Col. Allen West, former GOP U.S. Congressman from Florida, said at a Thursday morning panel focused on the devastating economic impacts of amnesty that economic policies that displace black youths from jobs—like President Barack Obama’s immigration policies—have led to fads like the “knockout game.”
The panel, hosted by the nonpartisan pro-jobs group Americans4Work and featuring West and other leaders on immigration policy, focused intensely on how the economy has not gotten better around the country for many groups of Americans, including the black community. They noted how the immigration policies proposed by the president and some in Congress would not help the situation.
West and fellow panelist Professor Jan Ting of Temple University were discussing what they called the “new normal” in America—how Americans are not succeeding independent of the government in record numbers.
“What we don’t want to see happening in the United States of America is this second and third generation of welfare,” West said. ”That becomes the new normal. When you look and see your mother and your father or your grandmother or your aunt or uncle, whoever is raising you, that they were born in Section Eight housing, their kids were in Section Eight housing. And therefore, you think there is no place else for me to go but Section Eight housing.”
West said such levels of dependency on the government “affects your level of self-esteem.”
“That affects your ability to, to be a part of an American dream,” he said. “And, I think, the big problem that you see if this, a, situation continues to exacerbate itself, then the safety net is no longer a safety net. The safety net becomes a hammock. And therefore, you have to have an increase of government spending because you’re going to expand and grow this welfare nanny-state.”
Wets noted that the “exorbitant amount of spending” from the federal government on means-tested welfare programs, and what he describes as a diversion of the food stamps program from what it was originally intended to accomplish, leads America “in the wrong direction.”
“And, again, it comes to the fundamental question, are we going to promote an opportunity society or are we going to promote a dependency society?” West asked. “What is the problem if we head down this road? You’re going to have more Detroits. And think about what Detroit used to be. Think about what Detroit used to look like. And guess what? You have this—and this is something that is absolutely driving me crazy, this knockout game.”
West noted that many of those teens involved in the knockout game would have, in his day, had jobs in their towns and would not be engaged in this behavior. But since the economic and education systems created by the left—including immigration policy which allows foreign workers into the country to compete with them for jobs—they have nothing to do but engage in violence.
“Well, guess what? If you have all of these inner-city black teenagers that have nothing to do, their education system is failing them. Well, in the summertime, I knew I could go down to McDonald’s or Burger King, you know, Baskin Robbins, somewhere,” he recalled. “I would go and get my little part-time summer job. They don’t even have those options now. So, what are they doing? They’re going out and they’re beating on people. For what? For fun.”
“This is what happens when the policies are creating more dependence,” West explained. “They’re creating more despair. It’s creating more despondency. And it’s only going to get worse if we don’t turn it around.”
The Conservatives at Breitbart have the full article
