GM,

One point that can be made to those that are pushing the story of the murder of the white couple by black people, is if black on white crime is under reported in the US, then why over the past two weeks has the airwaves been taken up by the murder of a white, pregnant woman by her married black, police officer boyfriend?

I have given up long ago discussing crime in the streets with most of my co-workers because too many of them only see what they think is the most (incorrectly) obvious of causal factors when dealing with deviance: race. And I do not state this to claim they are racist, but to point out when one sees the most obvious factor the most, then that is the factor they will attribute to the causal factor in crime.

That kind of sounds racist, doesn't it? But it is not and here is why: to me, most cops bitch about what I call the "asshole factor." And what I mean by this is, they bitch the most about the people who are the biggest pain in our asses and when these people all have something in common, then that becomes a "causal" factor. To further illustrate, I was in the army with a young man who lived near the Pine Ridge Indian reservation and he always bitched about the "drunk Indians." Now, when it comes to people, whatever group is the biggest pain in the ass to a given area or environment, then that group becomes the explanation for crime.

Now sadly, in America, we are too quick to ignore all of the other factors in deviance and tend to point toward the most easily observed one.

Hope all of this makes sense.