Seems like everyday I read about some teen killed around here. (Manor: apartments, buy)

[gg]

Sorry about my topic. Guess last night the headlines, "high school student" and "killed", just made me hit a wall. Just really sad and I am not sure if all cities have that stuff going on so often? I hope not.

[Uptown kid]

Recently violence has struck the communities of Duquesne, Hazelwood, Homestead, Homewood, McKeesport, McKees Rocks, Upper Manchester & Wilkinsburg and it’s been heavily featured on the news... Though the thing is: in the warm weather months pretty much weekly shots are fired in every Allegheny County gang neighborhood. Not all of the recent killings are gang related though, one was drug related/robbery gone wrong (the Brinton Manor shooting), some are senseless arguments/fights that get escalated to shootings like the shooting outside of the afterhours club in McKeesport, but most are gang related. In McKeesport it seems to be the Bloods from the Bailey Avenue area, Harrison Village & UpTop vs the Crawford Village Crips. In Homewood it seems to be related to some of the DownTown Crips. There seems to be a rivalry between the Uptown Westcide 106 Mifflen Crips of Homestead/West Homestead and a Crip set from Hazelwood (a bulk of Homestead's black population originates from Hazelwood so this is basically old friends/cousins shooting each other).

Violence in inner city Pittsburgh is nothing new, especially in the summer!!! Teenage gang members, drug dealers and their non-affiliated associates can find trouble easily because school isn't in session and there endless numbers of parties on the week end, and at parties something almost always "pops off". IMO what's sad is when a gang member who's turning his life around or young man who's girlfriend is expecting a child, or a kid who isn't gang affiliated but has gang affiliated friends gets shot down in a area full of people... The thug culture is so violent that sometimes the police are called because people find body’s laid out in the street the next morning... The violent shootings will never totally go away from Pittsburgh's mean streets... There's a possibility that some places like have the potential of getting better, yet the hood is the hood and you can never count it out to fat; things may seem quiet though it can go from 0 to 60 very quickly. Wilkinsburg had two homicides last year and so far this year it has eight, there has to be actual change before one can say an area has a chance of getting better.

[quote]Just really sad and I am not sure if all cities have that stuff going on so often? I hope not.[quote]

The struggle is not unique to the Pittsburgh Metro... People are products of their environment’s, there are violent teenage gang members hood to hood everywhere: Sacramento, Oakland, San Francisco, San Fresno, Rockford, Salinas, Los Angles, Compton, Inglewood, Long Beach, San Diego, Boise, Portland, Seattle, Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Lafayette, Baton Rouge, Jackson, Webb, Birmingham, Montgomery, Little Rock, Nashville, Knoxville, Memphis, Atlanta, Tampa, Jacksonville, Orlando, Fort Prince, West Palm Beach, Hollywood, Homestead, Deerfield Beach, Dianna Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Charleston, Columbia, Norfolk, Richmond, Baltimore, Washington D.C., St. Louis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee, Gary, Indianapolis, Lansing, Flint, Detroit, Louisville, Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown, Boston, Hartford, New Haven, Buffalo, New York City, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, Jersey City, Newark, Patterson, East Orange, Bergen County, Franklin Township, New Brunswick, Edison, Trenton, Atlantic City, Camden, Philadelphia, Allentown, Reading, Lancaster, New Castle, but especially Chicago.

[gg]

Uptown, will there ever be an answer to this or at least some downturn? I am not sure why, but it seems to be more than ever, but maybe it is just a media focus right now and I am not looking at real number? Still one shooting is one too many.

Goodness, what a list of cities you posted.

Wonder what the national statistics are regarding teen shooting deaths? Sure there is more deaths on the roadways, but how many teens are shot across the country and is Pittsburgh worse than other areas?

[North Beach Person]

Teen Homicide, Suicide, and Firearm Deaths | Child Trends Databank

The link is to the graph


What isn't broken out is how many of these are related to criminal activity of the victim. The random shooting of a kid walking to school counts the same as the drive by shooting of a 19 year old Gangster Disciple.

During the Crack Wars of the 80's-90's the DC Metro area was at 2 a day.

[givetonyrobbinsalozenge]

Having recently moved here from Tampa, FL I have noticed the amount of shootings. Over the past decade or so the crime rate in Tampa was always higher than Pittsburgh except for murders. I don't know why that is. Guns are easy to get legally (and illegally) in Tampa. Maybe in the summer in Florida it's too hot to wander the streets. I don't know.

[Northside V]

[quote=Uptown kid;25616512]Recently violence has struck the communities of Duquesne, Hazelwood, Homestead, Homewood, McKeesport, McKees Rocks, Upper Manchester & Wilkinsburg and it’s been heavily featured on the news... Though the thing is: in the warm weather months pretty much weekly shots are fired in every Allegheny County gang neighborhood. Not all of the recent killings are gang related though, one was drug related/robbery gone wrong (the Brinton Manor shooting), some are senseless arguments/fights that get escalated to shootings like the shooting outside of the afterhours club in McKeesport, but most are gang related. In McKeesport it seems to be the Bloods from the Bailey Avenue area, Harrison Village & UpTop vs the Crawford Village Crips. In Homewood it seems to be related to some of the DownTown Crips. There seems to be a rivalry between the Uptown Westcide 106 Mifflen Crips of Homestead/West Homestead and a Crip set from Hazelwood (a bulk of Homestead's black population originates from Hazelwood so this is basically old friends/cousins shooting each other).

Violence in inner city Pittsburgh is nothing new, especially in the summer!!! Teenage gang members, drug dealers and their non-affiliated associates can find trouble easily because school isn't in session and there endless numbers of parties on the week end, and at parties something almost always "pops off". IMO what's sad is when a gang member who's turning his life around or young man who's girlfriend is expecting a child, or a kid who isn't gang affiliated but has gang affiliated friends gets shot down in a area full of people... The thug culture is so violent that sometimes the police are called because people find body’s laid out in the street the next morning... The violent shootings will never totally go away from Pittsburgh's mean streets... There's a possibility that some places like have the potential of getting better, yet the hood is the hood and you can never count it out to fat; things may seem quiet though it can go from 0 to 60 very quickly. Wilkinsburg had two homicides last year and so far this year it has eight, there has to be actual change before one can say an area has a chance of getting better.

[quote]Just really sad and I am not sure if all cities have that stuff going on so often? I hope not.

The struggle is not unique to the Pittsburgh Metro... People are products of their environment’s, there are violent teenage gang members hood to hood everywhere: Sacramento, Oakland, San Francisco, San Fresno, Rockford, Salinas, Los Angles, Compton, Inglewood, Long Beach, San Diego, Boise, Portland, Seattle, Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Lafayette, Baton Rouge, Jackson, Webb, Birmingham, Montgomery, Little Rock, Nashville, Knoxville, Memphis, Atlanta, Tampa, Jacksonville, Orlando, Fort Prince, West Palm Beach, Hollywood, Homestead, Deerfield Beach, Dianna Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Charleston, Columbia, Norfolk, Richmond, Baltimore, Washington D.C., St. Louis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee, Gary, Indianapolis, Lansing, Flint, Detroit, Louisville, Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown, Boston, Hartford, New Haven, Buffalo, New York City, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, Jersey City, Newark, Patterson, East Orange, Bergen County, Franklin Township, New Brunswick, Edison, Trenton, Atlantic City, Camden, Philadelphia, Allentown, Reading, Lancaster, New Castle, but especially Chicago.

I just don't understand black youth culture. Can someone explain this to me?? Every rap video is about guns, money, cars and ho's. I just watched a video on youtube by some northside group that spouts just those things (really crappy song too). Walk East Ohio st from one end to the other some day and you will be amazed. Why chase this life style ? Because it's easier than getting a job or getting schooling I suppose. And before anyone flips out, I'm not a rascist. Just observations.

[Uptown kid]

[quote]I just don't understand black youth culture. Can someone explain this to me?? Every rap video is about guns, money, cars and ho's. I just watched a video on youtube by some northside group that spouts just those things (really crappy song too). Walk East Ohio st from one end to the other some day and you will be amazed. Why chase this life style ? Because it's easier than getting a job or getting schooling I suppose. And before anyone flips out, I'm not a rascist. Just observations.[quote}

The correct word is inner-city youth, not flipping out, but just saying... Its inner-city anyway because in most cities its not just African-American/West Indies Black kids; it's a large amount of Hispanics too... In some cities even Asians, Whites, Native Americans, Indians and Middle Easterners from low income gang neighborhoods are considered inner city youths. BTW maybe not on the Northside, but in some of the South Hilltop/Mon Valley gang neighborhoods white kids are also considered inner city youths...
Though the reasons why some inner city youth decide to be thugs is because the fast money that's available and the reputation it brings (mainly)... Some may do it for self defense or their born into the lifestyle though... One way or another drugs leads to guns and guns leads to a nationwide epidemic of violence in this country's inner city areas.

BTW: what group was it that you watched on youtube???

[Northside V]

Here is the link

"NFL" Northside For Life - YouTube

[PeterRabbit]

The Pgh. Courier reports 58 homicides in the county at the end of July. 16 are teenagers (including one 11-year-old). We have much less homicides than most cities near our size.

[gg]

Originally Posted by PeterRabbit

The Pgh. Courier reports 58 homicides in the county at the end of July. 16 are teenagers (including one 11-year-old). We have much less homicides than most cities near our size.

We sure live in an odd country. I mean we set out to police and save the world, yet we have such amazing problems. These statistics are completely unacceptable. What are we doing to fix it?