Two days after Darrent Williams death, a Denver Bronco, an American football player, was shot and killed, Denver Radio talk show hosts bombarded the airways, trying to figure out what happened. Two individual in particular stuck out: Peter Boyles of
Denver 630 KHOW and Steve Seidenfeld of
Colorado 850 KOA. These two gentlemen
tried to bring perspectives other than the speculative what happened New Years Eve night.
Peter Boyles claims that his “sources” know who killed Darrent Williams, and the police were trying to connect the dots. He also, through the follow weeks, actually the very next day began to be critical of the politicos: city and state of their silent voices in regards to the killing. And then later, speculated the reason for this was the possibility of the upcoming announcement of the Democratic Party National Convention for the 2008 presidential race. It was the Tale of Two Cities: New York and Denver both vying for the privilege of hosting the convention (Denver won).
Boyles further speculated on the deviant behavior of gang-banger hip-hop culture. How this culture’s music, attitudes, socioeconomics, and unlawfulness recapitulated the violence against citizenry. He moreover stated the Denver Police was performing poorly due to the fact of the city politico’s silence, of the neighborhood tolerance, and the decried minority leaders that lack the nerve to speak out. And, by implication their silence was due to the fact that, gangs intimidated city official and witnesses.
He, Boyles, at times, addressed the fact of how the gang-banger hip-hop culture sees those who talk to the police, “tattlers,” or “snitches.” He had plenty of empirical data to make his case. For example, three witnesses ready to testify were killed on the eve of their testimonies just this past year. In fact, in the last year, the number of police officers, witnesses deaths has been on the rise, at the least since 2001. Denver Police lack of protection of witnesses can be attributed to the failure of their oversight, and failure to anticipate, or even take seriously the death threats of the gang-bangers.
This lack of foresight has made the city a dangerous place for witnesses. Public, very public drive bys-yet “no proof” or witnesses are invisible. The crips, the bloods, the ms13, to some extent, have quietly ruled the roost of Denver Metropolitan streets. However, let me not leave you with the impression that Denver is amok in lawlessness—far from it. There are certain spots “these gang-bangers” claim as their own—club and neighborhoods. The city is far from strife.
Arguments were made by Boyles that the intimidation by the gangs was keeping silent the witnesses, he also asserts that “music” of gang-banger hip-hop was some how encouraging children, minority children, to embrace the violence. In essence, the music instills the disrespect, the “villainizing” of authority, and the emboldening of cultural power through violence. In that, the only way to gain respect is through one’s violent acts—to gain “props.” Essentially, to prove one’s manhood is to either withstand perpetrated acts against oneself, or to perpetrated an act themselves. But there is darker side, a greater illusion, is that, gang culture believes that, through fear and intimidation that they can usurp authority. The second illusion gang culture tries to foster is a sense of family. The gang will take care of you. We will be the parent, the disciplinarian, the trust your own parent/s never gave you. As Boyles puts it, “don’t bet on it…”
Peter Boyles probing statement throughout the cadre of shows,” It is what, what it is”; or his other profound statement, “What does this mean?” Well, those are certainly statement and inquiries. He later parlays this tragedy into debate regarding illegal immigration. This is certainly an interesting perspective.
(End part two).
Photo credits of Darrent Williams is from his Myspace.com page and image of the limousine is from AP photo from a written article by Foxnews.
No comments:
Post a Comment