A Negro robbed another Negro at the point of a gun not so long ago and the local judge passed a life sentence upon the offender with no recommendation for a pardon. Charlottesville Negroes heartily endorse the decision handed down and well-thinking Negroes throughout the South would welcome any "tightening down" on the Negro criminal in cases where all concerned are Negroes.
As "The Reflector" has previously pointed out, the police record of ten large Southern cities showed an alarming increase in Negro crime, crime committed by Negroes against other Negroes, for the years 1932-33. The records in those Southern cities are easily explained. Negro law-breakers are dealt with too lightly when there are all Negroes involved. Actual cases in some of the cities having the large percentage of crime amoung Negroes are interesting.
"A Negro fortune-teller swindled a small church out of $700, which was considered grand larceny. After doing several card tricks for the judge, and a tap dance, this fortune teller was dismissed and admonished to be more careful."
"One Negro seriously wounded another; his motive and evidence presented amounted to murder in the first degree. His sentence was six months imprisonment and a fine."
Rape cases carried a five or ten dollar fine although in some states the statutes called for life imprisonment or death. Of course this includes cases where the crime involves only Negroes.
No one needs to wonder then, why crime, among Negroes, is on the increase in those ten cities, after reading a few police reports and criminal court cases. Indifferent judges must learn that crime, no matter against whom it is committed, is punishable as the law prescribes, and that the color of those involved should, not by any means, be a determining factor. Crime challenges the efficiency of our established code of morals.