WHILE yet another alleged police shooting of a black man gets national attention in Charlotte, the daily realities of black crime are given relatively little attention.

Here’s an amazing story.

Chester, Pa. has the highest homicide rate in the country. The victims and perpetrators are overwhelmingly black. But the most striking thing is that roughly 70 percent of the homicides in the small city are never solved. Commit murder in Chester and you are highly likely to get away with it.

Caitlin McCabe and Grace Toohey of The Philadelphia Inquirer report on the issue. The homicide rate averaged 53 people a year in a population of about 34,000, from 2000 to 2014, they report. Police say a major factor in the low solve rate is cultural. Everyone in the town knows each other. A “no-snitch” rule prevails. Retaliation is a serious risk for witnesses.

Between 1965 and 1975, the homicide rate hardly topped 15 a year. Police solved 91 percent of them.

According to this report, unemployment in 1963 was about 15 percent for the white population of Chester, which made up about 60 percent of the city. The population is now about 76 percent black and 14 percent white. The unemployment rate, as of September 2015, was nine percent; it has been close to 15 percent in recent years.

Some of the recent murders are probably a form of street justice. But that justice doesn’t keep the murder rate down.

Please follow and like us: