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Shooting near Mosby Court
07/19/2009 8:50 PM by John M
An as-yet-unidentified 19-year-old is at MCV after being shot in the chest during a drive-by on the 2200 block of Redd Street soon after 5PM this evening. From the RTD:
“About 50 people surrounded the crime scene within minutes of the shooting but quickly dispersed when police approached them for information.”
That’s unfortunate, as up until now I’ve heard nothing but good things about Mosby Court.
Here’s what absolutely KILLS me about the black community. 50 people around and no one knows anything? Unbelievable.
I witness this all the time. I understand the perception that *some* minorities have about law enforcement but you gotta do the right thing. Is crime so ingrained…so causal and just a part of everyday life in black culture that they’d rather let someone die and not have peace and justice for their family than to “snitch” (as I’ve heard it referred as?)
There’s two sections to Mosby Court. From what I’m told, one section is more rough than the other.
@Stepehen – There are 3 sections to Mosby Court: North, Central, and South. Mosby Court Central is by far the largest and most dense of the three, and abuts a series of large private apartment buildings as well. Most of the time that Mosby Court makes the news it is because of an incident in Mosby Court Central.
@CHDrew:
You should learn something about the scientific method. Generalizing the character of an entire race of people based on the behavior of a small sampling of that population is bad science. It’s also bad manners.
I have a friend who’s a secret service agent; do you suppose he would’ve not responded to the police if he’d witnessed the incident? Don’t answer too quickly, he *is* black…
#5 Stretch: No apologies from me. I stand by what I said. 50 people and no one saw anything. Disgusting. That’s a complete slap in the face to the family members of the victim who, absolutely deserve justice.
I can only judge based on what I see and hear. For instance, I was taking the bus to work one day (my car was being repaired thanks to some neighborhood hooligan antics) and two young A.A. girls got on the bus. As we drove along Marshall, a police car with a BLACK officer and a black male passenger cruised by. The first words out of their mouths? “You can tell that’s a snitch”, They chuckled and went about their business.
Let’s just assume for a minute that the passenger was assisting the officer with a case, or was just doing the right thing by fingering someone in an otherwise unsolved crime. What’s wrong with that?! Why is someone considered a “snitch” if they do the RIGHT thing?
Stretch, I have no doubt that your friend would step up and take action in an investigation to find the perpetrators of this terrible crime. I would hope that someone at THAT level of law enforcement would feel OBLIGATED to do make the right decision, regardless of the consequences.
The reality is that it may be dangerous to publicly provide the police with information. Hopefully some of these folks who “dispersed” saw clear to anonymously call 911 or a crime tip line to assist investigators. We all want basically the same things…and one of them is to live in without fear in a safe neighborhood. Bad guys are bad guys regardless of skin color.
@CHDrew, RE: Stretch, I have no doubt that your friend would step up and take action in an investigation to find the perpetrators of this terrible crime.
Thus, as my friend is black, it’s not a function of race, but of something else, yes?
CHDrew, I think Stretch is trying to say that while “no snitching” might be an unfortunate feature of a particular community populated by people of a particular socioeconomic level with particular feelings about the police, in Richmond and Baltimore and elsewhere, that’s different from saying that it’s a feature of “black culture.” I mean, you used the words “black culture” and “black community,” which could include people like Tiger Woods and Barack Obama and Ray Charles and Toni Morrison and Bill Cosby and Michael Steele and Oprah Winfrey. On the other hand, you can probably find lots of high-crime non-black communities throughout the country where the “no snitching” attitude is just as prevalent. You think people are cozy with the police in East Los Angeles? What about Howard Beach? It’s not about being black. It’s about living in a high-crime neighborhood where intimidation and retaliatory violence is common.
what about the crimestoppers and crimesolvers programs? an unintended conseuence of these “well meaning” programs is why should a witness give any info. to the police on the scene when you can possibly make some money by calling these programs with the information you have.
CHDrew… you’re nutty.
If you were not involved in the incident, then you have no valid opinion to begin with.
“The Black Community and Snitching in the modern day main stream…”
It was the Nazis that honed the “See something, say something” campaign that works so poorly in the NYC subways. In grade schools around america, local and government officers hand out pamphlets with 1-800 numbers for kids to call in if they think their neighbor or family member is doing something wrong.
^^That in itself if wrong.
Hyper-generalizing is wrong.
And yes… “Snitching;” giving other peoples private, and otherwise safe, information in exchange for money, or good standing with the police/court…
^^Yeah, Snitching is a bad thing… anywhere.
Snitching is what allowed for the speedy liquidation of an entire race of people in a matter of months during the 2nd world war. That and some help from IBM.
But what I am saying here is that CHDrew is a Nazi sympathizer, and is willing to sell anyones private information to crack a case. Go Nazi’s Go!
The black community! Haha… I can see them all right now, all crammed into Mosby Central, selling crack all day, shooting at each other from their giant cars and wearing white t’s.
Just like Colon Powell’s hood.
It’s just that CHDrew’s comments seem somehow devalue the human being that got shot. Maybe not directly, but indirectly. By saying that black culture is disgusting, you are implying that the victim of the shooting is also disgusting. As if he were less of a human being.
That’s why the comment borders on offensive.
Tiny,
I find Anon E Mous’s comment bordering on offensive…
Okay, here goes:
#12: YOU are disgusting. Comparing me to Nazis. I grew up with, and are close friends with….lots of people of jewish descent….you know, the ones that are constantly debased and devalued by so-called “leaders” of the black community. Racist “civil rights advocates” like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson…..Funny, but I never heard of either one of those guys standing up for women or gay rights?
#13. Where did I EVER say blacks are disgusting? I said no such thing. Perhaps I should have said ANYONE of ANY race or color who stands by while someone is gunned down and does nothing about it is a disgraceful human being.
As for “snitching” you proved my point. You’d rather let a man DIE in the hospital than to do the right thing and hunt down and prosecute the perpetrators.
Give me a break! If a low-life street-level drug user has information that will bring down the big-time dealer who sells to kids and who otherwise destroys the fabric of our community, damn right someone should start talking!
Give it a break #12. Fear is a contagion that destroys communities. Putting greater faith in murderous thugs than the police will only encourage the thugs to continue their violence and will further rot the soul of the community. The community needs to stand up and demand that the police do their jobs. But that means the community must also agree that it will do everything possible not to be dragged into a cesspool of crime and violence. It must hold those responsible for criminal acts accountable and actively assist in the prosecution of such criminals. The response of the community as reported was pathetic and only encourages the violence to continue.
All of this is pointless since, despite Obama’s “great speech” on race, there’s no such thing. We will NEVER be able to freely and openly discuss race in this country.
Whites have to walk on eggshells and God forbid they say something negative, and blacks keepo drumming history of which most of us have nothing to do with!
#16 Well said Brad. Eloquent and well thought out.
Brad brings up an excellent point here. The cycle of fear STOPS when the community takes an active role in reclaiming THEIR streets.
As soon as these thugs realize that they can’t operate without the very real possibility of being apprehended by law enforcement (by way of citizen involvement), they’ll move on.
You were most certainly attacking the values of the black community as disgusting.
19: Yes, the value systems of THESE particular people is EXTREMELY out of whack. Imagine you were the Mother/Father of that man that got shot and NONE of your so-called ‘friends and neighbor’s saw a thing. That’s just unacceptable.
CHD, in your original post, you said, “Here’s what absolutely KILLS me about the black community. 50 people around and no one knows anything? Unbelievable.”
Surely it’s clear to you, with the mention of Oprah, Colin, Obama, my Secret Service agent friend, etc., that there’s no such thing as a homogenous “black community” or “black values,” no more than there is a homogenous “white community” or “white values.” To argue otherwise is racist.
My values are much closer to Barack’s than to Dubya’s, for instance, even though from a racist perspective one would falsely assume that I’m more like Dubya than Barack just because of my skin colour.
To your credit, your last post seems to indicate that you understand this, and, perhaps, chose your words poorly in post #1.
Richmond Police need the public’s help in finding Tyron Rowell in connection with a shooting Sunday in the 2100 block of Redd Street.
Rowell, 25, of the 2100 block of Second Avenue, is 5’8 inches tall, 150 pounds and has brown eyes and short black hair. He is known to hang out in the Venable Street/Mosby area.
He is wanted for attempted murder and use of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
Anyone with any information on his whereabouts is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 780-1000.
The U.S. Marshal Service Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force – Richmond has captured Tyron Rowell, 25, of the 2100 block of Second Avenue. He will be charged with attempted murder and use of a firearm during the commission of a felony for the shooting.