clo,
re: "He's a black man. If he's like some of the black men I know in DC, he didn't know his father at all but does personally have a bunch of close friends who are now sitting in prison or on death row."
Since you called my statement racist, I'll throw some numbers at you. I trust you won't think it too horrible of me if I show them to you.
DC's 2010 population was 601,723.
Per the 2010 census, it is 50.7% black.
I'm going to assume that half of those are male.
That's about 152,537 black men living DC.
According to a 1985 study (sorry, I can't find anything newer), 1 in 21 black men nationwide will be murdered in their lifetimes. I am going to assume this is the case in DC - even though I suspect the stats are worse than that. DC is an extremely violent place. That means 7,264 of DC's 152,537 black men will be murdered in their lifetimes.
93 percent of black murder victims nationwide are killed by other black people... overwhelmingly by men.
I'm going to ignore serial killings and multiple homicides since I don't know their stats. You may find fault in my eventual conclusion because of this if you wish. But I believe such homicides are relatively rare.
Of DC's 152,537 black men, about 6,756 either are or will be murderers.
That's 1 in every 22.5 black men.
Nationally, about half of all murders get solved.
DC's population is much lower than it was 50 years ago. Its makeup is now LESS black than it was.
That suggests that MORE than 1 in 22.5 of DC's past population of black men were destined to be murderers, and that MORE than 1 in 45 black men in DC have historically gone to jail for that crime.
And I'm only discussing the crime of murder in this essay. There are so many OTHER kinds of felonies.
My original claim was that if Byrd's son is like some of the black men I know in DC, he (1) didn't know his father, and (2) he has a bunch of close friends who are now sitting in prison or on death row.
I haven't looked into (1) yet, so maybe I'm wrong on that. But the numbers easily substantiate (2).
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