Right now the thing that’s most on my mind is the brutal murder of a Dominican teenager in the Bronx this past Wednesday. I’ve been talking about it with friends and family all weekend. I tried to stay away from the story as long as possible, because the video was viral and I knew it was very violent. I finally could not avoid the video any longer, because it eventually showed up on my Facebook timeline. Over a period of a few days the story became more and more clear, and people began to get answers. The main issue with the story was that the victim was a case of mistaken identity. The gang that runs uptown New York were apologetic about the fact they killed the wrong child. I’m not so much vested In the actual crime as much as the outcome of it.
I have a perspective from a socioeconomic sense. I see this as a cause for the NYPD and the corporate real estate structure in New York City. From what I know, this will be sensationalized enough to give the NYPD a reason to round up the male population in the Bronx. With the removal of part of a specific population, there will be upheaval in a lot of households. This particular course of events will lead to a lot of changing of the image In that neighborhood. Ultimately what will happen is real estate will be even more assessable to the vulturous capitalist real estate developers. They see this as a perfect opportunity. The political sensation of the murder of this child by such a brutal gang will allow for enforcement to come in in larger numbers. They will be able to get overtime to feed their children, as well as have the adrenaline rush they are looking for as law-enforcement officials. This will be backed by those who intend to take over the real estate in the Bronx area.
The state of New York has already commissioned billions of dollars for revitalization and urban renewal projects in the area. I’m speaking from experience when I say the brokerage that I left three years ago was urging agents to start showing apartments in the Bronx. The idea that the Bronx is the low income bearing borough in uptown New York, gives all the reason for people who feel they are late in the uptown real estate boom to make an effort to get involved in the changing of the Bronx now. In 2014 there was a huge round up in the Soundview projects area. This was based on gang racketeering charges that had been placed on a lot of low income housing facilities throughout the United States, particularly in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington DC. This ultimately lead to the removal of a lot of the male population, particularly the youth teenagers and early to mid 20s, from these areas. This is a very easy way to change over the image of a neighborhood. The reason is because, in these particular neighborhoods, the male population is often unemployed and they tend to be out and about.
When property values are assessed, unfortunately there is a racist bias around the image of any particular residential area. If assessors are driving around or walking around and feel threatened, there is always a case to make that the property value is low because the desirability is low. This is easy to see because when houses go for sale in predominantly black neighborhoods they usually sell slower than those in predominately white neighborhoods. This adds to the reason why an assessor would say these properties are less expensive or valued lower, because of demand. Things tend to change when the crime statistics are adjusted. You can see this now in a lot of inner cities. The crime statistics are aligned with the property value statistics.
The crime statistics are another question. We tend to believe that crime is something that is just a part of society, but consider that crime is not a widespread phenomenon in any particular area of our society. Crime tends to concentrate in pockets of particular areas in a society. This is because crime is a controlled phenomenon. The idea of crime is a controlled idea. A crime is only established based on laws put in place by people, so that means that a crime can only be committed if it’s recognized as a crime. In short, criminals are created, not born.
When you look at what’s going on in uptown Manhattan and the South Bronx it is clear that crime is being manipulated. If you look at Trulia.com you’ll see that there is a map that displays the crime statistics in any area in the United States. The map uses the green to red color range with yellow being the moderate, red being the extreme, green being the least amount of crime. This map and its colors are easy signals for a person looking for property to tell whether or not crime is high or low in a desired area. People can view this from different lenses. A developer may not look at these crime statistics the same way that a homebuyer would look at them. A developer may see a high crime area as a good place to look for low value property. A homebuyer, on the other hand, would see that as a place they would not want to live. It’s very important to pay attention to the developer’s perception of crime statistics when in regard to what happened this past Wednesday. This developer, depending on how large his or her pockets are, can determine whether or not that particular incident was sensational enough to use in his or her favor in order to bolster a campaign to make head long NYPD fire and fury to rush into the neighborhood to beat crime. This will be backed by the taxpayer, because the taxpayer feels fear from the criminal element.
There are four parties, as I have kind of given clue to, at play in this event. The first party is the taxpayer and the taxpayer’s dependents. The second player would be the criminal element and its fear influences. The third element would be the police and the policy enforcers. The fourth and final element would be the corporate structured real estate developers and financers. It is very simple to see the hierarchy based on how I’ve presented them, the tax payer being the most vulnerable to all other parties, and the corporate real estate structure having the most control over all parties. The crime element is in itself a controlled, stabilized, and manipulated aspect of the group. They and their fear element is used to manipulate the demographic of any particular area of a society. The corporate structure can stand back and watch, and play on the media to their advantage. This is not new. The reverse happened in the 60s.
During the 1960s there was a phenomenon called blockbusting. What blockbusting was to the white neighborhood is what gentrification is to the black neighborhood. The developers would scare white people into believing that the neighborhood was being overrun by new black residents. This would cause the property value to plummet, and the developers and brokers would earn money based on making white people move out quicker. This was simply a way to get fast money, knowing that they would sell homes faster and earn money on the commissions from the sales. It was very cheap, but it added to the suburb complex surrounding major cities in the United States. It was easier to tell people to move to the suburbs because they had to run from the Niggers. They had to run from the Niggers, because the Niggers were criminals.