On Tuesday, Detroiters -- who experience more than their fair share of gun violence -- saw an especially brutal crime play out in broad daylight: two gunman, faces concealed by dark t-shirts, blasted a crowd of teens waiting at a bus stop with fire from semi-automatic handguns. Seven people were injured in the shooting, which happened on Detroit's west side near Cody 9th Grade Academy after summer classes had ended. Five of those seven victims are Detroit Public Schools students.
The attack was captured on surveillance video, seen below. The gunmen appear at the 0:44 mark entering from the left side of the screen. (Warning: contains disturbing images.)
There is speculation that the attack was gang-related, though other reports suggest that it may have stemmed from an altercation at the school. One suspect, 18-year old Jamel Turner, turned himself into police on Wednesday; police are still searching for the other gunman and the driver of the getaway car, a green minivan.
This crime is shocking, even by Detroit standards. (The shooting received some national media attention, and I suspect it will continue to do so.) The image of the two masked gunmen, arms outstretched and weapons drawn, running up behind a crowd of unsuspecting citizens is not easily erased from one's mind. That it happened in the middle of an otherwise ordinary day in a U.S. city -- not Baghdad or Fallujah -- makes it all the more surreal, though the terrorism comparison may be apt.
While this shooting is an extreme case -- unusual in its boldness and brutality -- the threat of gun violence is constant in many Detroit neighborhoods, as it is in urban neighborhoods from Baltimore to Los Angeles. This makes me simultaneously appreciate and doubt the research we as criminologists do on urban gun violence. On the one hand, I think PSN, Project Ceasefire, et al. are important programs that can result in real, measurable reductions in gun crime. On the other hand, I am skeptical that any program (or programs) can be truly effective in the long term as long as the socioeconomic and sociopolitical conditions that engender urban gun violence -- extreme poverty and joblessness, crumbling infrastructure, drug infestation, racial inequalities, etc. -- persist.
My colleagues who study gun crime can offer far more insight into these matters than I can. I'm not quite sure what I make of this case, other than to feel shocked and saddened like everyone else.
Late Update: Turner is set to be released for insufficient evidence.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
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7 comments:
I can't even watch the video. I think you provide a good summary of the issues facing Detroit. We have PSN and similar programs in the StL. We are always struggling with enforcement techniques in a context of concentrated poverty. The new unemployment numbers don't help either.
Unfortunately, in more than just a few areas of Detroit acts of extreme violence are simply not uncommon. It reminds me of when we were reviewing nearly 300 homicide cases in Detroit. Shaggy and I could come to no other conclusion that many murders in Detroit were simply "senseless acts of violence." I regularly think back to a case on 8 mile when a guy was shot in the head at a party store for accidentially bumping into someone (the victim even apologized after bumping into the perp). Although possibly explained by a host of factors Dr. H indicates, there simply is a subculture in some communities where acts of violence that are incomprehensible to most of us seem, well, reasonable. It certainly doesn't help when you have public officials that are so caught up in covering their own scandals that the forget they have a job to do in the meantime.
Velma: I think you hit the nail on the head. How do (or can?) these programs work -- no matter how well-conceived they may be -- in the context of concentrated disadvantage?
Scoob: I remember that case. As I recall, it led us to revise the coding instrument to include a "senseless act of violence (S.A.V.)" option for the incident cause. We had all of the other options covered -- gang dispute, drug deal/armed robbery gone bad, domestic violence, etc. -- but after the third or fourth case in which the perp killed the victim in response to a minor transgression, we added the "SAV" category and used it quite a lot. Cases like that usually get tons of news coverage (e.g., kids being shot over Air Jordans or whatever), but I was surprised at the frequency with which it happened "in real life," so to speak.
Still, I don't see the subculture explanation (in which SAVs seem reasonable) as being necessarily separate from the structural explanation (that includes poverty, racism, etc.). On the contrary, I think they go hand-in-hand. SOMETHING has to prompt the creation/adoption of that alternative value system, right? Or have I read Code of the Street too many times? ; )
Damn Dr. H., I totally forgot you coded MANY of these cases. That's right, hanging on the 5th floor of DPD headquarters for days on end! I am so sorry I forgot!
The power of Anderson's book (which has been the most influential in my academic career) is that Anderson, in my estimation, does not shy away from the subcultural perspective. The power of Anderson's ideas are that he contextualizes the subcultural explanation. He links the macro-level with the micro-level. This is where I think conservative and liberal ideologues go wrong. Conservatives spend WAY too much time discounting the role of structural factors, liberals spend WAY too much time pretending there aren't subcultures in neighborhoods, communities, or among certain populations. My read of Anderson is that he doesn't sugar coat things (which I find so refreshing). He essentially says, this is the way things are....now let's try to explain why. The fact is, individual agency exists for most people in most situations. These forms of extreme violence are, thankfully, rare even in the most destitute neighborhoods. Anderson is, to some degree, my intellectual hero. He is simply brilliant, clear, and I think, dead on point.
amen brother
I agree wholeheartedly, Scoob.
And yes, I have fond memories of those months spent coding homicide files...especially being invited to Homicide's annual BBQ on Belle Isle! : )
Good post and discussion. I'll have to look up the book that you all are describing and add it to the reading list.
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