I grew up in Oakland, and I used to drive by the BMB every day. San
Pablo Ave is already a dark stretch of road that connects Oakland and
Richmond, two of the roughest cities on the West coast. The BMB stands
out on an already bad block. Faith-based or not, I wouldn't spend much
time in that neighborhood unless I had a very good reason.
The
important element not to miss in this story is that cities like Oakland
and Richmond are asleep at the wheel. Weather in regards to religion or
race (or both in this case), the police and city governments are so
afraid of offending some self-proclaimed oppressed class that they will
not enforce the law. They allow thugs, organized or not, to run these
neighborhoods. I know about this all too well, since I spent the first
twenty
years of my life neck-deep in it.
Hitch is correct about our fear
of offending Islam, a theme about which he writes regularly, but he
touches on a much larger point here. Our cities, our neighborhoods, and
our streets will remain more of a threat than terrorism ever will be
unless we get serious (I agree with Hitch that the police should stop
focusing on marijuana crimes which are mostly committed by privileged
high school kids), and start cracking down on these criminal elements in
a very serious way.
