A message from Bill Cosby

Via Dawn Trice Turner's Exploring Race with a hat-tip to Uptown Update:

These killings aren’t just happening in Chicago. They’re happening in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. There’s a Fulton County juvenile court judge in Atlanta who's black. He grew tired of so many young black men coming through his courtroom. He said they made up 95 percent of his cases. So in April, he cleared the courtroom of all the white people and began to chastise these young black men. He scolded them, told them what they should be doing instead of standing before him for conduct and crimes against society and their ancestors.

There are two things a mother who comes before the judge says as her son is being sentenced. She says, “You take him because I can’t do anything with him.” But there’s a new one coming out with the mother saying, “Please take him so I can sleep at night. I don’t want to get a phone call saying he’s been murdered…”

So this in effect is where some of us happen to be. With these conditions, yes I’m concerned because this is about murder and I don’t see any politicians or law-and-order people really trying to solve this.

I’m not talking about the presidential candidates only. It used to be that when people (blacks, whites, whoever) were fighting during the civil rights movement against racism there was a certain resistance from the people who didn’t want change. Because of this resistance certain politicians in the South ran on the law-and-order platform. If elected, they would restore law and order. They would quiet the marchers and demonstrators.

Now since we’re killing each other in the areas where we live, no politician is running on law and order. They’re afraid they're going to be accused of picking on the poor.

But some people in these embattled communities want to regain the peace. They want more programs and more alternatives for their kids than the streets. But they’re not being heard. In some communities, though, there aren’t enough voices calling for change. They can’t galvanize enough numbers and sustain the pressure needed to make demands of politicians and law enforcement.

So, again, this is where we are. Some are trying. Some frankly are not. To these people, we say, "Come on people. Do you really know---are you really aware ---that what is going on in your community, you have to treat the same way you would if you were being attacked by people wearing white sheets and hoods?" If you really love your children, you have to take them out of danger’s way. The bridge is out and they are in danger.