The problem needs a multipronged approach, between prevention, intervention,
and law enforcement.
We need to acknowledge that poverty breeds drug involvement as youth are
drawn to the quick buck of drug dealing.
We need to admit that the buyers of drugs include both urban and suburban
consumers, and be ready to target suburban consumers.
We need to focus on early intervention in neglectful households. Schools
are aware as early as first or second grade when a child is not being
properly parented, but so long as a family meets the bare minimum necessary
society is leery of intervening. The bare minimum is no longer enough. The
problem of unattended ("latchkey") children and neglected children exists,
again, in both urban and suburban settings. Neglectful households are also
symptomatic of the cycle of drug abuse, in which addicted parents create
neglected youth who in turn become dealers and addicts.
We need to create jobs programs to offer youth a reasonable alternative to
the fast money offered by drugs. Most sensible people, including potential
gang members, are risk averse: a decent job with no risk of trouble can be
a strong incentive against fast bucks and high risk. Time and again the
costs of effective jobs programs are not only trivial when compared to the
cost of prosecution and the loss of life resulting from inaction, but the
investment in our youth will reap the rewards of a skilled and competent
workforce.
We need to consider decriminalization of drugs, with proceeds from clean,
safe drugs DEDICATED to programs to prevent and counter addiction, the
spread of disease, and the welfare of families. It would be wise if alcohol
were included in this program.
We need to aggressively enforce existing laws against suspected gang members
and drug dealers. Insofar as drugs are presently criminalized, we need to
protect neighborhoods from the kind of resulting gang violence that killed
Tyesha Edwards. This enforcement should not be merely reactionary:
suspected drug houses and their owners should be targeted for every housing
code violation; and dealers, loiterers and urban and suburban buyers should
be ticketed for everything from curfew violation to blown tail lights. Drug
dealing should not be tolerated.
We know what we need to do. It's not like this hasn't been done before in
dozens of other cities. Like a recurring illness, the question of how to
deal with gang and drug issues is nothing new. But having been dealing with
these issues now for so many decades, maybe its about time we decided to ask
why the problems are so persistent.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting a different result. By looking at the decriminalization of drugs,
by actually addressing poverty, by refusing to tolerate the neglect of our
children, then possibly we can stop the insanity of our present drug
culture.
Bob Alberti, President Sanction, Inc. Data Security
http://www.sanction.net Cusp of Longfellow and Seward
"A Tempest! Grab the teabag and hang on for your life!"
-----Original Message-----
From: Barbara L. Nelson
What else can be done in the face of gang violence?
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