CHRISTIANS, WHY ARE YOU ASHAMED OF THE GOSPELS? OVERCOMING HITLER, IN DEFENDING OUR NATION!

Providence has caused me to be Catholic, and 

I know therefore how to handle this Church.

-Adolf Hitler, reportedly to have said in Berlin in 1936 on 

the enmity of the Catholic Church to National Socialism

My lantern of curiosity is lit when I hear personalities subtly attack others for their Faith yet, the victims so esteem their culprits that they can neither refute nor educate their attackers.  There are millions that believe that no untruth could be spoken by Apostle Oprah Winfrey, Bishop Whoopi Goldberg or Imam Mohammed Ali.  How is it that Faith leaders become so bleakly silent when Oprah, Whoopi and Ali present such fool hardy propositions as "Jesus Isn't the Only Way to God", "Hitler was a Christian", "It's Nature for the Races to Be Separate"?  Their success in entertainment, business and athletics assures a public trust against challenges to the integrity of their responses on the must substantive issues of the day.  Their words so sacred, anointed by network chiefs and hundreds of millions of world viewers, that to act as a "Berean" against their world standard is sacrilege.  

Media personalities, endorsing and reciting anti-Constitutional and anti-Biblical rhetoric, find it easy to adjudicate believers' doctrine in the Court of Public Opinion. The Trials by media groups, public relations agents and reality television icons have become the foundation of knowledge of all things social, political, economical and even Biblical.  Gone are the days of men and women relying solely on the exegesis of the Living Word of God.  We are now subject to the fantastical isogies and culturally sensitive Scriptural extrapolations by MTV theologians that seek to build Twitter and Facebook "Likes" from racy communique and ratings generating news-ploitations.  No greater condemnation exists than to speak truth of Faith to a world that has convinced Christians that they have so much more to be ashamed of because unlike any other religion our Faith points to a Savior that so loved the world that He gave His life as the Perfect Propitiation for a doomed people.  Maybe its time for common sense refutation of the latest jewel among Public Opinion Justices: "Hitler was a Christian".

Recently, an academician, concerned that The Exceptional One was practicing "Islamaphobia" per recent programming on the topic of Mohammedans terrorizing the City of San Bernardino, California.  The Historically Black College or University Professor placed a picture on my Facebook Page that read,

A reporter asked Muhammad Ali, "How do you feel about the 9/11 hijackers sharing the same faith as you?"
Ali replied, "How do you feel about Hitler having the same faith as you?"

Slightly perplexed as to why I was Islamaphobically profiled,  I provided this unique response:

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, HITLER WAS CLOSER TO BEING A MOHAMMEDAN THAN HE WAS A CHRISTIAN. IN FACT, HITLER HIMSELF SAID HE WAS NOT A CHRISTIAN

A little research before public ridicule goes a long way.  Hitler was closer to Islam than Christianity. In fact, Hitler and his Third Reich condemned Judaism and Christianity. "In speeches, Hitler made apparently warm references towards Muslim culture such as: "The peoples of Islam will always be closer to us than, for example, France".

According to Speer, Hitler stated in private, "The Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity.  Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness?"  Also, "Similarly, Hitler was transcribed as saying: "Had Charles Martel not been victorious at Poitiers [...] then we should in all probability have been converted to Mohammedanism, that cult which glorifies the heroism and which opens up the seventh Heaven to the bold warrior alone. Then the Germanic races would have conquered the world.""

Yes, my cousin, Hitler was not a Christian. He did not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Just because a Mohammedan shows up at your Church does not reveal his personal relationship with the Creator.  

Study to show yourself approved. Or at least stop depending on Bishop Whoopi Goldberg for your wisdom.

Picture: Hitler meeting Haj Amin al-Husseini, 

the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Muslim Brotherhood Leader. December 1941

This did not quell the curious inquiry or brooding condemnation.  He responds:

What are you talking about? I never said anything about Hitler being a Christian!
I hate that you spent all that time researching and writing all that meaningless stuff!

You see, it is not important to avail the fruits of knowledge and then, bowl them in a manner that is easily understood.  A reasonable retort of a Utopian's inquiry must be dimmed by the dearth of confusion and sentimental misunderstanding.  Ali was plainly making an assertion as have many over time have made that Adolph Hitler was a Christian at teh time of his destruction of Germany and massacre of over 6 million Jews.  Hence, their is an "immoral equivalency".  Christians have done bad things hence, they can not forthrightly complain against other religious zealots that have done evil.  In fact, between Mohammedans and Christians, those that follow Christ are the greater threat based on past abuses and evils.  A Christian can not speak ill of the religion of peace.  The amazing message from a Professor at a Historically Black College or University is that any condemnation of terrorism is an offense against Mohammedans.  Yet, you won't find too many Utopian HBCU professors defending Villanova University Professor Carol Swain for her wanton disrespect for college students' "safe places" by standing up for her Faith and conservative political opinions.

The greatest ill of all is the lack of retort from "Christian" leaders and men and women of Faith on the assertion that Hitler was a Christian.  I am not a Judge of a man's heart at the moment of death.  For easily, Hitler could have asked for forgiveness for his sins and I believe our God is faithful to forgive him.  However, to presume his faith is to take no account of his deeds in comparison of the command of Christ:

Mark 8:34 King James Version (KJV)
And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

God does not save by church, denomination or Bible school attendance.  God saves by His only begotten Son, Jesus the Christ.  It is His Son that is the Living Word of God.  It is the is standard of the Word that first, saves the world, then judges it.  As Just as God is, he really does not need, want or desire His followers depending on warped interpretations to lead them to Him.  

I am befuddled by the resistance of those that proclaim the Salvation of Christ but deny the power of the Belief in the Messiah.  Daily, they listen to  national broadcasters and tune, nightly, to network transmissions that promote the heresies that Peter, Paul and John found so threatening to new believers and warned against.  Heaven hath no scorn as unto the Christian that adores a public figure and preaches a culturally sensitive Gospel.  Whee are the men that deign titles, robes and honors in defending the doctrines of the Apostles and rescuing the saints from apostasy.  The world's renown misspeak and the saints bend over backwards to defend them from the cruel soldiers of cynicism.  The world's leaders publicly miscommunication of all things cultural.  They soon find guard from public ridicule by those fearing the wrath of the popularity police or the ad hominem assaults of the politically correct.  There appears only one thing that soothes the separation pain and anxiety that comes with Faith.  It is following a socially acceptable diet of tolerable religious messaging.  With Jesus at the Heart of all of the Answers to all of our inquiries, the Apostles understood that the Jesus they followed was the Creator.  They did not rely on public opinion to preach the Truth.  Jesus did not rely on public opinion to be the Truth. 

"I wish somebody would do something about all of this."

"I wish somebody would do something about all of this."

Amazingly, it is not merely 40 year old, grieving mothers that have lost their sons to the hard streets or cemeteries of the inner-city revealing this sense of hopelessness.  It is not even overworked detectives, repulsed that they spend more time fighting the criminal justice system than enforcing the law, that impart this finishing line.  Unhappily, I hear this expression from politicians, ministers, financiers and many other neighborhood leaders.  Powerful men and women of access and influence seem so weak and in such great despair when arise the topic of comforting the families of victims of homicide, missing persons and exploitation cases.  Men and women that have access to the greatest resources for serving the poor and needy seem dim of expression and display the most quizzical looks upon their faces.  Worst, some will express the greatest concern for the resolution of cases rather than the comforts of families.  It seems that once the case is solved the pressure from the families, the press and the neighborhood activists will go away.  Every leader wants the "noise" to go away.  The less noise, the easier it is for everyone to close the virtual drapes on the families that still grieve.

"I wish somebody would do something about all of this."

On Saturday, December 5, 2015, the Metropolitan Police Department's (MPD) Victim Assistance Unit (VAU) hosted The 8th Annual Tree of Remembrance of Homicide Victims.  MPD members assist crime victims by providing them with information about their rights and available programs and services that can help them cope with physical injury, emotional trauma, and economic loss.  The event offers outreach to families and friends that have been cast aside by time eternal and the beleaguering hopelessness that comes with the annual notice that nothing has come of the police's investigation into the homicide that grants them entry to the event.  For the sake of transparency, my wife, Francine, and I were granted passes into the event simply because our daughter's, Charnice Milton, homicide has yet to be solved.  We grieve privately more so now as we get closer to our first Christmas without her.  However, there are others that have remembrances the extend father in time than ours.

"I wish somebody would do something about all of this."

On December 17, 1993, Shanda Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer of MURDERMISTAKEN, INC., experienced a grief far more egregious than our own.  Almost 22 years ago, her two children were shot to death on their way to a church Christmas party in the Congress Heights neighborhood of Southeast Washington.  Her children, Rodney and Volante' Smith, were mistakenly murdered.  The Smith children were murdered at a time when the District had one of the highest homicide rates in the nation.  So how does a woman, after twenty years, feel about the absence of resolution?  Bitter?

ON THIS DAY  / Mother Shanda
Today is your 20th Anniversary & I am so glad GOD gets the VICTORY!!! AMEN!!! I look back and never once did I see myself 20 years later... I have been blessed again to sponsor a Christmas Party for other children here in DC who have loss a loved so precious to them whether it was their Mom or Dad, sister or brother... I miss your smiles & laughter and to see other kids during this season doing it, bring tears of JOY & GOD gets the VICTORY!!! I have already paid in full for your headstone bench, I will have a candlelight vigil and be able to sit down for a while, it is so beautiful, I believe it was harder for me to make up my mind what I wanted... Wait til you see it, only a Mother's Love could make this happen... Oh, yeah we will be welcoming our first baby girl in February, your little brother did it... I hope she keeps her Momma Taji feet...lol... I just wanted to come in and check on you & see you soon... Continue to embrace & watch over us in JESUS NAME WE PRAY!!! AMEN

Like my wife and I, Ms. Smith did not internalize her heartache as seems the acceptable social and criminal justice norm.  "In my loss I realized that, out of this tragedy I could be a solution to the problem by giving back to other kids who have loss a loved one to the heinous crime which plagues our communities."  While there were many tears and dark days, she will remember them and all fallen soldiers to senseless deaths here in DC forever.   She created a tool to gift those that have lost their greatest loves.

On Saturday, December 19th, 2015 from 2 - 6 PM at The Youth Services Center (Old Receiving Home) 1000 Mt. Olivet Road, NE, Washington, DC 2002, she will host The MURDERMISTAKEN ANNUAL CHRISTMAS PARTY for CHILDREN.  Many children that are experiencing the loss of mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and others receive a donated gift.  While it is not enough to return a deceased mother to a child, it shares the hope that someone cares and that the victim still exists.  Her fight for resolution inspires many somber victims to awaken each day with the expectation of that promised call that will permit them to breathe again.

"I wish somebody would do something about all of this."

At the Tree of Remembrance event, I watched my wife and Sandy Gliss hug.  It was, at once, a sharing of comfort, grief, understanding and hope.  They are both mothers.  Each has lost a daughter to murder.  There is a $25,000 reward being offered for information in each of their unresolved homicide cases.  There is more that these women share.  They did not meet in high school or college.  They did not share a vacation cruise or travel the world together.  Sadly, they met a funeral home, each planning the burial of their daughters.  Renown is the Death of the Black Journalist Charnice Milton.  Lesser known is the Death of The Black Mother Tamara Gliss.

On Memorial Day just after sunset, a 31-year-old mother, Tamara Gliss, was killed.  Detectives believed that she was accidentally shot as another at the barbecue that she was attending was targeted.  Gliss was sitting with friends along O Street in Northwest D.C. between 6th and 7th Streets just steps from her apartment building when she was shot in the head.  Neighbors and law enforcement sources believe it is gang-related.

"She was just a sweet person," said another friend. "She was Tamara. She was a loving, caring person and I love her."

DeVontae, her son, grieves still.  A great student of very respectable character, the young man struggles with why he must hold a candle within a Christmas bulb emblazoned with his mother's name upon it rather than holding her this Christmas season.  Cherishing the bulb soothes the moment during a well attended event hosted for unresolved homicide victims' families.  However, it is as cold as the grave when there is not an answer for "Who killed my Momma?"  What hope is there when the killer has been brazenly spotted enjoying the fruits of the same neighborhood while the victim's family hides in fear.  If a 9 year old can be mistakenly targeted for death in Chicago by retaliating gang members then, what comfort has the family concerning DeVontae's safety?  Charnice's death and homicide investigation have received international notoriety.  It has led to the creation of The Open Heart Close Case Campaign (OHCC).  Our hope is that the donation of time and effort promised by 75 of the world's top private investigators through the Comen International Agency will shine a light on the Tamara Gliss Case.  It is why both mothers' departing hugs shone more brightly than the candle in the bulbs that each held.

"I wish somebody would do something about all of this."

Tyria Fields, Manager, and the MPD Victims Specialist Unit did well in reaching out to those that have lost loved ones in violent crimes throughout the District of Columbia.  The Tree of Remembrance brought many out of the shadows of grief and ignorance and gave a sense of confidence that tomorrow  may be better.  However, the stark revelation of the event is the absence of those that seek the spotlight of travesty and tragedy when such occurs.  As dim a setting, glaring were the missing politicians that have promises of social working their way through homicide crises.  The Mayor's budget increases the Investigative Services Bureau (ISB) – works with the community to solve crimes, helps bring offenders to justice, supports the recovery of victims, and protects witnesses - by $18 million in 2016.  However the increase will be spent on youth investigations.  While it is a great standby for people to say that youth are killing persons, the latest DC homicide epidemic reveals that adults in gangs are more likely the killers and targets.  Hence, with over 4,000 unresolved homicide cases since 1993, the Mayor and City Council might wish to announce a larger ISB Budget increase that allows for the hiring of more detectives and potential partnership agreements with private investigating firms.  A City without a high homicide case closure rate lends credence to the power of criminal gangs and a sense of fear in the citizenry.  The Office of Film, Television, and Entertainment (OFTE), in spite of a $10 million 2016 budget transfer of the Office of Cable Television to its division, was absent.  The same government that says no to a "DC's Most Wanted" Crime Show, I suppose, has little time to film the MPD reaching out to crime victims.

Finally, when it is most bleak, where is the Faith community?  Having dinner in Fort Washington, MD on Sunday, my wife and I overheard a minister designing plans to start his own church.  How great the building will look, all of the people that it will seat and the number of concerts that could be performed.  Under great restraint, I wanted to tell the minister that his "church" was built at the Tree of Remembrance on Saturday.  There were families that were poor in Spirit and lacked apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors (or "shepherds") and teachers.  They lacked a choir to give them a song that they could sing when no one was present to inspire and encourage them.  They lacked warriors that would continue to pray for them even when the event had passed.  Where are the visitors that once brought Popeye's Chicken to the homes of the victims families to laugh with them and to remind them that there is a friend that is closer to them than a brother?  I know, I know.  Your church is always open.  Well some of the victims know that the building is there but the people are absent from their lives.

"I wish somebody would do something about all of this."

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.

Peter Drucker

It must truly be exasperating for Urban American citizens.  Radical activists tell citizens that young black men are targeted by racist police.  Until racism is resolved, only the overthrow of the  US government will satisfy their demands.  From the podium in Urban America, political leaders and law enforcement officials ask that you not believe your lying eyes.  The homicide rate and the unresolved homicide cases are rising.  However, violent crime is not the problem.  Gang Warfare is not the problem.  The lack of confidence in law enforcement officials and the criminal justice system is not the problem.  The problem is that we are not properly "prosecuting" violent crime in Urban America. We must change our philosophies to add "public health" to "community policing" which will reduce the homicide rate.  We must get "millions of dollars" out of the Treasury doors and that will reduce the homicide rate.  We must strengthen the gun laws so that criminals will only use baseball bats and law abiding citizens will never have access to the tools necessary to take-down a terrorist.  It seems that the podiums in Urban America are as empty as the sense of hope that citizens have towards their government.  The coveted role of manager is pursued when the City screams that it is not safe.  The absence of leadership is glaring.

The War on Violent Crime in Urban America has a tremendous number of managers yet, is lacking sincere leadership.  In Shomari Stone's NBC News4 story, "Five Shot Within Hour and a Half in SE D.C.", the obvious frustration is emitted in the proposals of men that have practiced institutional responses to violent crime that fit their ideological comfort zone.

"The violence in Southeast has to be stopped," ANC commissioner Anthony Muhammed told News4. "We need more resources for the young people in Ward 8."

Another ANC commissioner, Paul Trantham, said he's considering suggesting a curfew in southeast D.C.

Before the elite District activists protest greatly about this prose, let us take a look at what some experts say on each of these proposals.  When community activists argued for more resources to fight the recent St. Louis homicide epidemic, my good friend, Alderman Jeffrey Boyd (D) responded in a very unorthodox manner to constituents.  "We already have enough resources!"  Regarding resources, since September 22, 2015, the City has pumped $13.6 million into a social workers' war on crime.   Mayor Bowser will offer “mini-grants” for non-profit organizations and individuals that work in communities hard hit by crime.  DC Council's Committee on the Judiciary Chairperson Kenyan R. McDuffie, through his Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results Act of 2015, created an Office of Neighborhood Engagement and Safety.  Its focus is to identify teenagers and young adults who are at a higher risk of committing a crime and help them seek and execute a successful life plan so that they don’t fall through the cracks.  The City spends federal and state taxpayers' revenue to the tune of $115 million to subsidize training programs, education initiatives and human support services.  So that extra $14 million will go a long way to fending off violent criminals.  Right?

District Crime Data at a Glance

Homicide Count As of September 16, 2015

       This Year                Last Year                 Percent Change

     111                    92                       +18.0%

Homicide Count As of November 25, 2015

        This Year                Last Year                  Percent Change

     150                    92                       +63.0%

Then, there is that safe cornerstone of crime fighting: curfew!  Yeah, let's get all of the teenagers off the streets.  Kenneth Adams, The Effectiveness of Juvenile Curfews at Crime Prevention, writes, "Overall, the weight of the scientific evidence, based on ten studies with weak to moderately rigorous designs, fails to support the argument that curfews reduce crime and criminal victimization".  So, community activists should push for DC to implement such a law.  Right?  The Juvenile Curfew Act of 1995 (DC Code 2-1541 et. seq.) states that persons under the age of 17 cannot remain in or on a street, park or other outdoor public place, in a vehicle or on the premises of any establishment within the District of Columbia during curfew hours, unless they are involved in certain exempted activities.  Passed in 1995, DC's curfew law was set up to protect the health and safety of young people and our communities. After the law was challenged in court, MPD stopped enforcement until the court decided whether the law was constitutional. In June 1999, the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found the law to be constitutional. The District began enforcing the law again in the fall of 1999.  So how is that enforcement working?

The answer is very easy.  Culprits don't feel any fear.  They do not fear the citizens.  They do not fear the politicians--legislative or executive.  They do not fear your community proposals.  They do not fear law enforcement or your judiciary.  They certainly do not fear their victims.  What have they to fear, you ask.  Only themselves.  This is a sign that Urban America is not safe.  Where people lack safety, they do not worship, they do not live and they do not do business.  So that you get the drift, understand this.  Less tax revenue comes from a lack of safety.  Less revenue means either raising taxes to make illegitimate promises or enforcing the law to secure the revenue.  Maybe we need to poll if I'm right.

"Crime has become the biggest problem in Washington, say D.C. residents, far surpassing concerns about the economy and the quality of public schools for the first time in almost a decade, according to a new Washington Post poll."

Well maybe it's just a concern about Southeast DC?  No.  Criminals think alike no matter their geography.

"Despite a multitude of differences in their backgrounds and crime patterns, they are all alike in how they think.  A gun-toting, uneducated criminal off the streets of southeast Washington, D.C. and a crooked Georgetown businessman are extremely similar in the way they view themselves and the world."

The instability of SE DC becomes the instability of the remaining City.  The Price Paid May Be A Lost Election.  The question is who is willing to pay the price to continue to manage violent crime rather than solve it.

You know I'm right!

DC Chief of Police Cathy L. Lanier testified before the DC Judiciary Committee on September 16, 2015.  She spoke of the Major City Chiefs (MCC) survey of its members on Urban Violent Crime and advised:

• Three out of four of the cities that responded had seen increases in homicides this year and

about 60 percent reported an increase in non-fatal shootings.

• The shootings seem to be more lethal. Almost half of the cities reported crime scenes with

casings from multiple guns involved in the shootout, many with high capacity magazines.

• Almost half report an increase in gang-related and retaliatory violence. As one of my

colleagues said, homicide has become a means for conflict resolution among the criminally

involved.

• Synthetic drugs have not reached all cities yet, but 30 percent of the responding cities

reported an increase in violent crime in which the offender is under the influence of synthetic

drugs...

• We are all seeing people who shouldn’t be on the streets because they have a significant

violent history ending up back on the streets. 

Lanier received national attention recently regarding her advise on confronting terrorists with a run, hide or attack strategy.  When "homicide has become a means for conflict resolution among the criminally involved", citizens must demand that government secure our right not to become victims.  Bob Owens, Bearingarms.com, referred to Lanier as the one that "lords over a city where snotty white liberals have denied the entire population the right to bear arms in any practical sense, in which it is almost impossible to get a concealed carry permit".  The limitation of baseball bats as a tool of defense is unacceptable.  Criminals only respect armed resistance.  Thomas Sowell writes, “Gun-control zealots are almost always people who are lenient toward criminals, while they are determined to crack down on law-abiding citizens who want to be able to defend themselves and their loved ones.”  Government has exhausted what it can do within the confines of the governing ideology.  It is time for citizens to stand for our God given right to protect ourselves and our City.  Activist theatrics, while entertaining, will not suffice.  Cultural Anthropologist Margaret Mead said, “Never ever depend on governments or institutions to solve any major problems.  All social change comes from the passion of individuals.”  The answer to our violent crime problem is not to take away the liberties of free men but to bring into captivity those that seek to make a nation or city unsafe.  There are better options.

Advancing in Glory: A Letter to Paolo Stella Casu on the Status of the Charnice Milton Murder

Dear People at Open Heart / Close Case Campaign,

I am an European journalist and blogger who was greatly moved by the story of Charnice Milton, which I read on the New Yorker.  I was really struck because as a local journalist, although living in a peaceful place, I somehow can relate with the endeavor of her work as a reporter and I felt the urge to tell this story for my Italian readers. 

I am writing to you because I would like to know how is the campaign going: did you succeed to have councilmembers debate with you in your neighborhood?  Is Anacostia becoming a slightly safer place?  Is Charnice still remembered?  I have read some of her articles and I find them brilliant.  Some people don't understand how hard it is to be a local reporter, and I think that her story, although physically distant from here, can shed a good light on this work. 

I thank you in advance for your answer and also for your great work in making the world a better place.

Sincerely yours,
Paolo Stella Casu

Advancing in Glory: A Letter to Paolo Stella Casu on the Status of the Charnice Milton Murder

By Kenneth McClenton

Dear Paolo Stella Casu and the Citizens of Italy,

I thank you for your outstretched hand of compassion and wonder regarding what has become of the Investigation of the Charnice Milton Murder and of the City's Culture since our tragic loss.  

Charnice was a tremendous young woman.  She was an Overcomer in Christ Jesus.  When spurned in grade school for her speech impediment, she focused on her immense gift of song which mesmerized all that heard her.  She excelled academically, earning scholarships to Bishop McNamara High School and Ball State University.  The Ball State Daily remembered her as a "Champion":

The first time Charnice Milton earned a B in high school, her father Kenneth McClenton remembers her telling him, "Sometimes stuff happens."

"I said, 'Stuff happens?  Well, now I'm about to take your stuff away,'" McClenton said laughing.

Francine Milton and McClenton pushed their daughter to her fullest potential, never letting her get down on herself despite a speech impediment and form of Asperger's syndrome. And their efforts proved to be successful as she graduated from Bishop McNamara High School with honors, and she accepted a Presidential Scholarship offer to Ball State.

       After deciding to commit to Ball State, she boarded an
       airplane on her 18th birthday with 
       her mother to attend her freshman orientation.

"She truly loved being there," her mother said. "She wasn't afraid of trying new things."

With a BSU communication studies degree, she continued to Syracuse where she received her master's degree in journalism in 2011 from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.  While never a Pulitzer winner, her commitment to community newswriting was appreciated in every Disrict of Columbia cultural institution.  Andrew Lightman, the Managing Editor of Capital Community News publisher of The Hill Rag, MidCity DC and East of the River community newspapers, grew her from an accomplished student writer to an accomplished community writer.   Under his mentorship, she was able to tell the stories of inner city Washington with the skill of a literary artist and the power of a Native Washingtonian.  The Syracuse University alumna, who was shot and killed while heading home from an assignment on May 27th, will be among the names considered in 2015 for the Newseum's memorial to slain journalists.

Every morning, I check the refrigerator.  I look in the spot where she left my great treasure--a canister of Southern lemonade.  Every morning, she would prepare this Southern jewel for my great enjoyment.  Charnice was a wonderful human being.  She left an indelible mark on us, her parents.  She brought out the beauty of Urban America beyond the confines of stereotype and disenfranchisement.   She touched the city as a human shield between inner city gang members.  She has touched the world living for Christ with an impeccable character and sincere pursuit of the highest good of mankind in her every work.  Her death is not the last scene of her impact.

My wife, Francine Milton, and I have been as resolute in our grief as we had been in memorializing Charnice.  From the moment we learned of her death, we vowed a fight on behalf of the innocents.  For the voiceless like Charnice that are killed on the streets of the inner city by gang members, we wage battle against the silence of neighbors that honor the "don't snitch" demands of the criminal tyrants and against the ideological partisanship that promotes victim-hood, fear and death.  For decades, it has seemed that the culprits have been able to get away with murder in the Nation's Capital.  In the realm of public safety, many have softened cultural stances against violent crime prosecution by falsely aligning reform arguments against non-violent reform stances.  The reasoning has been enveloped in the cause of "prison reform" in the United States.  Worse, advocates use "race" as a sincere argument against prosecuting violent crime.  However, over 85% of those on the List of Unresolved Homicides in the District of Columbia are black men.  As of this writing, the District has recorded its 140th Homicide, up 56% from last year.  The heightened march of death is felt around the City however, more expressly in the most impoverished communities East of the Anacostia River.  Wards 7 and 8 compose this area and is blighted by poverty, unemployment and violent crime.  Simply put, no one wants to risk their lives to seed businesses, build worship centers or live in places where their life, liberty and pursuits of happiness are at great risk.  Public safety is the foundation for economic renewal and cultural revitalization.  We are committed to come against all that makes our Nation's Inner Cities chaotic and unsafe.

The Open Heart / Close Case Campaign was created on August 9, 2015 under the auspices of The Anacostia Coordinating Council (ACC).  The OHCC Campaign is the Public Safety Arm of the Anacostia Coordinating Council (ACC) in Washington, DC.  It is our advocacy agency for the defenseless like Charnice Milton and the voiceless like Relisha Rudd.  We understood that when the media, the reporters, the bloggers and camera crews all go away two things remain: the need for justice and the need for closure.  Justice comes when our cultural institutions open their heart to the devastation felt by the victim’s loved ones and a responsibility to make our public safe.  Closure comes when all has been done to find and sentence the guilty, to salve the gnawing question of what happened to our loved ones and to set in place obstacles from such occurrences repeating.  Our Campaign has yielded much fruit in the first 120 days.

Our mobilization of neighborhood leaders and petition efforts bore the first Pubic Safety Hearing by  the DC City Council in over a year.  The hearing, entitled "Judiciary Public Hearing: Beyond 100 Homicides & B21-0261", gave neighbors the opportunity to speak against the societal ills that permit the continuance of violent crime and offer solutions.  My testimony is concluded in the District record.  Many of the solutions offered centered around the City Mayor's political desire to fund social workers and community groups to fight against violent crime.  The result?  Homicides continue to rise.  Political patronage does not end violent crime but produces visible hands that seek financial reward for teaching people to endure "the spike" in violent crime.  Realizing that politicians prefer endurance over eradication, our Campaign proposed and hosted two Townhall Assemblies over the weekend.  Why Assemblies and not Meetings?  One of my slain daughter’s hobbies was movie watching.  We both enjoyed watching Marvel’s Avengers.  In reminiscing, it came to me that those who wish to do justice and protect the common good did not come together to talk about their problems.  They assembled to solve their problems.  Over the weekend, from the various cultural institutions, leaders assembled to present solutions for the societal ills of unresolved homicides, missing persons and exploited children.  They toiled under three expectations.  One, they were to inspire listeners to break the binds which keep them silent and victims.  Two, they were focused on solutions to the societal ills and not reciting the ills arriving at fate of paralysis in their cities.  Finally, three, they were to mobilize listeners to leave their seats and use their pens as swords to exact change in every individual, family, neighborhood, economic entity, educational center, governmental servant and Faith leader.  We need Warriors on the Wall to protect and serve the least, the last and the lost.  Their words opened hearts and will lead to closed cases.

The "Real Solutions" Townhall Assembly: A Cultural Public Safety Conversation events were held in Baltimore, MD and Washington, DC.  What became of these events?  An answer to closing cases not just the Charnice Milton murder case but unresolved homicide, missing persons and exploited child cases around the world.  Howie Comen of the Comen Detective Agency arranged a great opportunity.

HUMAN ANGELS WITH MAGNIFYING GLASSES

The Balt.and DC meetings were very exciting. When I announced the fact that some 60-75 Intellenet members (former FBI, CIA, IRS, KGB, and international law enforcement and military retirees) would donate 20 hours investigating unsolved murders, Missing Person, and cases involving exploited children the clergy and laity at both venues were overwhelmed. One mother of a murdered child broke out into tears of joy. They see the private detectives from all over the USA, Canada, Mexico, China, S Africa, Brazil, Pakistan, France and England as Human Angels.

In these times of greed, self interest, and murder rates increasing in the US and worldwide due to hate between faiths the Intellenet members offer was very powerful.

Rest assured we all will spend considerable time raising funds to go beyond the two month trial period and fund these efforts permanently.

As soon as Open Heart Closed Case Chair Kenneth McClenton approves, I will announce a major international effort in Justice, Education, Police Oversight, and an International Movement to Declare January of February Interfaith and Racial Harmony Month.  

Imagine what an impact to have 75 of the world's top detectives helping local police agencies in closing unresolved cases.Imagine how the Campaign's soultion will bring closure and justice to the many families that have gone days, months and years without even the slightest moment of hope. Finally, solutions that work by the spirit of action and results.  

Our Campaign is geared to mobilize cultural leaders—individuals and families, neighbors, educational centers, economic interests, governing bodies and the Faith community—to challenge the status quo in various cities and advocate for the closing of unresolved homicide, missing persons and exploited persons cases.  We will fight for those that face injustice and familial disruption from those that purposely terrorize and from those that, through every form of intimidation, remain silent.  Opening Our Culture’s Hearts to Closing Unresolved Homicides, Missing Persons and Exploited Children’s Cases throughout the World is Our Eternal Endeavor.  We ask that the good people of Italy and the world join us in defeating the devices that keep us from achieving the peace that our Cities desire.  Like our Facebook page and encourage others to join us in our fight to solve our crisis.  Champions like Charnice deserve our resolve. 

HOW ARE WE GOING TO SOCIAL WORK OUR WAY OUT OF AN HOMICIDE EPIDEMIC?

It played like an old vinyl 45 rpm record, scratched across the middle, worn from too many times we became inebriated because we had neither general concern for the alternatives of life nor the care to explore them.  Each panel, composed of the sage offerings of their time, chorused the same refrain as the baton tongues wagged in front of them, successfully leading soldiers across the well worn paths that avoided the improvised explosive device (IED) planted in the fields by those seeking to restrict the ideologues from marching forward.  

"Mass Incarceration, We Must Stop the Mass Incarceration!"

A leader in the brigade, baritone voice emanating across the room, solemn yet glaring hopefully into the eyes of the inquisitive chieftain, affixed himself to a truth that only a few knew, sensitively, adhering to the proverbs of Cato, he spoke.

"We incarcerate more people than the nations of Russia and China.  We must not incarcerate.  We must consider this a public health crisis."

A regal woman sits before the chieftain, adorned in the finest of gold, extracted from beneath the glass casing of a successful merchant, tightly fitted, ornate dress, this is that moment we must be exact and refine, the addressing of the chieftain before so many seen and unseen, they must know power which is heighten by the precise attention to detail from the stilettos to the tempered highlights, they must see me, they must know me, I am unknown, she speaks. 

"We can not arrest our way out of this crisis.  We must not incarcerate.  Too many poor black families are suffering because men are arrested and put in prison.  We must see this crisis for what it is--a public health crisis.  We need to give them jobs."

Onlooking, head down, words fly pass me like the breezes that comfort me on my porch, I sit there drinking my favorite draft, reminiscing, they were so young, laughing, feisty little ladies, giving as much as they took, politics, fashion, music, who's the latest with his hair so curly, dancing and singing pop candy songs about first love, missing you, losing you, my daughters grew up so quickly, we have heard this all before, we must address the breaking of the rules with a jobs program and the victim and their family must be silent that real healing can begin.

The real problem in dealing with DC's homicide crisis is that 90% of that District subscribes to a unique philosophy that "derives knowledge from the senses".  In order for something to be useful, it must "feel" right.  It must "look" right.  It "must fit" with what we are most comfortable.  It must "sound" right.  It must "smell" like a flavor I am acquainted.  The remedy for the breaking of the rule of law is to appease the breaker and contort the broken.  What matters is making the solutions to that which perplexes us fit the acceptable norms of the science of our ideas.  We have already figured this out, so the problem must fit our solution.  It has been decided.  The answer is what has always been the answer.  It is the answer when the threat is foreign or domestic.  

When those in power come across a situation or circumstance that does not neatly fit their accepted narrative then, they double down on the doctrinal principles that helped them arrive at their place of pondering.  The great loss could not be the confidence of the citizens or law enforcement.  If it were, why wait until the 111th homicide to hold a public hearing?  The greatest loss of those in power is the loss of subscription to the way you think which sustains you in the webbing of their doctrine and them upon the platforms in which they sustain their power.  The greatest loss that could be incurred during a homicide crisis is one that exposes the frailty of strategy built upon the framework of ideology. 

What will eliminate homicides in the District of Columbia?  Maybe we should turn to the thought of using the economic engine to deter the sincere will of an individual or group to break the rule of law and steal, kill and destroy.  Yes, a job will do it!  The State Department said it will work for urban America just as it has worked for the countries of Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

"We're killing a lot of them, and we're going to keep killing more of them. ... But we cannot win this war by killing them," department spokeswoman Marie Harf said on MSNBC's "Hardball." "We need ... to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it's lack of opportunity for jobs, whether --" 

At that point, Harf was interrupted by host Chris Matthews, who pointed out, "There's always going to be poor people. There's always going to be poor Muslims." 

Indeed, Ken, the War on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)--firstly, not an Obama War because he only gets America out of wars--is a high-level, above pay grade kind of circumstance.  Obviously, we should never Nation Build like under the Bush Administration.  However, we should build a Department of Employment Services (DOES) in Iraq and Syria and make certain that high speed Internet is delivered to every radical jihadist's home.  How will he ever apply for employment without the civil right of access to CareerBuilder, Monster Jobs or the DC Favorite--USAJOBS. The reality is that no government initiative, including jobs training, will deter ISIS from its pursuit of world domination.  Just think Pinky and the Brain and you get the point.  

Homicide in the District is defined as "killing of another purposely, or otherwise, with malice aforethought".  It seems, for some, that the prudent response to the District of Columbia's homicide crisis, likened unto military conflict with ISIS, is to spend $25 million on social work and jobs training programs.   By the way, I thought Obama Care solved our health crises.

"It's going to be difficult to point a finger at precisely what one or two things is causing the crime. But I'm more interested in solutions," Kenyan McDuffie, [DC City Council Judiciary Committee Chairman] said. "We have a crisis on our hands here in the District of Columbia and we need to treat the violence, particularly the homicides like the health epidemic that it really is. We need to take a broader approach than simply focusing on law enforcement."

McDuffie says in the midst of a spike in violent crime, it's important to remember that prisons are already overpopulated and arresting more people won't fix the underlying problems.

Let us explore this valiant concept of social work and jobs training reducing violent crime.

Our Culture of Fear and Death has shown an incredible spotlight on political servants during the DC Homicide Crisis.  Mayor Muriel Bowser has received enormous criticism for her seeming lack of constitutional understanding in demanding expanded powers.  Police Chief Cathy Lanier has been criticized for her ever evolving reasons for the increase in homicides from synthetic marijuana to now, gang violence.  I would truly like to be so humble as to say that I influenced her but I will settle to say that we are at least on the same page in the hymnal now.  Three Council members, two sit on the City's Judiciary Committee, are uniquely concerned about  the "optics" of a homicide surge in their citizens' Police Districts.  The members are Kenyan McDuffie (W-5), Yvette Alexander (W-7) and LaRuby May (W-8).  They have a very tricky tight rope to walk.  Their ideology says that law enforcement, although union based and strong political supporters, are the enemy to the victim narrative propagated within their Wards' borders.  They are not the solution for the ideology represented in their most at-risk communities.  The rule of law and law enforcers are biased, prejudiced and discriminate.  Any attempt to enforce the rule of law is to destroy families, impoverish neighborhoods and to honor "Jim Crow".  The only trusted sources of relief are community activists that rail against the "villains" and "traitors" of society and social workers that keep order among those that receive subsidies to sustain them in poverty.  It is a difficult walk because the ideology protects those that disturb the precious balance of society and insults those that try to keep the scales weighted evenly.  The narrative pandered about in their wards is that gentrification is squeezing people out of "affordable" neighborhoods, jobs are not being created no matter how much government officials try and the police are no longer serving and protecting those in greatest need which is why we need the Nation of Islam.  The unfortunate thing is that the narrative does not fit the circumstances behind the homicide surge.

Councilman / Police District	09/17/2013 to 09/17/2014	09/17/2014 to 09/17/2015
Councilman Kenyan McDuffie (D-W5)
5th District Homicide	18	27
5th District Violent Crime	915	1054
Councilman Yvette Alexander (D-W7)
6th District Homicide	28	23
6th District Violent Crime	1491	1345
Councilman LaRuby May (D-W8)
7th District Homicide	30	50
7th District Violent Crime	1258	1139

Wards 5, 7 and 8 are distinguished from the remaining City Wards for the merciless level of unemployment.  While the Nation boasts an unemployment rate of 5.1%, DC's neighbors Virginia celebrates a rate of 4.5% and Maryland, 5.1%.  The District's unemployment rate is 6.8%.  Only Nevada's and West Virginia's rates are higher.  Ranked 49th in the Nation, DC's Wards 5, 7 and 8 have far worse rates.  However, as the 

Councilman /Unemployment Rates	June 2014	June 2015
Councilman Kenyan McDuffie (D-W5)
Unemployment Rate	10.10%	8.50%
Councilman Yvette Alexander (D-W7)
Unemployment Rate	13.60%	11.70%
Councilman LaRuby May (D-W8)
Unemployment Rate	16.50%	14.10%

unemployment rates have fallen in the District, the homicide rate has risen.  

The District is not under-spending in the process of job creation.  The City spends federal and state taxpayers' revenue to the tune of $115 million to subsidize training programs, education initiatives and human support services.  According to the District of Columbia Fiscal Policy Institute, the DC Government has "more than 30 programs across a dozen city agencies that help prepare residents for work and assist them in job searches and placements".  The breakdown of the largess reveals the DC Department of Employment Services (DOES) spends $61 million, Human Support Services spends $27 million, Public Education spends $26 million and Public Works, $1 million.  In spite of the wealth transferred, the Wards have the highest populations of low-skilled, unemployed persons in the City.  If it takes $115 million to reduce the unemployment rate by 2 percentage points then, $25 million will make a nominal difference.  The narrative makes little sense in this area.

My question, a simple one since I am such a very simple man, is how are we going to "social work" our way out of a homicide epidemic if we certainly can not "arrest our way" out of it?  Everyday life can be a trial to even the most well-adjusted person.  The answer for many is to find a way to cope with the conditions and circumstances of life.  Traditionally, we have turned to the Faith community and family and friends to gather the strength to deal with the excesses of lifestyle challenges.  When the waves have overcome the journeyers' vessels then, some captains call upon others to aid them and extend relief.  A social worker--"devoted to or relating to home life", either private or state sponsored, is called upon to offer a life raft to those drowning in the raging sea of tragedy or the harsh tides of mental anguish.  A social worker, according to the US Department of Labor's (DOL) Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Outlook Handbook, "help people solve and cope with problems in their everyday lives".  Their mission is to "diagnose and treat mental, behavioral and emotional issues".  The primary function of a social worker is to "identify people that need help".  Wait a minute!  The narrative says that it is criminal for law enforcement to  "identify" people that may have committed or may possibly commit a criminal act.  However, our best attempt at a comprehensive homicide prevention plan is to recruit social workers to "recognize those with greatest need" in the community.    

Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) launched a $15 million “Safer, Stronger D.C.” program in August to try to curb the violence, which authorities say has been fueled partly by petty disputes, more illegal guns on the streets and crimes committed by repeat offenders.

Safer, Stronger D.C. launched a community partnership strategy with the intent of supporting neighborhoods where violent crime occurs most often.  Apparently, unaware of the funds that are used by the City for these purposes, the administrators initiate a "new community grant program dedicated to funding non-profits that help improve the lives of individuals and families living in areas victimized by violent crime".  What else will make the City safer and stronger?  Providing intensive and individualized employment services, social services and health services in neighborhoods afflicted by violence.  Now, the Judiciary Committee entertains doubling down on this ideological criminal justice approach.

While we consider this comprehensive homicide prevention plan, the DC Homicide rate has risen from 111 to 114.  Hence, the City has decided that the focus of homicide  should not be on the murderer but on the socio-poli-economic needs of the murderers in the community.  Hmmmm?  I wonder how the social workers missed this one.

The third shooting occurred about 4:05 a.m. in the 2400 block of Elvans Road in Southeast, police said. Officers responded to a report of a man in distress on the street and found another gunshot victim. Deontray Ingram, 22, of Southeast was pronounced dead at the scene.

Ingram’s grandmother Dianne Ingram said the family was perplexed by the killing because her grandson was not involved in drugs and was chatting with friends when he was shot. She said he leaves behind a 3-year-old son and a 10-month-old daughter. He loved cooking and had dreams of being a chef, she said.

“If you wanted something, there was nothing he wouldn’t do to get it for you,” Dianne Ingram said of her grandson. “And he would do it with a smile.”

While it is not a popular commentary, the risks of not considering our options is the loss of many lives, the installation of false expectations and an improper usage of tax revenue.  A comprehensive crime prevention plan should not focus on patronizing community activists and non-profit social justice advocates.  We do not have a public health crisis.  The World Health Organization (WHO) refers to public health as all organized measures (whether public or private) to prevent disease, promote health, and prolong life among the population as a whole.  If there is a public health crisis, we need to take a look at the efforts of those headquartered at 1108 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036.  Unfortunately, the social workers at this site are not working nearly as hard as they should to prolong life beyond the corrupt pursuits of organizational revenue.

We have a public safety crisis.  USLegal.com defines public safety as the welfare and protection of the general public.  It considers life, liberty and property.  Washingtonians do not feel their lives, their liberty or their property is safe.  Our attentions require a competent--not politically expedient and reactive--approach to the domestic threats that we face.  

We have a gang crises that requires a Council that is entirely soft on crime to forge an intolerance of the domestic terrorism that occupies the neighborhoods identified for social work intervention.  The narrative that identifies the police as the enemy and the social worker and social justice advocates as saviors must be challenged.  Only a neighborhood that knows that it will not be silenced by retaliation from gangs and "lone wolves" or politicians seeking ideological harmony will overcome this epidemic.  

The truth is that citizens are first defenders, police and detectives are first respondents and social advocates are back-end supporters.  It is hard to rah-rah a planner that sought to solve homicides by taking over $25 million from the DC Police Department and now wants to spend over $15 million on socio-poli-economic intervention.  A comprehensive plan must promote the vital role of citizen defense, the essential intervention of Faith organizations and existing social service interventionists and solidify the neighborhood roles of police and law enforcement.  

The City must also admit that its foray into medicinal marijuana has negative impacts on the underground drug market in the Nation's Capital.  While not reported in DC as yet, Californians report:

Patients, growers and clinics in some of the 14 states that allow medical marijuana are falling victim to robberies, home invasions, shootings and even murders at the hands of pot thieves.

There have been dozens of cases in recent months alone. The issue received more attention this week after a prominent medical marijuana activist in Washington state nearly killed a robber in a shootout — the eighth time thieves had targeted his pot-growing operation.

In physics, nature abhors a vacuum.  In business, merchants abhor competition.  While there are many with noble intentions of "recreational and medicinal" usage of illicit drugs, there are those that practice the art of capitalism to the nth extent.  Fear and Death are the trade tools of the underground market.  Innocent citizens are suffering from rivals exploring the immoral limits of supply and demand.  Just as in theater it is difficult to play at once villain and hero, it is somewhat schizophrenic to oppose the underground drug trade while encouraging citizens and their children to plant up to 1000 pots of pot for "medicinal" purposes.  The City must admit that their involvement in the drug trade tenders dangerous risks to the safety of our society. 

During the recent DC Council Judiciary Committee Hearing, an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner spoke of her earnest support of the Mayor's and Council's 
"Public Health" approach to criminal justice.  She spoke against "mass incarceration".  She advised that the City needed to respond to the domestic terrorism of murderers by giving people jobs.  Then, she went off script.  She advised that her life was recently threatened by someone in her neighborhood.  She called upon the police to rescue her from the verbal assaulter.  She was gladdened when the police arrived.  They searched the female assaulter and found that she had a knife.  The police arrested the contentious woman.  She admitted that she was befuddled as to what would have happened if the police had not come.  Probably the worst, she imagined aloud.  

Amazing how those with an ideology, a narrative and a office of power find comfort in arresting their way out of a dismal, dangerous circumstance.  However, the rest of the City should seek no such comfort.  Why?  We are going to social work our way out of this homicide epidemic for the good of the public health.