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Jewish World Review Sept. 30, 2009 / 12 Tishrei 5770 Violence Videos Spur Bad Politics By Clarence Page
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Americans are shocked by youth violence again. What a difference videos make. The fatal beating of a teen on the South Side of We easily become benumbed after years of tragic headlines about youth violence. Then we get jerked alert by horrific video images like the fatal gang-style beating 16-year-old In our horror it is natural for us to look for someone to blame besides the suspects that police have rounded up with the help of the video that the Internet beams around the planet. It just happens to be the bad fortune of President As The Internet crackles with critics of the Olympics, Daley or Obama, or all three. Some raise the death of Unsafe? Compared to whom? Rio? Here's an The sad fact is that most of the violence that plagues great metropolises like Rio or For example, those who are moved by video to judge Police reported, but then discounted the possibility that the incident was a hate crime. But Rush was not deterred by a mere lack of evidence. "Greetings, my friends. It's Obama's America, is it not?" he bellowed. "Obama's America -- white kids getting beat up on school buses now. I mean, you put your kids on a school bus, you expect safety, but in Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, 'Yeah, right on, right on, right on!' " Note to Rush: Most black youths have not exclaimed "Right on!" since the days when you and I were young. The truth is that race has little to do with youth violence compared to the impact of poverty and disconnection from hope. There is good news happening in some violence-plagued neighborhoods, even if it occurs too quietly to get as much media attention as the violence does. One leading example of a neighborhood-based solution is the "violence-free zones" that police and school officials in "The The key to a "violence-free zone," as Woodson explains it, is adult "youth advisors" with enough local connections and street savvy to win the trust of teens, yet also pass rigorous criminal background checks. Effective "advisors" build enough trust to serve as "antibodies" in a toxic atmosphere, so kids will alert them to looming troubles without fear of being stigmatized as "snitching." That makes sense. Before we waste our breath spouting off about what our kids need, we should listen to what the kids can tell us.
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Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||||
