Innocent bystander Derrion Albert killed

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

The internet was up-and-coming when I was coming up, but I still don't recall hearing things being as bad as they are nowadays.

I recall hearing it when you were coming up. I'm 7 years older than you.**

You wouldn't have heard it unless you were a news watching kid or scoured the up and coming Internet for news stories (or you saw it firsthand, as many people did). Since your childhood, crime and violence are much more popular to report for mainstream media outlets. Here we are discussing this on a "fun" social networking site. This fuels the fear of crime and fear of "omg, times are changing!!!" that you hear from people--even young people who don't know what the hell things were like 10-20 years ago, anyway.

** I also recall hearing about it when I was a kid and there was no Internet or mainstream/super cool/hip and popular media outlets to report it. We'd hear via word of mouth; and the local and evening news and news papers always got a kick out of reporting things that they knew would shock people's sensibilities. Yes, I was a news watching/newspaper reading kid because my parents made us do that.

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

Yes, I was a news watching/newspaper reading kid because my parents made us do that.

Same here

I recall hearing it when you were coming up. I'm 7 years older than you.**

You wouldn't have heard it unless you were a news watching kid or scoured the up and coming Internet for news stories. Since your childhood, crime and violence are much more popular to report for mainstream media outlets. Here we are discussing this on a "fun" social networking site. This fuels the fear of crime and fear of "omg, times are changing!!!" that you hear from people--even young people who don't know what the hell things were like 10-20 years ago, anyway.

** I also recall hearing about it when I was a kid and there was no Internet or mainstream/super cool/hip and popular media outlets to report it. We'd hear via word of mouth; and the local and evening news and news papers always got a kick out of reporting things that they knew would shock people's sensibilities.

I'm not naive enough to think that violence was non-existent during my upbringing. "Community policing" was widespread when I was growing up, though. There were several instances where fights were going to jump off, but parents and residents stepped in before things got out of control. Those kids were properly dealt with after the fact, too.

I agree that the internet and "NOW NOW NOW" media has contributed to our knowing about these incidents sooner, but (outside of LA/Chi gang issues) I don't remember hearing of this many truly disturbing events.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

I'm not naive enough to think that violence was non-existent during my upbringing. "Community policing" was widespread when I was growing up, though. There were several instances where fights were going to jump off, but parents and residents stepped in before things got out of control. Those kids were properly dealt with after the fact, too.

I agree that the internet and "NOW NOW NOW" media has contributed to our knowing about these incidents sooner, but (outside of LA/Chi gang issues) I don't remember hearing of this many truly disturbing events.

Right...this is all about the community efforts for your particular community and the fact that you don't "recall" hearing "this many" truly disturbing events in the news.

Not the same thing as kids today being off the wall and things being hugely different than they were when you were young.

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

Right...this is all about the community efforts for your particular community and the fact that you don't "recall" hearing "this many" truly disturbing events in the news.

Not the same thing as kids today being off the wall and things being hugely different than they were when you were young.

Multiple communities (I was a military brat, so I moved around a lot), but I see your point.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

Multiple communities, but I see your point.

LOL...it could be 200 communities (although only 1% of those would have effective "community policing") and the point is still the same.

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

LOL...it could be 200 communities (although only 1% of those would have effective "community policing") and the point is still the same.

Many of the people that I interacted with (internet and IRL) shared similar stories. I know that we only represented a small-ish group, but I hear about things (violent and non-violent) MUCH more now.

But, again, I see your point

[agzg]

Originally Posted by OTW

They can spend billions of dollars to bring the Olympics to Chicago but they can't help the people struggling on the South Side?

I don't think the city of Chicago can afford to bring the Olympics here but that's another topic completely.

You're right, there are a lot of people struggling on the South Side, and it seems like no one is doing anything to help them.

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by OTW

On the CBS Early Morning Show, the lead story was President Obama going to Copenhagen to lobby for Chicago to host the 2016 Olympics.

And then they move on to the Derrion Albert story. WTF?

They can spend billions of dollars to bring the Olympics to Chicago but they can't help the people struggling on the South Side?

I heard about this earlier. I don't know why Obama is involved in this (hell, let this be a Michelle project).

Maybe they think the spillover benefits from the games will give the city some money to help those that are struggling? I don't know.