[Dixielandjazz] Music Promotes Violence - 90 years of Deja Vu From Dixieland to Rap

[Steve Barbone]

First it was Dixieland Jazz, then Rock, now rap. <grin>.
"It's Deja Vu all over again." - Yogi Berra.

Colorado Springs? Isn't that where the middle class high schools teach that
sex, booze and drugs are OK forms of student experimentation? Like, just do
it kids? 

Pimp & Ho parties? (see article) Shoot, the yuppie bars in Philadelphia host
them all the time. We have a lot of shootings in Philly, but not at those
bars.  

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

Colorado Police Link Rise in Violence to Music
NY TIMES - By DAN FROSCH - September 3, 2007

COLORADO SPRINGS, Aug. 30 ‹

Clubgoers are patted down before entering. The police have told owners of
hip-hop venues that their clubs may not be safe.

As the party anthem bursts through the speakers and Lil Scrappy drawls, ³But
you don¹t want no problem, problem,² the crowd swerves in a sweaty,
liquor-soaked rhythm. The scene, heavy with the sweet smoke of cigarillos
and exploding with hip-hop¹s unmistakable pounding bass, could be almost
anywhere: New York, Chicago, Memphis, Oakland, Calif.

The only sign that this is Colorado Springs is that two churches sit
adjacent to the club, La Zona Roja, in an empty strip mall.

The club is part of a thriving hip-hop community that has grown as Colorado
Springs, known for its military installations and evangelical groups, has
grown. But not everyone is happy that hip-hop has taken root here.

After a spate of shootings, and with a rising murder rate, the police here
are saying gangsta rap is contributing to the violence, luring gang members
and criminal activity to nightclubs. The police publicly condemned the music
in a news release after a killing in July and are warning nightclub owners
that their places might not be safe if they play gangsta rap.

³We don¹t want to broad-brush hip-hop music altogether,² said Lt. Skip Arms,
a police spokesman, ³but we¹re looking at a subcomponent that typically
glorifies, promotes criminal behavior and demeans women.²

The actions of the police have angered the hip-hop community here, mostly
blacks and Latinos, many of whom live in this city because of ties to the
Army and Air Force bases here.

³If we were talking about a rock bar or a country bar here, none of this
would be happening,² said James Baldrick, who runs a local hip-hop
promotions company, Dirty Limelight.

³This city wants to shut down hip-hop,² said Mike Cross, 26, who was outside
Eden Nite Club, a popular downtown venue that plays hip-hop, with a group of
friends on a recent night. ³They don¹t want it to survive.²

Calling the police¹s approach ignorant, a group of club promoters and
rappers in Colorado Springs organized a night of hip-hop performances and
music at La Zona Roja last month, seeking to prove that such events could
occur without incident.

³When two cowboys got into an argument at a saloon, went outside and had a
draw, nobody blamed the music that was playing at the saloon,² said a local
rapper known as B. Serious, who performed at the event.

But with 19 homicides already this year, compared with 15 in 2006, the
police insist on a correlation between gangsta rap and violence, and point
to three recent shootings.

On April 17, a stray bullet killed a taxi driver during a fight between two
groups who had left Eden Nite Club. After a fight at a concert at a local
park on Memorial Day, a man was shot to death in a nearby liquor store
parking lot. On July 9, a former high school football star, Diontea
Jackson-Forrest, was shot and killed. The authorities said the suspect was
involved in an altercation at Eden before the shooting.

Two days after Mr. Jackson-Forrest¹s death, the police issued a news release
blaming the violence on gangsta rap. The release mentioned an event planned
at Eden, called a ³Pimp, Thug and Ho Party,² as the ³type of behavior that
causes concern.² The club¹s owners called off the party.

Mr. Baldrick noted that the shooting after the Memorial Day concert, which
his company sponsored, occurred two hours after the event, yet the police
linked the two. He said that since the authorities began speaking out
against gangsta rap, there had been a drop in attendance at events promoted
by Dirty Limelight, down to 200 from about 700 per event.

But Lt. Thomas Harris, who leads a unit that deals with gangs, drugs and
guns, insisted there was a link between the violence and the music.

³When you have music that says it¹s basically O.K. to treat women poorly, to
steal things and to confront and shoot police officers,² said Lt. Harris,
³you¹ll attract a small percentage of the population that wants to lead the
thug life.² 

Others here say the police are focusing on hip-hop instead of addressing the
growing pains of this largely white, conservative city, home to the
evangelical groups Focus on the Family and New Life Church.

Since 1990, the metropolitan area of Colorado Springs, which sits south of
Denver, has swollen to nearly half a million from 397,000. Though outright
racial tensions, which led to marches here in the 1970s and ¹80s, are
largely of the past, there remains a sense of benign neglect toward
minorities, said Dr. José J. Barrera, former director of ethnic studies at
the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. That neglect has translated
into a chasm between the city and its minority youth, Dr. Barrera said.

³If you examine the history of ethnic and race relations in this community,
you will detect a pattern of ignorance of minority cultures and problems,²
Dr. Barrera said. ³No serious observer believes that current manifestations
of youth culture and pop culture actually fuel criminal activity.²

At the recent hip-hop showcase at La Zona Roja, the genre¹s positive side
eclipsed all else. 

After the show, the crowd tumbled out of the club. Young men politely
chatted up a group of women. A couple tried to coordinate a ride home. Two
men exchanged solemn stories of prison.

The only sign of trouble was a flat tire on someone¹s customized sedan.