Black-on-Black crime in Oklahoma, what is being done to reverse the trend?
OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — We’ve seen the comments on social media, whether it’s people outraged by the shooting of George Floyd or Breonna Taylor, there’s always that one comment, “Well what about black-on-black crime?”
FOX 25 accumulated data from the Oklahoma City police department and FBI to see where the trends of homicide stand and what is the solution to slow the crime rate.
Oklahoma City has a population of more than 665,000 people in 2019, according to the United States census.
67% of white, Caucasian people, 19% of the Hispanic Latino community, 14% African Americans, 4% Asian, and nearly 3% of Native Americans live in the city.
We asked the Oklahoma City Police Department to provide five-year homicide data of suspects and victims by race and gender. You can view it here.
Black men between 2015 and 2019 had the highest rate for suspects and victims, with a rate averaging between 40 per year.
Ramiro Martinez is vice president-elect of the American Society of Criminology and professor of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University in Boston. He said the higher rate for African American men is based on population size.
“What happens then is there’s a few more, a handful of cases where the victims are black, the rate swings up because the population base is relatively low,” Martinez said. “So we might see this artificial swing.”
The FBI’s crime rate data from 2009 to 2019 shows the state overall, for all violent crimes, has a 75% increase difference compared to the rest of the country.
“I think it’s unusual for a state that doesn’t have a number of dense, urban areas that the homicide rates and the violent crime rates are higher in the state of Oklahoma than the national average. I would have suspected they would have been hugging the national average or relatively low,” said Martinez.
Martinez said in most homicide cases, for all ethnicities, the suspect knows the victim.
“An acquaintance, family member, someone they love or loved,” Martinez said.
That’s what happened to local rap artist Jabee Williams’ brother in 2001, a day before 9-11.
“He just got into with somebody in the neighborhood. And somebody else had a gun, gave it to that person and that person settled it that way,” said Williams.
We shared the information from the FBI and the Oklahoma City Police Department, as well as Martinez’s response.
“It’s definitely good to have information and good to have data because and we can educate ourselves and know what’s happening,” Williams said. “But if you aren’t connected to that community, if you don’t know what’s going on in that community, that world, that data doesn’t mean anything. ”
He said what’s happened in the African American community, is a lack of resources.
“When you start pulling jobs, you start pulling money, you start pulling food, you start pulling program where you have ways for kids to express themselves, and you have ways for kids to be educated and for adults to be educated; when you start pulling those resources, they have to find other ways to feed themselves.”
So, how do you find the solution?
The first step has already happened, bringing a grocery store back into this food desert at the intersection of Lincoln and NE 36th St.
Councilwoman Nikki Nice and Mayor David Holt, with the help of Williams, have already taken those steps to bring a grocery store, like Homeland, back into the neighborhood. But there’s still a way to go and it won’t happen overnight.
Finding the Solution:
We asked Williams what comes to mind when you hear “black on black crime”?
“I think of it as something we didn’t create. Something black people didn’t create,” said Williams.
But what he is trying to create, setting kids straight and putting them on the right path.
“I’ve gone to the juvenile detention centers and talked to the kids who have committed types of crimes that we’re talking about or who have been accused of committing the types of crimes that we’re talking about,” said Williams.
The FBI’s data for all violent crimes in 2019 shows the highest percentage for offenders and victims are aged 20 to 29, sitting at 25 percent in Oklahoma.
Williams said he’s been to the juvenile detention centers to encourage them not to go down that road again.
“I don’t have a key to turn and fix everything, but I do know I can go to Berry house and talk to those kids. I can go to the schools and the boys and girls club and spend time with them,” said Williams. “As someone from this community, that’s what I should be doing.”
Senior pastor Clarence Hill of Antioch Church in Norman has been at the forefront of making it his mission to bring a change after the death of George Floyd.
“When you’re trying to solve a problem, you gotta push past these pain points,” said Hill. “And the pain points are seeing an unarmed black person being killed by an officer, but then you have to push past that.”
He said we have to look at the root of the problem, which Hill said is the education system.
“I see that if our children had better bridges to tomorrow if they had more clubs, I believe DHS is helping to get some clubs planted in poverty, so our children will have safe spaces where they can spend their free time,” said Hill.
Pastor Hill is also the founder of the Stronger Together Movement. He said starting the journey will take time.
“It’s a problem that’s going to take 10 to 20 years to solve, where we can get our children in spaces where they can get educated, break the cycles of poverty,” said Hill.
Williams said that’s the key to breaking the cycle.
“When I was a kid, it was hard for me to see the world outside of the apartment complex that I grew up in. It was hard for me to see the neighborhood I grew up in,” said Williams. “Whenever I saw, that, you know, the sky was the limit.”
Conversations like this are tough, especially with the climate we’re in, but it’s these kinds of conversations that will begin that journey.
Everyone will not agree or may have their own views as to how to slow the crime rate or put an end to poverty, but it starts with opening up, letting your guard down, and having those conversations. Pastor Hill said people are starting to do more and more.
