As an author of oral histories and urban biographies I have long written for an action-oriented subset of the literary community about an action-oriented subset of the non-literary community, which, as has always been the case, vastly outnumbers the literate.

Recently, alarmed by the firestorm of media coverage concerning Tiny Teen of Ferguson Missouri, numerous people have asked me about my findings concerning violence in urban black communities. They seem to be confused as only two sources of information on this are presented in the form of news coverage:

1. The mainstream liberal media report that black youth are preyed upon disproportionately by white police and are no more likely to commit acts of violence than white youth. Black urban communities are portrayed as under siege by militarized law enforcement.

2. The rightwing opposition media—mostly online these days—report that black youth are dedicated to attacking whites, and that white communities bordering black urban communities are under siege.

This past week I spent some time with middle aged black men in Baltimore bars and martial arts schools speaking of these things. Despite the fact that the liberal press portrays the black community to be in absolute agreement and concord as to the innocence of their youth and the criminality of law enforcement I found these seven men to be all over the place. Five men at the one bar had a heated argument over the Ferguson situation. The only man who agreed that the slain youth was a hero-martyr was laughed at and called ‘black superman’ by his friends for claiming that he too would have fought the cop.

Each of you who read this piece may agree with one or the other of the media contentions above. Indeed I know folks who agree with both contentions. I have no desire to change your mind or to advance one view over the other. The purpose of this article is to provide a clear food chain for Baltimore City in the hope that it will answer some of these questions that have been put to me. Now that I think about it I should have charted this for When You’re Food.

I can tell you one thing, I know no black person in Baltimore that would disagree with the following [although there surely are those who will take offense to a white pointing this out], because they live it, unlike the wealthy poverty pimps wearing token hoodies at upscale suburban malls.

6 in 10 people are black

3 in 10 people are white

1 in 10 people are Latino or Asian which will be discounted here, as I have done little work poling those communities, with much of their members being recent immigrants. Generally they slot as white where violent behavior and risk is concerned.

I will track both races and both genders chronologically below.

Black children of both sexes are generally beaten at an early age, the boys severely. By age 8 most black children have been punched by an adult. I have seen black women punch male children in public, stomp them, slam their heads into hard surfaces, and even use steel shopping carts to ram felled children in supermarkets. Black men usually strike children of both sexes with belts. My best estimate is that 8 in 10 blacks are brutalized in childhood, which does sound a note of agreement with our president of African origin who I saw boasting about ‘whooping’ children at a black prayer breakfast.

White children are brutalized at an approximately inverse ratio to blacks, about 3 in 10. Therefore, most white children who emerge into their youth have no experience with violence and tend to have a hard problem with the youth phase.

Black females engage in high levels of same sex mutual combat with other black females, and are generally only attacked by other black females.

Black males engage in moderate levels of same sex mutual combat. However, black youths are all hunted by other black youths, and routinely dehumanized by police who are attempting to deter these youths from aggressing against whites and adults. The result is a thoroughly alienated black male youth population who feel more justified in initiating violence across racial and generational boundaries.

White females are universally preyed upon by black females, and are generally treated well by males of both races.

White male youth are a prey species who have one dedicated predator: black male youth. White male youths no longer engage in mutual combat with each other, rarely band together in gangs, and never ever initiate violence against the dominant group. In other words, a white male youth in Baltimore in 2014, is in the exact same position as a black male youth was in Baltimore in 1914, a hunted animal who must either cower or become a sociopath to survive.

Black females: no change from youth.

Black males in their twenties are like super youths, with greater risks in all categories. Young black men are almost guaranteed to be assaulted by police without being charged for any crime, and are just as likely to become the object of a serious felony attack or murder attempt by other black men. The one thing that a black man does not have to fear in Baltimore is a white man. The last attacks by whites against blacks in Baltimore occurred in the early 1990s.

White females in adulthood are at high risk of attack by white men they know and black youths they don’t know.

White adult men are all considered as robbery victims by numerous black aggressors, equally split between black youth packs and black adult crews. 9 in 10 white men who reside in Baltimore for more than 10 years have been attacked by groups of younger black males. 3 in 10 white men will be harassed and/or assaulted by cops fighting the drug war.

Note: virtually all men in Baltimore, white and black, will be attacked or extorted by black men or youth before they reach old age.

The elderly are only prey; targets for aggression. I have found no evidence to suggest that the elderly of any group are out there jacking people up.

Elderly black women are the least likely victims of aggression. However, over the past three years, some elderly black women have been attacked by black youths. Expect this number to rise.

Elderly black men are routinely attacked by black men and black youth. Elderly black men are the only segment of the aged population who have to worry about police harassment and brutality.

Elderly white women are the perennial easy mark for low level violence such as extortion and purse snatchings, and are the only demographic whose primary predator is white. Old white ladies get knocked off by drug addicted white males, and also by black youths by a ratio of about 7 to 3.

Elderly white men are prime prey, being attacked by black and white males [mostly youths] at a ratio of 6 to 4.

According to my findings over the past 4 years a person attacked in Baltimore is going to be attacked by a black male or a cop. However, I do not see a racial motivation. Although blacks are doing virtually all the attacking, they are also being attacked more frequently than whites. Also, when you look at the categories of people that get attacked by white criminals you see weak prey, which indicates weak predators. When it comes to knocking off the elderly and women white guys are right up there with the blacks. That is why I despise white men in general and usually on sight.

These factors point to the basic reason why most aggressors attack, because they have an expectation of success based on disparity of force in their favor and a low likely hood of intervention on behalf of the victim. In my mind what we have here is nothing more than the result of a society handing over the individual man’s responsibility to protect himself and other members of his community to a police force, which has instead been tasked with enforcing puritanical laws. The result is a hardened criminal class used to defying the police and a helpless civilian body largely barred or discouraged from engaging in any meaningful form of deterrence, self-protection, or retaliation [which is expressly forbidden].

Enjoy the hunt Bambi.