Black men as victims of crime: 'I wake up in a cold sweat.'

Of all Americans, black men have the most to fear from violent crime. Even Latino men, who suffer their own high homicide rates, are much less likely than black men to be murdered.

Older black men, like 50-year-old Charles Malone, interviewed here, are at serious risk--a neglected high-risk group. While advocacy efforts tend to focus on young people, more black men aged 40 to 50 were hospitalized for assault-related injuries than black youths 18 and under, according to 2001-2006 data from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. In 2004, black men 45 to 54 in Los Angeles County were nearly five times more likely to be murdered than Latino men in the same age group, and 14 times more likely than white men.*

Name: Charles Malone, 50

Occupation: None, since he was disabled in a shooting in 1996. At various times before that, he has been a juvenile delinquent, a Southwest College student, a school-district worker, a detention officer for the department of probation and an instructor at a local gym. He has also spent time incarcerated--for grand theft when he was 40.

Residence: Walnut, formerly of Watts, where he was interviewed.

Chance he will be murdered in a given year*: 4.8 in 10,000.

Chance a Latino man will be: 1 in 10,000

Chance a white man will be: 1/3 in 10,000

HR: How did you get the scar?

Malone: I was standing at a bus stop at Crenshaw and Hyde Park. I was coming home from work, still wearing my gym uniform -- a shirt and shorts. It was summer twilight. I was looking up the street for the bus, and had my back turned.

That's when I heard really loud pops behind me. Really, really loud, like a few feet away. I ran about 10 feet, and then I felt something trickle down my buttock. I reached back. It was blood. I just stopped. Someone was yelling at me to sit down, so I sat.

The paramedics came and ripped my clothes off me and took me to King-Drew. I had been shot five times. Three times in the stomach, twice in the buttock. The last thing I remember was going into surgery. King-Drew hospital saved my life.

HR: What was your recovery like?

Malone: I remember waking up three days later on a machine. I was in the hospital for two weeks and it took me four months to recover.  I had to be wheeled around on a gurney. My mom and sister had to do all that. I had a colostomy bag for three months.

HR: Does it affect you now?

Malone: All the time. I have pain like permanent arthritis. The doctors told me my intestinal tract would never work right again, and it hasn't. I can't eat any fried food or drink milk. I can't eat a lot of things, and I have pain down there. It hurts all the time.

I have psychological effects, too. I never had a reason to watch my back before. But now, at the slightest bang I want to climb under a car. I have nightmares about it, then I wake up in a cold sweat. It's like it's happening again. At first, I had nightmares every other week. But I have them less now.

HR: Did they catch anyone?

Malone: No. They were black men or teenagers. I was in my 40s--too old to be a gang member. The police told me it was a case of "mistaken identity." They told me it's a war zone over there, just so many different gangs. They just shot up the bus stop.

HR: You got kicked out of school and spent time in Youth Authority as a teenager. So do you understand the aggression of the young men who attacked you?

Malone: Sure. I grew up around here. I had to survive. You know, if you back a cat into a corner, he gonna come out some kinda way--by any means necessary. And that's how it is. You grow up here, and that's how it is. Now you gonna stop people from picking on you all the time, thinking you're weak, and taking everything from you that your parents give you to go to school. But killing? No. I don't relate to that. It's the most dramatic experience anyone could ever have--to have someone try to kill you.

HR: Why are you willing to talk to me?

Malone: To make people conscious and aware. ... To help the next generation.

(Above, Malone has a single scar like a deep furrow down his abdomen from the shooting, and two other scars from the other bullets on each side.)

* The homicide risk calculations above are based on homicide figures from the Los Angeles County Health Department in the year 2004. The figure for Malone's risk is derived from homicide death rates for black males ages 45 to 54, versus white and Latino men in the same age category.

See previous "black men as victims of crime": "Don't say the wrong thing" and "They asked me where I was from, as usual" and "I had a bad feeling"

Comments

[Richard]

Not sure what area the murder rates were taken from but not Los Angeles county. There are more the three Latinos killed for every White in L.A. county.

[Jack]

How about Asians?? Why are we only focused on whites, blacks, and latinos? They do not comprise the entire SoCal!!!

[mark]

Jack, if you breakdown the stats for LA County, Asians are not very likely to be murdered.

[jhw]

i know malone, worked with him at juvey in 1984, a good guy i still work for probation, im shocked to see the turns his life has taken. i look in this report everyday, many times these people are on my caseload....sometimes i wonder why they have not reported, only to find that they have been murdered....wow

[Steve Johnson]

\When I relocated to LA from the South, I lived in these neighborhoods. I had a bad incident involving a family member. No one was murdered, but there were some injuries, a threat of retaliation from a gang member, and the theft of a car. I dared not report this to my live in girlfriend at the time, because I was so embarrased. No one from the neighborhood came forward, except one, to assist me. My family had lived in this neighborhhd (in Athens Westmont) for over 25 years. I chose to more.

Everyone cannot do that. But those who have the wherewithall should consider it,,,,unless they are able to retake the community from random violence. Random violence is what I ran away from...I am happy I did. It is so sad that it continues to go on. I don't want to work or live anywhere near those areas. They are just too dangerous.

[pharaoh dragon]

what's wrong with black people today?, why are we running from our problems? how come nobody's standing and fighting like we use to in the 20's, 50's, and 60's? running is not the answer, the problem is everywhere, so why run? black men must be forced to stop killing other black men, and these racist mexicans also must be foreced to stop killing us plain and simple. stop living in fear, be brave. we were once respected as mighty warriors, the children of the most ancient race on the planet. and now, people of all races look at us as a bunch of clowns and cowards. where are our great leaders today?, where are our kings, and queens? where is nat turner, marcus garvey, malcolm X, and the original black panther party? what happend to generals, and soldiers like that? it's time to stop hiding in churches, and under the skirts of women. stand up!, be the mandingo that GOD made you baby. nobody's going to help us, we have to do it. stop crying and complaining, organize, arm yourselves, and fight back! the dragon.

[KaRi from Long Beach]

At what point in history did man
find it acceptable to prey and
shoot at someone(s)
who are totally defenseless?

Question: What is a REAL man?

[Me]

Why is the focus on Black people? Do they not know about the other races? Do you know that there is a lot of crime going on between Latinos or other races? This will only make other races more scared of black people.