Kids intent on rioting, looting and destroying have run amok on the streets of Baltimore for a couple of days now, at a time when many other Americans are either at work or at school.
And that, according to conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, is part of the problem.
“If they don’t have jobs to report to, they have a lot of time to get into various kinds of mischief,” Schlafly told WND. “I think the unemployment among the black teenagers is a national tragedy because they’re not doing what we expect them to do.”
She also cited a lack of father figures to influence youngsters – someone to make them “shape up and be a decent citizen.”
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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate among blacks was 10.1 percent as of March, versus only 4.7 percent for whites. These, of course, are the statistics that don’t even acknowledge the millions of Americans who have quit pursuing employment because of the unstable American economy.
But even using those numbers, for black teenagers (ages 16 to 19), unemployment was 25 percent. Tellingly, the charts reveal that only 25.7 percent of black teenagers even participated in the labor force.
Schlafly, author of “Who Killed the American Family?” said the breakup of the traditional family also is a related factor that drives many young people to a life of crime.
“People used to think that crime and difficulty were just caused by poverty, but it’s really caused by not having a father to make a kid shape up and behave,” she said. “And you find that most of the ones who engage in lawless actions are boys who didn’t have a father to tell them to shape up and be a decent citizen.”
The National Fatherhood Initiative has reported that a low number of fathers in a neighborhood is associated with increased teenage violence in that neighborhood. Specifically, a 1 percent increase in the proportion of single-parent families in a neighborhood is associated with a 3 percent increase in teen violence. Also, roughly 40 percent of all prison inmates come from fatherless households.
“Kids need to have the home discipline in order to become responsible citizens,” Schlafly said.
She long has argued that parents must instill values in their children, and international journalist and educator Alex Newman agrees values are important. But Newman, coauthor of “Crimes of the Educators: How Utopians Are Using Government Schools to Destroy America’s Children,” holds the American education system accountable for instilling the wrong values in children.
“American children are being dumbed down and indoctrinated with outrageous values – everything from the notion that America and liberty are evil to the idea that there is no right and wrong, no objective morality, no God, and no value to human life,” Newman told WND. “It is precisely these values that we are seeing on display in Baltimore and other in cities across America.”
See a few of the adult influences trying to clean up Baltimore:
[jwplayer YEL6o64q]
Newman also claimed black children are disproportionately harmed by the educational establishment.
“Few realize that the racist eugenics movement, with Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger being its most well-known advocate, viewed blacks as inferior, and had a major role in building this corrupt so-called education system now in place across America,” Newman said. “As such, blacks were to receive an inferior education to prepare them for menial jobs at best, with no serious effort at teaching critical thinking, biblical values, and other important elements of a real education.
“Ultimately the eugenicists wanted to rid the gene pool of blacks, as Margaret Sanger herself made clear. So considering the history and what is going on in the schools, it is no surprise to see what we are seeing right now in Baltimore.”
Schlafly said she is glad Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan called up the National Guard to protect Baltimore from the violent demonstrators. As a St. Louis resident, she witnessed the violent protests in Ferguson, Missouri, last summer and appreciates the need for a forceful presence to quell the riots.
“That was the problem in Ferguson,” Schlafly said. “The governor said he was going to call out the National Guard and then he didn’t, and I watched on television the whole block burning and not a sight of a policeman around.
“So I do think it is the job of the public officials – the governor or National Guard, or whoever they call out – to keep law and order. We don’t want people to be killed and property to be destroyed.”
At a Monday night news conference, Hogan said President Obama had urged him to exercise “due restraint” with respect to the National Guard’s presence in Baltimore, so as not to “escalate the violence.”
Schlafly scoffed at that idea.
“I didn’t know that the National Guard was escalating violence,” she said. “That’s a new one for me. I doubt that they are. I think their mere presence should have a calming effect. Most people don’t want to get in a fight with law enforcement.
“But I do think it’s up to the elected officials to call out the responsible people and keep the peace, and it’s a great mistake to let life and property destruction go forward without stopping.”
Related stories:
“Baltimore Mayor apologizes to rioters for using T-word”
Jobless, fatherless prone to ‘lawless actions'”
“Pat Buchanan: Baltimore needs ‘decisive force'”
Psychologist: Baltimore rioters have ‘Battered Community Syndrome'”
Media hail woman who smacked, berated Baltimore thug”
Where’s Obama? Throwing cops under bus again
