If America is sincerely ready to address the myriad problems created by centuries of untrammeled racism, solving the problem of inner-city gun violence has to be one of the primary issues that deserve national attention. First, we must stop the killing, but with that said, we must be realistic in terms of how swiftly we can accomplish that goal.
Initially there must be a relentless pressure to get violent gangbangers off the street, even if that means incarceration until they are no longer a danger to society and themselves. Or at the very least get the guns out of their hands.
Then we have to address the issues of what caused them to become violent youth in the first place. You’ll notice I didn’t say we have to figure out “why” they get involved in thuggish behavior, we already know why. What we have to come up with are workable solutions.
Weak family structures, which go hand-in-hand with poverty and low education attainment is — in virtually every instance— the reason we lose young black males to the streets. There’s an African proverb that accurately says, “When a child doesn’t receive the affection he needs from the village he will burn it down just to feel warmth.” Indeed.
Additionally, he will join a gang for a sense of family. Humans, by our very nature, are creatures that crave, need — indeed, must have — the security of the group, the herd. And herds of 15, 16, and 17-year old ill-raised youths are the most dangerous groups in the world. Not yet fully mature, they act without conscience or aforethought … their only instinct is to survive, and of course to be able to afford a pair of Air Jordans. And if they can’t somehow make enough money to buy a pair, they’ll take them from someone else, even if that means engaging in violence to do so.
A juvenile court judge once told me that by the time a youthful offender pulls the trigger and shoots someone they have already had seven encounters with police. Seven. So we know who these youth are before they engage in violence. Indeed, by consulting with school officials, social workers and community members we can, with a great degree of accuracy, predict which youth are going to drop out and join a gang.
So, here’s the first solution: Grown black men, as part of a formalized program, have to step to the mothers of these potentially wayward youth as or before they enter their teens and say to them, “Do you want me to help you with Ray-Ray? It’s looks like he’s getting to be a bit much for you to handle.” I guarantee you that in nine out of ten cases the answer will be an enthusiastic “Yes!”
And since it will take more than a generation to drain the swamps where negative behaviors are the norm, Ray-Ray has to be raised somewhere else, he can’t continue to reside in his ‘hood. Know this: even with the best guidance he won’t be able to resist joining the neighborhood gang since the members will keep kicking his ass until he does join — and even the best mentor in the world can’t be with him all of the time.
That “somewhere else” has to be in a neighborhood that isn’t infected with gangs. It could be a group home with other boys his age, or we could take a building like the now shuttered detention home on 22nd Street at Cedar and turn it into a facility that houses Ray-Ray and other potentially wayward youth under the watchful eyes of strong adult black big brothers that ain’t taking no shit. I guarantee you this would work.
Part Three: How to pay for all of this
From CoolCleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsIn