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It's accurate in the sense that they have to go by reported crimes but lots of crimes in cities go unreported because people are in fear of retaliation by the alleged perps for turning them in.
Crime is up in rural areas of many areas of the country especially in the Northeastern part of the country. Saw that on a TV news report this past week.
The US Army arrived in Italy just in time to save the Sicilian mafia from Benito Mussolini. He was in the process of exterminating it.
Cesare Mori was a prefect (prefetto) before and during the Fascist period in Italy. He is known in Italy as the Iron Prefect (Prefetto di Ferro) because of his iron-fisted campaigns against the Mafia on Sicily in the second half of the 1920s
His nickname in Italian translated “The Castrater,” which should give you some idea of the methods he employed.
A student of mine from this year, only 6 years old, was involved in a gang. They moved to a better section of the city though. They probably knew he was involved in them. I told the guidance counselor multiple times and nothing was ever done. He told me stories of how he and his brother (who is 9 I think) stealing from cars, getting beaten up by rival gangs, etc. Well, that's what street life is like in the south Bronx. I'm going to try and transfer to a better area of the city.
As long as the good guys are willing and able to move to the better parts of town, the violence and degradation will continue to concentrate, fester and multiply in the "bad" parts of town. Woe to the good guys who can't get out. It's an American tradition to pack up and move away when things start to go bad, rather than stay and do what it takes to make things better.
This is not a criticism of those who move from bad neighborhoods. I don't blame them a bit. I just wish there was more community (and national) support for those who want to stay and stop the violence, run the bad guys out and stop the insane proliferation of America's underclass.
Ben Around. Government seems to put restrictions on what you can do when it comes to taking matters into your own hands in order to improve your living and work environments. Not much you can do when the system is ultimately to blame and you can't change the system.
A student of mine from this year, only 6 years old, was involved in a gang. They moved to a better section of the city though. They probably knew he was involved in them. I told the guidance counselor multiple times and nothing was ever done. He told me stories of how he and his brother (who is 9 I think) stealing from cars, getting beaten up by rival gangs, etc. Well, that's what street life is like in the south Bronx. I'm going to try and transfer to a better area of the city.
a buddy of mine works in one of the bronx psych clinics. he see's a lot of
damaged kids from gangs who developed emotional issues. yeah, they're pretty young. depressing stuff. i don't know how he does it.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by john_starks
a buddy of mine works in one of the bronx psych clinics. he see's a lot of
damaged kids from gangs who developed emotional issues. yeah, they're pretty young. depressing stuff. i don't know how he does it.
Unfortunately, I have a few kids in my class who could probably check in there from being so emotionally damaged at a young age. It is sad
Well, it boils down to a wholesale societal failure. Not of the safety net, but rather of the people themselves to ensure that their own communities are stable.
It begins with the fact that virtually nobody in those neighborhoods have two-parent households anymore. Sorry, but for every heartwarming Movie Of The Week story you hear about the single mom who raised 3-4 kids to go on to medical school, there are a hundred families where that simply did not happen. For raising a child is a tough, 18-year-long slog that is time consuming and expensive. Add two more to the equation, and it's an almost insurmountable task by oneself, which means the children become the problem that everyone else has to deal with. Yet we as a society--and inner city communities in particular--have essentially declared that criticizing single parenthood is taboo, when that is probably the most destabilizing element of all.
Add to it the fact that our culture is apparently asleep at the switch when it comes to what kids watch and hear. Ever really listen to Rap lyrics and their glorification of violence? Ever devote a few minutes to watching MTV? Ever watch a kid play Grand Theft Auto? Now, you might make the case that, individually, none of those things make a kid immediately go out and stick up a 7/11 or gun down somebody on the sidewalk. However, I would argue that the cumulative weight of these influences is a desensitizing force in our children's lives. Yet if one argues against rap or GTO, the media condemn you as a puritan or a public scold. Gosh, wouldn't want to deny these kids their fun, after all.
Well, there's a saying that you are what you eat. And the corollary to that is you are what you watch and hear. And while leaders in these community will (rightfully) lead a march if some cops brutalize a suspect, how come they do not muster the same vigilance in creating neighborhood watches and shaming parents into doing a better job raising kids?
You can add the sexual images on TV and movies as well.
Ok Ill admit that our culture has become more and more desensitized to depictions of violence etc, and that criminality has become organized in new ways through tech etc. And yes there are tons of sad stories and crappy stuff going on everywhere.
But people please stop with the sky is falling routine. Every generation thinks the next is getting worse. We all need a grip on reality. The 90's in urban america were much worse for gang activity, drugs and murder. The 70's and 80's were worse even than today. So there is hope. Plus with a government that may proactively seek to reduce gangs, improve public education, and possibly legalize some drugs, we could even be in for better times. Who knows.
Yes, things are bad in many areas (much like they were 30 yrs ago too), but keep in mind that the dissemination of information is also much higher now than it was even 10 years ago. So much so, that holistic impressions of how terrible things are in this country are formed simply because there is far more rapid reporting of negative occurances from all over. In the 80's all you had was the local newspaper (or whatever you bought) and the 6 oclock news and that was IT!. Today you have CNN, Fox, MSNBC and lord nows how many other channels, internet sites etc spouting off about how the world is going to end. In other words, chill, and look at things from a more hmmmm..... encompassing perspective. And of course things look bleak if you continually watch MSNBC on sundays.
It's accurate in the sense that they have to go by reported crimes but lots of crimes in cities go unreported because people are in fear of retaliation by the alleged perps for turning them in.
Crime is up in rural areas of many areas of the country especially in the Northeastern part of the country. Saw that on a TV news report this past week.
Ok Ill admit that our culture has become more and more desensitized to depictions of violence etc, and that criminality has become organized in new ways through tech etc. And yes there are tons of sad stories and crappy stuff going on everywhere.
But people please stop with the sky is falling routine. Every generation thinks the next is getting worse. We all need a grip on reality. The 90's in urban america were much worse for gang activity, drugs and murder. The 70's and 80's were worse even than today. So there is hope. Plus with a government that may proactively seek to reduce gangs, improve public education, and possibly legalize some drugs, we could even be in for better times. Who knows.
Yes, things are bad in many areas (much like they were 30 yrs ago too), but keep in mind that the dissemination of information is also much higher now than it was even 10 years ago. So much so, that holistic impressions of how terrible things are in this country are formed simply because there is far more rapid reporting of negative occurances from all over. In the 80's all you had was the local newspaper (or whatever you bought) and the 6 oclock news and that was IT!. Today you have CNN, Fox, MSNBC and lord nows how many other channels, internet sites etc spouting off about how the world is going to end. In other words, chill, and look at things from a more hmmmm..... encompassing perspective. And of course things look bleak if you continually watch MSNBC on sundays.
You make a good point but, at the same time, crime rates became seriously elevated in this country beginning in the 1960s. As proof, FBI records show that crime rates per 100,000 in this country have doubled since 1960, and show no signs of diminishing. So we can be relativistic all we want, but sheer empirical evidence shows that it's not merely a perception issue.
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