After another innocent child is gunned down in Chgo and elsewhere, marches in neighborhhoods follow.

What follows the marches is pastors in neighborhoods calling for an end to the killings of innocent human beings.

What follows the calls from pastors is more killings.

How will the paradigm ever shift?

Arm the citizens.

It's not like we are going to be giving kids guns, so what does that have to do with this? Not only that, clearly a citizen was armed, because he was able to shoot this kid.

At the very least it should now be legal for those who can pass a criminal background check to own and carry a taser gun.

The problem with the people doing the shooting is they do not value life (theirs or others). What needs to happen is good citizens need to get involved. When you suspect someone in your neighborhood doing something wrong, CALL THE POLICE. Most people don't want to get involved. They are afraid. People need to snitch on the bad guys to get them off the street.

"GOOD CITIZENS" do continue to be involved in high crime , gang infested neighborhoods.
It makes little or no difference.

It's Americas's appetite for drugs, the lure and competition of easy money in a dead end world and the incredible availability of weapons which exacerbates the social problems facing the mean streets.

(06-28-2009 09:11 PM)cyberdawg Wrote:  "GOOD CITIZENS" do continue to be involved in high crime , gang infested neighborhoods.
It makes little or no difference.

It's Americas's appetite for drugs, the lure and competition of easy money in a dead end world and the incredible availability of weapons which exacerbates the social problems facing the mean streets.

The news reports have noted that the neighbors are not helping in the investigation, and the girl's father will not talk at all. Obviously, he was the target. He's as much to blame for the child's death as the shooters. And, unless the citizens in the area step up to help the cops, nothing will change.

(06-29-2009 07:57 AM)GeorgeBorkFan Wrote:  

(06-28-2009 09:11 PM)cyberdawg Wrote:  "GOOD CITIZENS" do continue to be involved in high crime , gang infested neighborhoods.
It makes little or no difference.

It's Americas's appetite for drugs, the lure and competition of easy money in a dead end world and the incredible availability of weapons which exacerbates the social problems facing the mean streets.

The news reports have noted that the neighbors are not helping in the investigation, and the girl's father will not talk at all. Obviously, he was the target. He's as much to blame for the child's death as the shooters. And, unless the citizens in the area step up to help the cops, nothing will change.

People just hope that it does not happen to them. Some of these neighborhoods are like Iraq. Until the residents start pointing out the bad people (like they have done in Iraq), the gangs control these neighborhoods. Police can only do so much without it being called harassment.

(06-29-2009 08:12 AM)klake87 Wrote:  

(06-29-2009 07:57 AM)GeorgeBorkFan Wrote:  

(06-28-2009 09:11 PM)cyberdawg Wrote:  "GOOD CITIZENS" do continue to be involved in high crime , gang infested neighborhoods.
It makes little or no difference.

It's Americas's appetite for drugs, the lure and competition of easy money in a dead end world and the incredible availability of weapons which exacerbates the social problems facing the mean streets.

The news reports have noted that the neighbors are not helping in the investigation, and the girl's father will not talk at all. Obviously, he was the target. He's as much to blame for the child's death as the shooters. And, unless the citizens in the area step up to help the cops, nothing will change.

People just hope that it does not happen to them. Some of these neighborhoods are like Iraq. Until the residents start pointing out the bad people (like they have done in Iraq), the gangs control these neighborhoods. Police can only do so much without it being called harassment.

The people fear for their own lives. It must be hell living in those neighborhoods. I work in a bad neighborhood, and it is not pleasant. I always have my antenna up even when I am just crossing the street in mid-day.

Why does Chicago have this problem so much more than NYC??

Chicago has the highest gang activity in the nation as well. Maybe if Daley spent as much time trying to clean up these areas that he does on his Olympic campaign things would get better.

Gulliani (sic?) came into NYC and cleaned the place up - Daley plants flowers.

(06-29-2009 09:51 AM)NIU Chicago Wrote:  Why does Chicago have this problem so much more than NYC??

Chicago has the highest gang activity in the nation as well. Maybe if Daley spent as much time trying to clean up these areas that he does on his Olympic campaign things would get better.

Gulliani (sic?) came into NYC and cleaned the place up - Daley plants flowers.

+ 1 billion. King Richard II also spends too much time lining the pockets of his friends and family. Gee, and I always thought they put scoundrels and crooks in prison! In Chicago (and Illinois), they are elected to the highest offices.

(06-28-2009 09:11 PM)cyberdawg Wrote:  It's Americas's appetite for drugs, the lure and competition of easy money in a dead end world and the incredible availability of weapons which exacerbates the social problems facing the mean streets.

The logical answer would be: legalize drugs, and dedicate the money we waste on an unwinnable "war" into rehab and counseling programs

Of course, thats unpopular politically, so we'll just keep doing the same thing we've always done, with the exact same end result.

Huskie84.. You are dead on, it's a simple solution that couldn't be more obvious, but unfortunately until those who vote for our politicians see the light, we're pretty much screwed.

(06-29-2009 09:51 AM)NIU Chicago Wrote:  Why does Chicago have this problem so much more than NYC??

Chicago has the highest gang activity in the nation as well. Maybe if Daley spent as much time trying to clean up these areas that he does on his Olympic campaign things would get better.

Gulliani (sic?) came into NYC and cleaned the place up - Daley plants flowers.

First of all, to say no progress has been made is simply ignoring the facts. Crime across the board has been steadily decreasing for the past 15 years. Just look at the murder stats for one example:

1990: 851
1991: 927
1992: 943
1993: 931
1994: 929
1995: 827
1996: 789
1997: 759
1998: 704
1999: 641
2000: 628
2001: 666
2002: 647
2003: 598
2004: 448
2005: 449
2006: 467
2007: 442
2008: 510
2009: 108*

Yes, there was a spike last year, but its still well below anything seen in the cities roughest patches of the 80's and early 90's. 2007 was a 40-year low.

I think you're giving too much credit to Gulianni (and Daley for that matter) when it comes to crime. It was a trend already well under way in most major American cities, and the decreases likely would have continued regardless of who was at the helm. For better or worse, gentrification was an unstoppable force in many once rough neighborhoods.

(06-29-2009 11:21 AM)niuhuskie84 Wrote:  

(06-28-2009 09:11 PM)cyberdawg Wrote:  It's Americas's appetite for drugs, the lure and competition of easy money in a dead end world and the incredible availability of weapons which exacerbates the social problems facing the mean streets.

The logical answer would be: legalize drugs, and dedicate the money we waste on an unwinnable "war" into rehab and counseling programs

Of course, thats unpopular politically, so we'll just keep doing the same thing we've always done, with the exact same end result.

If you legalize drugs, won't the criminals just find another illegal activity to sustain their gangs? When prohibition ended in the early 30's, criminal activity shifted from running booze to running drugs.

79, of course there would still be real criminals out there, but you'd have literally billions of dollars saved from no longer having to worry about the non-violent criminals, and the money now earned off of them. You can use that money and put it to better use. Just because some people will continue to commit different crimes (not necessarily true, but for the sake of your argument), doesn't make it reasonable to continue to war against drugs or hurt the argument against the war in drugs in any way.

The majority of the people caught up in the war on drugs, are only criminals because drugs are illegal. They aren't getting high off committing crimes, they are getting high off of the drug. Stop wasting money in court battles, keeping them in prison or police time or money preventing these people from using, and instead make money off of them and you can worry about real criminals that would still be committing crimes.