VALDOSTA — Black community leaders are speaking out about black on black crime in light of the plague of murders and violent crimes in the community that involve black people.

Of the 10 murder cases worked this year in Valdosta and Lowndes County combined, seven of them involve black victims and black suspects. Of these seven cases, three of them stemmed from domestic disputes between the victim and suspect, and the remaining four stemmed from altercations or random attacks.

“Whether we want to admit it or not, crimes committed against black people by black people have become a problem,” said Lee Henderson, a radio news host and pastor. “Anyone who does not see that is in denial.”

Henderson said that it seems today’s youth have become detached from the idea of serving God.

“In that disconnect, we are losing our young people by the hundreds of thousands every year,” he said.

Henderson added that black on black crime has to be replaced with black on black love — and the love starts from within one’s self.

“Not loving myself is the initial crime. How can I love you or anyone else if I don’t love me?”

He explained that this lack of love in the black community stems from social, environmental, cultural and spiritual conditions. It is up to the churches, organizations and the entire community to be part of the solution, he said.

“The churches can be more proactive in these people’s lives. They can do job preparation, do job searches, teach GED classes, feed the hungry, clothe the poor, offer counseling and point them from the darkness of Satan to the light of God.”

Henderson further stated that black teachers and black fraternal organizations failing to reach black kids and minister to them is a black on black crime itself. Nonetheless, he asserted that crime is everyone’s problem and extends beyond racial barriers.

“Who’s the real culprit here?” Henderson asked. “Is it the people who are lost, or it is us for not reaching out to help our fellow man?”

Attorney Roy Copeland feels that the recent rash of crime, in general, “further disintegrates the moral fiber of the community.”

“One should never commit acts that are detrimental to the community,” Copeland said. “Everyone should have some regard for their neighbor. If you don’t have respect for your own neighborhood, how can you respect anyone else’s?”

Copeland finds it “hard to believe that in a post-Civil Rights era, such heinous crimes would be committed in this community.”

“It’s disheartening,” he said. “But it’s not just black people, all races are in trouble. Anytime there is crime like this in a community, it says something about that community. It’s easy to fall into stereotypical thinking, but you can’t just say that this crime is a reflection on the black community. Then again, you can’t ignore the fact that the likelihood of the crime being a black on black crime is higher.”’

Copeland feels that these violent crimes are caused by an unwillingness to allow mechanisms in place to handle disputes and the lack of real sense of how to control anger.

“Several black males have a significant amount of anger because they feel the system doesn’t work for them or is stacked against them,” Copeland explained. “People have not learned to trust the traditional means of handling disputes.”

Copeland that there is no real in-home discussion on anger management or resolution that does not involve physical violence, and this spills over into the community.

“In addition, the community no longer reinforces values,” Copeland said.

Copeland then suggested that the local government get involved to deter crime, which will prevent police from having to solve crime.

“We’ll invest money to catch speeders and people who run stop lights under the guise of public safety when it’s really to generate revenue,” he said. “But we won’t go to the high crime areas where the real problem is because it’s not a revenue generator. Rather than look at this issue of crime from a racial perspective, we should look at the hows and whys and start dealing with those.”

Rev. Floyd Rose said that saying “black on black crime” absolves white people of responsibility of the conditions they created to produce these crimes.

“When whites commit crimes against whites, it’s not called white on white crime,” Rose said. “People who have good jobs and income do not commit acts such as the ones that have been committed recently. A normal person would rather work than steal, but he or she will steal before they starve. People need to stop talking to people of the ghetto and start talking with them.”

Despite Rose’s stance that others are partly responsible for the situations that lead to crimes committed by blacks, he affirms that black people must save themselves.

“If I’m sitting on a bench and you knock me on the floor, that’s your fault. If you come back the next week and I’m still on the floor, that’s my fault. Although we are not responsible for our conditions, we cannot let them consume who we are. We come from kings and queens.”

Rose said that black people have to start saving themselves spiritually, culturally, economically and politically. These practices are taught at Rose’s church, Serenity, during every service, he said.

“If you know where we came from, you’ll know that it’s amazing we’ve done as good as we’ve done, but the strongest of us have survived. We must work to keep the black community strong.”