WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE - ER UM I MEAN CAPTION!

NYTIMES:

James Cooper, left, and James T. Kouzaris, Britons who were vacationing in Sarasota, Fla., were fatally shot on Saturday.

Police officials are investigating how the young men, James Cooper, 25, and James T. Kouzaris, 24, got from the bar in downtown Sarasota to the public housing project, where they died on a narrow, one-way street. The police found the men after receiving a 911 call.

DAILY MAIL:

Police investigators were last night trying to piece together how the two university friends were murdered in a gang-ridden neighbourhood in the city of Sarasota.

U.S. officers were said to be mystified that the two middle-class visitors were in the Newton district.

[KEY GRAF:]

This desperate poverty and squalor [ SEE PHOTO ABOVE WHICH ACCOMPANIED THE DAILY MAIL ARTICLE] has served as the breeding ground for serious, often lethal crime from young men who feel they have nothing to lose, in a society which has given them nothing. And it is precisely this sense of desperation which makes these neighbourhoods so dangerous for those outsiders unfortunate or foolish enough to enter them.

AUSTER: The truth about the "desperate poverty and squalor" that putatively caused the murder of two young Englishmen in Florida

In the entry, "NYT to the rescue, lessens significance of murder of Englishmen in Sarasota," Dean Ericson quoted a story in the Daily Mail that blames black violence on the terrible poverty and other deprivations suffered by blacks in America as a result of the selfishness or cruelty of the white majority. Below, James P. points out how the Mail hilariously undercuts its own claim.

James P. writes:

The Daily Mail says:

Away from the all the luxury and glamour of the attractions and hotels, a gun-toting, drug-fuelled menace awaits where people live in abject deprivation on a scale unimaginable in Britain, with our ge. Nerous welfare state and infrastructure of public services. This desperate poverty and squalor has served as the breeding ground for serious, often lethal crime from young men who feel they have nothing to lose, in a society which has given them nothing. And it is precisely this sense of desperation which makes these neighbourhoods so dangerous for those outsiders unfortunate or foolish enough to enter them.

This quote is quite hilarious in view of the picture the Mail posted of the street where the Englishmen were murdered: [SEE ABOVE; AND USE THE LINK TO READ AUSTER'S ANALYSIS OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD AND ITS VEHICLES.]

#1 - LIBERALS ARE WRONG; Poverty doesn't cause crime - if it did then there'd be nothing but criminals in poor neiughborhoods and pooor nations and thata's simply npt the case; criminals are a distinct minority within the poor income brackets - and there are plenty of middle-class and rich crooks.

#2 - This neighborhood has neither the squalor nor looks terribly impoverished by any meaningful meaning of the words.

THE REAL PROBLEM IS NOT THE LACK OF MATERIAL WEALTH, BUT LACK OF INTACT TRADITIONAL VALUE-LADEN FAMILIES - AND THAT'S A RESULT OF THE WELFARE STATE.

IT'S A SPIRITUAL PROBLEM, NOT A MATERIAL ONE.

IT NEEDS A SPIRITUAL SOLUTION.

AND LEFTIST POLICIES STAND IN THE WAY OF THAT - FROM ADVOCATING PROMISCUITY TO BANNING PRAYERS IN SCHOOL, FROM PROMOTING ABORTION AND OUT-OF WEDLOCK CHILD-BIRTH TO PROMOTING THE NANNYSTATE, THE LEFT'S POLICIES HAVE WEAKENED THE FAMILY AND TRADITIONAL VALUES.

THESE MURDERS WERE THE RESULT OF THE LIBERAL NANNYSTATE, NOT POVERTY.

THE PERP IS A RESULT OF EVIL LEFTIST NOTIONS AND INSTITUTIONS, NOT DESPERATE POVERTY.