Gang violence in the US

[rexbeccarox]

A few years ago, I was living in the "worst part" of town, which no one actually thought of as bad, but some elements moved in temporarily and brought gang violence with them. One afternoon, I wasn't able to get to my front door because there had been a fatal stabbing right outside my house, then, a couple of weeks later, three kids were shot down in an initiation, and then a guy, in another initiation, was stabbed outside of a pretty decent local bar. Then, a good friend and neighbor was attacked by a couple of thugs, one of whom, with a skateboard, smashed the windshield of the car of my at-the-time boyfriend during the scuffle.

I remember scouring the local news, looking for any extra information outside of rumors and gossip around the neighborhood, to no avail, and then all of a sudden, as quickly as it began, the violence stopped. Apparently, the scary gang members had been kicked out of the house they were renting- but I only learned that information from the rumor mill; not the press. So strange.

I've also lived in neighborhoods with gangs, I've seen things that if they happened in middle class white neighborhoods would be all over the local news. Are people desensitized or is it a subtle form of racism/classism?

But it really was a very middle-class "white" neighborhood. It was just not the best part of a pretty whitewashed area. I think it probably had to do with locals not wanting property values to go down in the face of what they predicted would be a temporary problem. Unfortunately, only one casualty, the guy who got stabbed to death outside of my house, was a gang member- the rest were innocents.

[CapnAwesome]

Bringing up gang violence is definitely categorized as a micro-aggresion, if not worse.

Be ashamed.

That's okay, my favorite thing is to micro-agression with a trigger warning in safe spaces.

[vorlon13]

I was giving a little impromptu tour of town to a business client back in the 80s. He was from Brazil, BTW. In driving across town, I drove within a block of where I lived but did not note that to the visitor. He remarked we were driving thru an area he thought was pretty slummy for America.

Never looked at my neighborhood that way till then. Single family homes and 1 story apartment buildings. Streets were all asphalt with no side walks, curbs or gutters though. My take prior to that was it wasn't that bad, compared to B-------k Island (where I went to party pre-12 Steppers). I suppose it's all relative.

As for crime, well, I heard sirens every night, but they never stopped on my block.

And that place to live was fucking heaven compared to the motel I lived in for 15 months when I did finally get going with 12 Steppers.

I looked at the motel experience perhaps as penance and a continuing reminder of hitting bottom. And my job was going to relocate at some point to a different facility and I didn't want to move till that happened. The motel had the advantage of being within walking distance of work, and I was having some licensing issues . . .

Damn, it's a relief to not be living like that anymore. Why the fuck is sobriety such a hard sell sometimes ???

We don't make newcomers eat dead spider sandwiches, but Jesus, they whine as much as if we did . . .

[Crossless2.0]

Since we haven't got that kind of violence in most parts of Europe, apart from certain regions, it's hard to take note. Homicides in the US, quite naturally, don't get any media coverage. Well, unless it's a juicy one. Such as toddler shooting mom or toddler shooting other toddler. Not even serial killers get any coverage.

Unless they're toddlers.