Audio: Confronting the Rage That Killed Derrion Albert

Poverty is a problem that has no obvious solutions. Crime makes things worse for obvious reasons. An interesting article I read points to an interesting solution to crime; rather than making jail sentences longer (we have enough people locked up already), make sentences short, but certain. For instance, they said that a policy where people on probation who failed drug tests were guaranteed to get jailed for say 2 days caused the number of such people to go way down. Letting suspected drug dealers know that they face certain jail (even for a short stint) if caught drove many to quit dealing.

At the same time, opportunities need to be made available to those willing to work. Are the schools doing their job? If so, great. If not, change is mandatory, and schools will need the resources and power to actually make change. Here locally, there is a high school that historically has had many problems (and still does.) I remember how it was said how 70% of the students were on free/reduced rate meals, indicative of the poverty in the region served.

IIRTW (If I ruled the world) I would see to expanding the food system there to include a free/reduced rate dinner system to those who want it, and have the school open to say at least 9:00 each evening. That way, those who want to study can have a place of quite to do so. Children who are hungry can't learn, so the extra food is supposed to deal with that. Would such require a good deal of money? Of course. But it might ultimately be FAR cheaper than locking people up, and the benefits (more productive citizens, and HOPE) may well be worth much more than the modest initial investment, even if one strictly looks at things from a $$$ perspective.

Hi Ngchen,
I like your schools idea. Thanks for sharing!

Actually, violence breeds poverty. It makes people prisoners of their homes. It chases away businesses and jobs.

The chief cause of violent attacks is violent attackers. The best thing we can do to help the South side of Chicago, in terms of both violence and poverty, is lock up those who attacked Derrion Albert for a good long time.

LV

I work in a high poverty school with about 35 percent Latino and 25 percent African American, as well as about 15 percent Southeast Asian. If poverty causes violence, I'm wondering why the Latinos and Asian students tend to be much less violent than the African Americans. I'd guess about three-quarters of the behavioral/discipline issues have to do with the black students, and the psychologist spends the bulk of her noon hours with small groups of black students. I have mostly Latinos in my classroom, and many of their families work two jobs. There seems to be a level of respect for teachers from Latinos and Asians that I rarely see from African-Americans. And Of the dozen or so black students I've had over the last two years, none has come from a two-parent family (the school tends to get a lot of students coming up from Chicago to escape the violence; gangs have increased here multi-fold).

Some say it's all because of institutional racism that we have this level of violence. Maybe that's true. I'm wondering if racism leads to teens using colorful language on the backs of buses; adults often doing the same. Does racism account for the dissing of teachers? That it's not cool to be good in school? For disrupting classrooms and not being held accountable by the principal (we're being sanctioned by the feds for low test scores, primarily because we have a high pop. of ESL students, most of whom try hard).

I don't know the answers, but for damned sure it's not due to racism alone. And continually voting for Democrats -- for 40-plus years ? -- has done little to improve the problem. Those solutions are too simple, but seem to be the ones that the Left continually wants to fall back on.

I gotta say (not as a sociologist - see picture) that sounds like holdovers from institutional racism. And when I say institutional I mean official, not some racist (allegedly or not) CEO happening to be in charge and supposedly acting on that sentiment. God deals with the heart, but government can't and shouldn't try to.

BTW, most CEOs will be dead soon. I think we need to start assuming individuals to be free of racism and let the stench fade out.

I work in a high poverty school with about 35 percent Latino and 25 percent African American, as well as about 15 percent Southeast Asian. If poverty causes violence, I'm wondering why the Latinos and Asian students tend to be much less violent than the African Americans. I'd guess about three-quarters of the behavioral/discipline issues have to do with the black students, and the psychologist spends the bulk of her noon hours with small groups of black students. I have mostly Latinos in my classroom, and many of their families work two jobs. There seems to be a level of respect for teachers from Latinos and Asians that I rarely see from African-Americans. And Of the dozen or so black students I've had over the last two years, none has come from a two-parent family (the school tends to get a lot of students coming up from Chicago to escape the violence; gangs have increased here multi-fold).

Some say it's all because of institutional racism that we have this level of violence. Maybe that's true. I'm wondering if racism leads to teens using colorful language on the backs of buses; adults often doing the same. Does racism account for the dissing of teachers? That it's not cool to be good in school? For disrupting classrooms and not being held accountable by the principal (we're being sanctioned by the feds for low test scores, primarily because we have a high pop. of ESL students, most of whom try hard).

I don't know the answers, but for damned sure it's not due to racism alone. And continually voting for Democrats -- for 40-plus years ? -- has done little to improve the problem. Those solutions are too simple, but seem to be the ones that the Left continually wants to fall back on.

What you are talking about is real, it is the disfunctional internalizing of outlaw status resulting from over 3 centuries of institutional racism. To put all the responsibility and blame on these children and young people is wrong , just as it is wrong to use being a victim of abuse as as an excuse for violence and committing abuse.
There is often no cheap and easy solution to a profound problem. Blame, fear and punishment are not the answer and neither is just tracing the roots of the problem through history. The answer inevitably lies in how we use our corporate wealth( money, creativity, the examples of healing leaders and individuals, the most successful models of education,economic empowerment, etc.) to address our shared problems. In many ways what ando is describing is a direct reflection of our own outlaw culture of excess and unaccountable behavior. What is corporate crime and corruption but gangs writ large. How can we heroize bigtime thieves and not inspire small time theft?

I can identify with ando's frustration and what many young black people need is intact families with healthy models and rules of behavior. This will not happen overnight and it isn't a product of race; most of us know Africans or African Americans from intact families, perhaps our own, who are hard working, honest and exemplary. This problem is the legacy of racist colonialism and slavery. Unfortunately, rather than turning home to face our own problems resolutely and in brotherly/sisterly love, we continue to spend trillions on resource wars and the violent dreams of continuing to consume a huge and unjust portion of resources while a third of the planet lives on a dollar a day.

Valdemort's idea that we can punish our way to a better world or jail ourselves to safety is simply a formula for a fascist style police state or oligarchic islands of wealth and security floating in sea of misery. In fact it is time to wake up to the fact that there is one family, one race, one earth and one boat that we are all on .