Dunbar Village Two Months Later...Janjaweed in America.. A Matter of "Homeland Security"- Newark Update

If a Dunbar Village-esq crime happened in your neighborhood, how would that change the way you live your life?

How would that change the way you allowed your children to live their lives?

The latest from West Palm Beach ( It is official, these people are a tad bit off!)

Magnolia Park Rape Update ("Hurry Up! Me Next!")
Remember that second rape involving a group of Black teens less than a mile and less than a month after the Dunbar Village gang rape? The one where the rapist's friends stood by yelling "Hurry Up! Me next!" Well they arrested a second suspect....a 15 year old seventh grader. Now I know I went to school a long time ago, but at fifteen, I was beginning either ninth or tenth grade, but that is another story. Earth to West Palm Beach... "Y'all got a problem"

Back to Dunbar Village
First, the editorial writers have been busy, doing absolutely nothing but offering general words of advice, but nothing so rash as to actually demand specific action like say... install the donated air conditioners and fix the dayum street lights so the residents can see what is lurking in the shadows at night. Mayor Lois Frankel has had her "eyes on Dunbar Village since 2003," well hell if this is the results of attentiveness, I hate to see the parts of the city that were off of her RADAR.

Officials Tour Dunbar Village ( What took so long... it's only been over TWO MONTHS?). See Video here. I think they are trying to make a point, but they end up making another. You be the judge. Speak on it.

Some people apparently are planning to fight any plans to demolish Dunbar Village. Apparently unairconditioned 50 year-old barracks-style living is too difficult to part with. I don't have a problem with nostalgia and historic architecture, but WTH?

[L]ongtime residents from the 1960s and '70s, as well as County Commissioner Addie Greene, promised to fight any demolition plans, saying a chapter of local history would be wiped out.

"Why couldn't this become a model project and other people could come and see what could be done with older buildings?" said Bettye Dawson, who lived in Dunbar Village from 1957 to 1962. She noted that the housing authority offices in the community, and the landscaping around those offices, look very nice....Security cameras are more than a month from being installed. (SOURCE)

THEY DON'T EVEN LIVE THERE ANYMORE! Again, corralling a group of poor folks in a concentrated area so that they can be abandoned again is IMMORAL and CRUEL! Relying on the good intentions of political leadership is what got you here in the first place. The best protection for poor folks is to live in the middle of people who aren't. Why? Because when my street lamp goes out, I call the city. If the city doesn't fix it in the timely manner, I call the city manager, if they are crazy enough not to get it done, I call my council member and the Mayor, if that is not enough, I call Eyewitness News to do a story on my broken street lamp. ( insert whatever problem you have in place of the street lamp).

The West Palm Beach Police Chief is till engendering confidence in her law enforcement abilities... you know the one that had 15 murders in one year in Dunbar Village, rampant property crime and assaults and 717 police calls in a single year from a housing project with only 334 residents? yeah that police chief:

Police Chief Delsa Bush says they've been extremely fortunate to make any arrest, let alone four, in a case of this nature where the arrests must be based on evidence not eyewitnesses or statements. (SOURCE)

Seriously, when is the FBI going to get involved( I explain possible reasons the feds could get involved if they wanted to later in this post.) Did I mention that chief Delsa sees no need to have more than a $1,000 reward in this case? Did I also mention that she is going to solve a rape case based on DNA alone? Hmm, um what law enforcement manual is that police technique from? What if some of the attackers didn't leave recoverable DNA? What if they wore a condom as described in earlier news articles? What is the DNA was too degraded or was corrupted by the cleaning solvent the attackers threw on the victims? If you don't recover DNA does that mean the crime did not occur? Well apparently so because doing actual police work and investigation instead of convictions via mail order are too much work for Delsa:

"I'm not even sure 10 people were involved," Chief Bush said Tuesday in an interview with members of The Post Editorial Board. Nor, Chief Bush said, is a reward beyond the $1,000 offered by CrimeStoppers necessary: "We're going to solve this case solely on the DNA evidence, and we have a lot of that." SOURCE

I don't think Delsa could solve 2+2 based on her public comments. BTW Delsa, the answer is not 5.

Apparently their US Representative is saying the US Congress might be increasing funding to public housing although with West Palm Beach's track record at this point I don't know if all the funding in the world could right everything that is so very wrong.U.S. REP. RON KLEIN,

What Bloggers Are Saying
This story has legs, it might be slow moving, but it is still moving and spreading and everyday more people learn about this horror.

Mother Talkers finally heard about the story and she states why she is thankful not to be poor and points out the ridiculousness of building high rise condo towers while a portion of your town rots.

Soul Preaching asks that in the wake of the reaction to Dunbar Village, Can God Count on the Black Preacher? Um that would be NO based on results.


So in light of everything that is "happening" in West Palm Beach, I would like to offer some "observations" perhaps even a critique or two as I am prone to do. If you live in West Palm Beach, now would be the time that you stopped reading this post if you are "tender hearted" and have a heaping pile of civic pride.

Hmm,

Lots of movement, if not progress, seems to be occurring in West Palm Beach. I fear, however, that all this "movement" is all style and no substance. So perhaps we should clarify some things for the good folks in WPB, especially the political class because I become more and more distressed with each passing day of idiocy being generated from WPB. Pure unadulterated FOOLISHNESS!

1. Dunbar Village was a crime against humanity, not some petty theft of a bicycle. So what does that mean? It means that although the crime happened in West Palm Beach in a place called Dunbar Village, all of civil society has a vested interest in making sure that the conditions that facilitated this crime are stamped out and dealt with NOW, not when you get around to it. In other words this crime doesn't just belong to you and your city and its apparently petty psychotic politics. Whether you realize it or not, the eyes of the world of on you...AND y'all are looking ridiculously bad right about now. We can't afford to let you screw this up, despite your best efforts.

2. Clearly intervention from the State of Florida is required. Local government has broken down. Civil society is at risk for us all. You can't have roving militaristic gangs running around committing crimes against humanity as a matter of course. You had two rapes with one month and one mile of each other involving an attack on middle aged Black women by a group of teens. Around these parts we called that a PATTERN. One that has to be stamped out. This mentality of lawlessness and a disregard for human life and the laws of nature must be met swiftly and forcefully. The perpetrators must be dealt with unmercifully so as to attempt to dissuade potential future perpetrators.

3. The Federal government needs to get involved if the State of Florida will not. Now if reports are true that this was in retaliation for the victim reporting crime, I think a case can be made that this whole series of events qualifies as an organized criminal enterprise. Second, the victim was clearly targeted based on her gender- HATE CRIME and possibly her national origin- HATE CRIME! The United States government has a extremely vested interest in making sure that militaristic sexual violence is an aberration, not a standard intimidation tactic used by the criminal underworld on United States. The danger that this kind of attack poses to "HOMELAND SECURITY" is greater or equal to any threat posed by foreign terrorists. This gang rape was a terrorist act. You have civilians targeted for the purpose of intimidation and/or Retaliation. You got an entire neighborhood paralyzed in fear. Folks scared to leave their homes. Law enforcement out gunned and apparently outwitted(That would be YOU Delsa!).

4. What kind of civil society will we have if the freedom of movement for women and girls is restricted because little Dunbar Villages start popping up all over the country? Not possible? Well the conditions that lead to Dunbar Village exist all over the place. You think West Palm beach is the only place in America where they have piled all the poor people in one enclave and then turned their backs on them and left them to fend for themselves while the City of West Palm Beach built a 164 MILLION DOLLAR office building and recently approved 40 MILLION DOLLAR tourist promenade while the people of Dunbar Village were left to live without any working street lamps, no AC, and no security patrol. Despite the fact that it was a hotbed of crime? If a Dunbar Village-esq crime happened in your neighborhood, how would that change the way you live your life? How would that change the way you allowed your children to live their lives? Folks, that is what is at stake here; OUR VERY WAY OF LIFE! This didn't just happen to two people, it happened to us all so we have every right to maintain a vested interest in how we as a civilized society deal with this madness.

5. If ever there was something to be POLITICAL, how local and state leaders deal with this disaster should be POLITICAL. What the hell is government for if it is not shared defense? The primary function of local and state government are public safety and keeping the peace. What is more unsafe or warlike than something like Dunbar Village. So what does that mean? That means that before you build another promonade, or approve building permits, or send the mayor to some fancy conference in San Francisco, you have to handle civil order in your town. If you are not taking care of the minimal responsibilities of government, then we really don't need any politicians do we? SO hell yeah make Dunbar Village political. I mean making it non political is what got these people stuck in hell on earth in the first place. DUnbar Village should be SO POLITICAL that any politician not addressing this issue head on ought to be drummed out of office

6. We ain't going anywhere. Sorry, Mayor Frankel and West Palm Beach, you won't be able to run out the clock and hope that we forget about the horrors of Dunbar Village so you can print out some new tourism brochures. IF necessary, the city of West Palm Beach can become synonymous with Dunbar Village. Keep ignoring the public outcry by doing absolutely nothing and you might as well plant a sign right outside the city limits that reads "Welcome to West Palm Beach Florida- Home of the Dunbar Village Gang Rape." We really are not playing with y'all. Everyday, we become more sophisticated advocates and we are prepared to unleash a multimedia can of whoop @$$ if necessary. Unrelenting. Imagine every week waking up to wonder what multimedia send up we have prepared to alert the world about the foolishness in your city?

7. This whole situation from your neglect before the incident, to the apathy of your residents during and immediately after the crime to the current foolishness you political leaders are engaging in as they jockey to divert blame is RIDICULOUS and it is unacceptable. This circus might be acceptable to West Palm Beach residents, but not to the rest of the world.

You see, West Palm Beach, this is bigger than you so your typical petty myopic solutions are poorly unsuited to solve this problem so I suggest you try something new. Why not start with taking personal responsibility for you failures as political leaders to be good stewards for all of the residents of West Palm Beach. How about being man and/or woman enough to admit you could have done better but didn't. How about admitting that enough has not bee done. How about asking for the help that you so badly need. AND I AIN'T TALKING ABOUT A GRANT FROM HUD....I am talking about assistance from state and federal law enforcement. Because afterall, what happened in June in a place called Dunbar Village was a CRIME...A crime against all of humanity. One that we will NEVER FORGET!

View our Dunbar Village PSA in the sidebar. We will be unveiling an extra special multimedia treat next week. We've only just begun. As far as I am concerned, this is a battle for civilization and the only option is victory.

UPDATE: Speaking of militaristic rapes and killings, the lone survicor of the execution style killings in Newark, NJ has a victim's assistance fund:
Natasha Aeriel, shooting victim and sole survivor of the brutal Ivy Hill slaying, needs your help.

This week, Mayor Cory Booker announced an assistance fund has been established in her name:

"the fund that is seeking donations to support the recovery of Natasha Aeriel, the survivor of the August 4 shooting incident in Ivy Hill, which took the lives of three young Newark residents and left her badly wounded.

More info in the comments.
Don't just talk about it. Be about it!

Lois Frankel, Mayor, West Palm Beach Responds (sort of) to Our Letter About Her Handling of Dunbar Village

I said....

I recently saw an article that indicated that you fired Ted White
because of bad press your city received as a result of the Dunbar
Village gang rape. I also read that while those citizens in Dunbar
Village were living in Hell on Earth, you spearheaded the construction
of a 164 Million Dollar office building and parking garage, yet you
blame the federal government for a lack of funding to protect the
citizens of your city.

When do you plan to take responsibility for what happened on your
watch as Mayor of West Palm Beach and stop blaming others because you
elected to spend money on office furniture instead of human beings?

Mayor Frankel responded......

Pleased be informed that Mr. Ted White was not fired because of "bad" publicity. His position was cut from the city budget due to restrictions put on us by the state legislature. That decision was made prior to the awful crime at Dunbar Village.

LJF

You can e-mail her at lfrankel@wpb.org.

hmmm. Speak on it! Y'all know I have plenty to say, but I will hold it til tomorrow.

Mayor of West Palm Beach - Talk About a Hot "Mess"- There is no Shame in Resignation

Where is the BET THAT NETWORK'S shame machine when you need it. Lois Frankel, the Mayor of West Palm Beach, Florida continues to shift blame for anarchy that occurred on her watch. Now she has fired the police spokesman because of the negative publicity from the Dunbar Village gang rape.

Two layoffs at the city of West Palm Beach may not have been so random after all, several city hall sources say.

Ted White, a former WPTV-Channel 5 anchor who became police spokesman last year, may have fallen victim to the intense publicity the city received because of the recent gang rape and attack at Dunbar Village.

[T]wo insiders who asked for anonymity said Frankel blamed White for some of the negative press yielded by the horrendous assaults on a Dunbar mother and her son.

As for White, he said he didn't hear any complaints. (SOURCE)

I have been shaking my head at some of the things that the mayor of West Palm Beach has been saying and doing in the wake of the horrific gang rape at the Dunbar Village housing project.

First she did nothing while anarchy reigned in a swath of her city. 717 Calls from Dunbar Village alone in a single year. Now that is a large number in and of itself, but consider the fact that Dunbar Village only has 334 residents. That is over two police calls per year per resident. So a family of five in one apartment would have called police a dozen times in a year.

It is not just Dunbar Village, a few weeks later less than a mile away a 42 year old was raped mere feet from her apartment by a 14 year-old while a group of his friends stood nearby yelling "Hurry Up! Me Next!"

Does Mayor Frankel accept responsibility for what happens on her watch? Does she blame the county? Does she blame the Governor of Florida? NO, she leaps all the way to Washington, DC and blames HUD for not giving her a grant. How much was this grant that the Mayor thought would have preventing her fair city from having the dubious distinction of being home to one of the most horrific hate crimes against a Black woman and child in recent memory?? 1 Million Dollars? half a mil? how about $250,000. Nope. Folks the grant she is blaming fo the anarchy in her city was a measly $165,000. FOUR.YEARS.AGO!

Four years ago, Congress eliminated $165,000 a year that paid for extra policing at the city’s housing projects as a part of a national cutback in housing money.(Source)

I say measly because you mean to tell me that those developers building high rise multi million dollar condos in West Palm Beach wouldn't have coughed up 100 grand to make sure the city where their billion dollar investments rest isn't known for Black teens preying on Black women and girls? You mean to tell me the Mayor couldn't have sold catfish dinners, washed cars, held a telethon to raise 165,000?

Let's put this in perspective. Now granted, my city is a pet-loving city, but recently one of our animal shelters had a chiller go out. This was June 14th. The cost of getting it fixed so the doggies and kitties didn't sweat in the hot Texas heat? A whopping $200,000. Did the shelter director whine? Nope, she had every television station in town doing a live remote from the animal shelter at Noon, 5:00 and 6:00. She took them on a tour and let them see the kitties and the puppies panting as employees placed ice cubes in their doggie bowls to keep the little fellers cool. People starting dropping by to donate after work in the middle of the live feeds. You bet they got their $200,000 and they got it fast, by July 6th. It didn't even take a month.

So if a animal shelter director could raise almost quarter mil for Fluffy and Fido in three weeks, you mean to tell me that you couldn't have found $165,000 to stamp out anarchy and protect human beings?. The primary responsibilities of government is shared defense and public safety, surely there was money hidden somewhere or perhaps you could have gone to your state for assistance or the Chamber of Commerce.

Am I being too hard on the woman? Well there is THIS:

Mayor Lois Frankel will be remembered for her pet project, the $154 million City Center complex that will stand as a monument to bureaucrat furnishings and parking-garage design. (SOURCE)

You could have skipped the furnishing and come up with the $165,000! So it isn't that you didn't have the $165,000, you just elected to use it on something else while the residents of Dunbar Village lived in pure unadulterated HELL.

Woman UP! You ran for office. While no mayor can guarantee the safety of every single resident at all times, you clearly had anarchy in one section of your town that you chose to ignore until something horrific happened. What did you expect to happen after turning your back on the residents of Dunbar Village? If any other landlord had had that many police calls, the place would have been condemned or at least cited up to its eyeballs.

Now you want to fire your press aid because your city got bad press? You deserved the bad press and I hope you get lots more for not accepting responsibility for what you let happen on your watch.

If $165,000 was all that stood between the residents and the carnage at Dunbar Village then you clearly don't have the skills and abilities to meet the unique needs of your constituents. Your performance is way past poor. Mayor, there is no shame in resignation, only in passing the buck for your own failings. You can contact Mayor Frankel via email at lfrankel@wpb.org. Ask her why she didn't scrimp on the furnishings to come up with $165,000.

I am not the only one that feels this way.

UPDATE: After you get through emailing the Mayor, head over to Why Black Women Are Angry. Content Black Woman has been on a tear. Whereas I am stuck on Stage TWO of the Five Stages of Grief, she is clearly trying to make her way to Stages Three, Four, and Five. We're all struggling to make sense out of these back to back horrors that seem to be hitting one after the other.