violence!
No, the answer is not longer prison sentences and more police. Early intervention is crucial. Diversionary programs have been shown to be successful. One pilot program targeted first offenders by confiscating their Harleys, and handing them the keys to a moped instead. The gang members participating in this initiative instantly terminated their affiliation with their fellow outlaws.
Turns out they didn't want to be seen with each other
Too often hidden in the shadows and generally disregarded by mass media, white-on-white crime is America's secret shame. Too many of us just say to ourselves, in a fashion which we should just frankly admit is racist, "Those people are animals. They deserve what happens to them. It's only a matter of time before they all end up dead or in prison."
That's just ignoring the root causes of white-on-white predation. Both the victims and the perpetrators of these crimes likely grew up on the mean streets of some non-gated suburban neighborhood. Often raised in homes where the father was absent, due to abandonment or imprisonment or his just spending all his time in the garage with a second-hand fridge full of Miller Genuine Draft, these faceless white youths just migrated towards the biker gang lifestyle. Many were forced to attend some of the worst junior colleges in the country, in shabby classrooms presided over by apathetic professors who had just given up on them, in a classic illustration of our failed educational system. Rootless and jobless because, let's face it, no one is going to hire you to sell shoes at Nordstrom's after you've shaved your head and tattooed an Iron Cross on your scalp, these young men drift into gang life at the tender age of twenty-six or seven. Subjected to a grinding cycle of poverty their whole lives, many of them, after buying an expensive motorcycle, multiple guns and lots of ammo, plus the requisite customized leather wardrobe, barely have enough money left over for an iPhone.
Once ensconced in the subculture, there's no escape except by the grave. Congregating in places where crystal meth is plentiful, beer in eighteen-packs is cheap and guns are everywhere (in other words, places like Texas), these Caucasian criminals own the streets, or at least the parking lots, especially the parking lots of places like Twin Peaks, the notorious breastaurant where the Waco guns blazed. "Wait a second," I hear you saying. "Aren't these white-on-white criminals supposed to be hanging out at clammy little strip bars where even the carpeting smells like a yeast infection? Or biker joints with a Harley-Davidson logo on every flat surface? What are they doing at Twin Peaks? I JUST HAD THE CHICKEN-FRIED STEAK THERE LAST WEEK!"
I hear you. And, more importantly, the management at Twin Peaks hears you. I guarantee you that right now the executive board of that dining establishment chain is birthing a bovine, or possibly excreting a unit of masonry, in response to the massacre on its premises, because they sure don't want to lose the business of all the white guys who barely have the nerve to sneak away from their wives for a chance to ogle some 19-year old waitress in a pushup bra, let alone the cajones to shoot it out with the Pagans.
But I digress. What I am saying is these are problems to be addressed. They are not just confined to Waco, although I admit the place is a hotbed of mass killings. Remember the Branch Davidians shooting at the ATF and the feds burning their compound to the ground in retaliation in '93? Talk about white-on-white violence!
No, the answer is not longer prison sentences and more police. Early intervention is crucial. Diversionary programs have been shown to be successful. One pilot program targeted first offenders by confiscating their Harleys, and handing them the keys to a moped instead. The gang members participating in this initiative instantly terminated their affiliation with their fellow outlaws.
Turns out they didn't want to be seen with each other
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