Murder isn’t a common occurrence in Maine. You knew that, but let me remind you just how uncommon. In 2006, just 21 murders in a state of around 1.3 million people. That’s 0.02 people out of every thousand.
Even aggravated assault struck a mere 0.59 people out of every thousand that year. Maine is pretty damned safe. The animals around here, notably the moose coming out to lick salt off the roads, might pose a bigger risk than humans.
I wanted to point that out before I remind you about the murder of a Sudanese security guard on September 7 in Portland.
On break at his job at Mercy Hospital, this unarmed guard, James Angelo, was shot dead. In addition to the grief of the family and friends of Angelo, we are seeing grief among the roughly 2000 Sudanese immigrants who live in Maine, most of them in Portland and Lewiston. But sadness and loss aren’t all they’re feeling.
Add fear to the list of emotions, too.
With seven violent attacks against Sudanese immigrants over the past six years, people in that community are worried that they are being targeted simply because they are Sudanese.
Edward Laboke, one of the more prominent members of Portland’s Sudanese community, recently outlined for city leaders the list of assaults: Angelo’s shooting; shots that were fired at a home in March, narrowly missing a child inside; a shooting in 2007 and another in 2002; and three beatings, one of which ended with the death of a Sudanese man.
Now, it would be easy to say, “Well, what’s the big deal? An average of one violent attack a year against an entire community. That’s nothing.”
Perhaps it’s nothing if you live in Chicago, as I once did. Or in Philadelphia. Or Detroit. Or New York. Or just about any other city in the nation. But if you are scratching your head and wondering how the Sudanese immigrants can possibly be jumping to a conclusion of race-related crimes against them (and I wondered, too, for a brief moment in time), let’s revisit those figures I mentioned earlier.
In Maine, only about half a person out of every thousand was a victim of an aggravated assault. I guess by that standard, the Sudanese are right on track with the rest of the population, with an average of one attack against their 2000 people each year.
But wait! In the past six years, two Sudanese people have been killed as a result of violent crime. One person per thousand. In a state where each year, nowhere near one white person in a thousand gets murdered.
If you combined a thousand Mainers into one huge person, would 0.02 even be a little toe? The Sudanese community has lost a lot more than that. Something on the order of a hundred times greater impact.
It’s not proof that they are being targeted for their race, or for being immigrants. But it doesn’t look good. It could be coincidence, but I’m not so sure. I suspect that they are being attacked more violently than the average Mainer is — hence the higher rate of murders and the dramatic nature of the non-lethal attacks.
No, there is no proof that Angelo’s death was race-related. But if you think that the Sudanese people here are crying foul or playing a race card, revisit those numbers again and imagine how you’d feel in their shoes.
Shay Stewart-Bouley can be reached at diversecity_phoenix@yahoo.com.
