Gang violence: Why care?
 

If they're killing each other off, why care?

-Rudey
--Let's see who has braincells!

Because some innocent person who has nothing to do with it may somehow get caught in the middle of it.

I think it puts too many innocent kids in unfair positions where success is next to impossible. The closest I've been to the ghetto was pulling off I-40, right after I got through downtown Memphis to get gas over at the MapCo at 4:30AM.

Within about 30 seconds, I'd had a rock of crack offered to me (at least I think that's what it was), been hit up for $5.00 by some guy that had "just gotten out of prison" and essentially had to flee the scene because about 12 people were coming up on my car pretty fast.

How could a child thrive in a community where that goes on? That kind of stuff sure as hell doesn't go on where I live.

Our inner-cities are bringing us down as a society. People from there are getting involved with gangs and drugs and then filling up our prisons, costing us tax dollars. Not to mention the fact that folks that learn this lifestyle really don't have any viable options as far as honest work goes. Drugs and crime and prostitution are all that they can really depend on to survive.

If I want to think about someone that is in an absolutely hopeless situation, I think about the lady that offered me that crack rock at 4:30AM. Toothless, had a speech impediment, totally unemployable. Does she bear some of the responsibility for being where she is today? Hell yes. But to some degree we are a product of our surroundings. Had she grown up where I did, there's basically ZERO chance she would have ended up the way she did.

I don't claim to be an expert on the situation because of my 'brush with death in the ghetto' but it did open my eyes to the fact that a place like that can exist in America. I'm one of the few people that claim to be 'conservative' that also believes that something must be done to repair these areas and reduce the gang lifestyle a choice and not a necessity for survival.

Re: Gang violence: Why care?
 

What makes you think their only killing off each other?

Re: Re: Gang violence: Why care?
 

Can you please just stop talking to me? Yeah thanks 59 year old college boy.

Nobody has posted a good enough answer. Someone who lives in communities with gangs won't have much influence, wealth, political privileges - ie the system won't move to change it because as innocent as they are, they're not important. Cold.

-Rudey
--Think.

Let's take a hypothetical situation...

Let's say innocent bystanders who accidentically get shot and/or killed by gang shootings didn' even factor into the equation. Let's *pretend* that doesn't happen anywhere in the US (it's a HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION PEOPLE!) And when gangs shoot to killsomeone from a different gang - they always hit their target.

Would you be against gangs then? The drugs, poverty, other crimes that are often associated with gang areas are still a problem.

I guess what I'm asking is whether you value all lives equally. Or is an innocent bystander "worth more" so that's why we care about gang violence. Not because we're ethically opposed to one person taking the life of another, or gun use, etc...

Well, yeah, there's a difference when someone shoots a person that is aiming back at them versus someone who has no intention of harming them. It's not about the value of a person, it's about the situation.

If someone chooses the gang lifestyle, that is their choice. If they decide that gun play is a good idea then I don't really feel sorry for them when they get what's coming.

What I don't like is the system that perpetuates poverty in urban areas. In my opinion, the only way to solve this would be to remove all children from these areas -- ship them off to a boarding school where they might have a chance at a better life. I think if given the option, many parents in these areas would think this was for the better.

I try and see the big picture.

-Rudey

Definitely!

I mean, when was the last time a rich person made an unethical decision? That hasn't happened in minutes.

Society's flaws are reflected in every social strata (HI ENRON!).

"People from there" sounds suspiciously like "Black people from there."

Just saying.

Your post lacks perspective, KT.

ETA: a little explanation . . .

It's arrogant to proclaim crap like "Bringing us down as a society."

What's our society? American culture? Your home town? Rome fell. What the hell do you want?

Also . . . it's bizarre for the middle class to blame the lower classes for "bringing them down." These same middle class folk will exalt union values while discouraging that particular lifestyle among their kids, and disparaging the "inner city" . . . nonsense.

KT . . . the question was posed, and you didn't even address it. Think about that.

I gotta agree with KSig RC .

Rudey-If they're killing each other off, why care?
I don't think too many people DO care. That's why it's "allowed" to continue.

It's when the guns come to the suburbs, when it's in your own back yard, that people start screaming about it. Then, they blame bussing...

For years I heard about kids getting killed for their shoes or their jackets. Mom's putting bullet proof vests on their children. Did it hit home? No, because it was happening in NY. NOW, we have metal detectors in OUR schools, bomb threats and a 5th grader
packing a gun in his bookbag. White flight and still it comes.

Why should we care? We SHOULD care because it isn't going to go away. It's NOT acceptable no matter WHAT side of the tracks you live on. In a way it reminds me of that seen in A Christmas Carol by Dickens where the phantom opens his robe and reveals
the children that represent the social ills of the world. Not exactly sure... were they poverty and despair?

That's the truth - most of us don't care until we have metal detectors everywhere and our bags are being searched. It's just something on the news in some far away place until it's our friends, our relatives, ourselves who are in danger.

We should care because there's only so much space to run away from our troubles until we have nowhere else to run.

With ever-increasing social disparity, nothing can be done to alleviate poverty in any society. The difference between a 5% difference of a rich-poor gap is a greater number of ghettos.

note to ktsnake: i'm gonna start calling you Contradiction Kevin

..you brushed upon the 'costs of society' for incarceration et al. I'm not sure if you're aware or not, but there are numberical sociological studies linking economic benefits to the prison system in the U.S. In fact, i read upon one that attributed a 5% reduction in unemployment overall because of the jobs created from Crime - and i ain't talking about white collar.

One last point (and sorry for the redundancy), you suggested to ship off 'ghetto children' to boarding schools where i geuss they can learn how to function in society? Ummm if you knew anything about rehabilitation on any level, it is a far greater cost to society than anyother method.

And who's going to pay the expensive boarding school tuition for these kids? Not the government, that's for certain.

***Sigh*** I grew up in an inner-city neighborhood. I lived in the same neighborhood from the time that I was born until I left home to attend undergrad. In all of that time, I was never offered crack. You were in the "hood" for 30 seconds and were offered drugs. Hmmm. That's interesting. LOL


Oh, to answer the question... Well, I guess the families of the innocent children who are killed every year might care.