Oh noos: the po-lice and associated eggheads can’t figure out why Northeast Brooklyn murders — that includes Bushwick — have gone up. Now, “up” is of course a relative notion: 212 in a borough of 2.5 million people. This New York Magazine article does little to dispel my assumption that probably 97% of the victims are also perps of some form. The remainder are their unfortunate neighbors. It’s why, when choosing a new neighborhood, it’s pointless to pay attention to the murder part of the crime stats — unless you’re planning on moving into a “Crips” floor at the Bushwick Houses.

Those whose agenda it serves of course have their own view of the problem: gentrification is to blame. The article mentions, as if to back up a comment about people pushed out of Bed-Stuy and into Bushwick, that in 2006, “Bushwick’s population jumped by more than 8,000.” I’m sure that’s true. But these people weren’t gentrified out of Bed-Stuy — they were gentrified out of the East Village and Williamsburg. Or they came from Mexico to work. Bushwick is not a catch basin for the poverty-mired of Brooklyn, it’s a magnet for the upwardly mobile who still have a long way to go.

The academics and cops of course mention the drug trade as the fuel for this murderous fire, but stops short of what makes selling drugs such a violent endeavor: it’s the drug war, stupid. From the 70s, throughout the crack epidemic, to now, the government has not changed its policy on dictating to Americans what they can put in their bodies. Since prohibition hardly dents demand, and no state anywhere, ever has yet found a way to crush the market signals for demand, there are people dedicated to making a living supplying that demand. Since the government has made punishment of the non-crime of drug selling so outrageously severe, the only people ballsy and reckless enough to sell drugs are those who have nearly nothing to lose, and rather impaired senses of the value of human life in general. You end up with the most violent elements having most of the money and weapons. Not a recipe for peace.

Drug prohibition created the problem of rampant crime in the United States. Drug prohibition helped keep New York a shithole for decades. Hell, drug prohibition has destroyed entire Central American countries and empowered vicious militias in Mexico and Colombia. It’s responsible for millions of deaths, holocaustian proportions.

End drug prohibition, and you will nearly end what little violence is left in New York. There will still be residual knuckleheads around because of the cultures incubated during the last 40 years, but that will eventually peter out with no drug industry to support it. Until then, stay clear of the projects and you won’t get shot. Not that anyone who doesn’t actually live there usually does.