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| | | Gangs, crews and you ... | | June 22, 2009 | | | | What’s the difference between a gang and a crew? We’ve always thought that a crew was a neighborhood group that wasn’t large, organized or really criminal enough to be called a gang.
And we’re right!
A new $125,000 study of gang violence in the District confirms our answer. The 60-page study makes other findings that may floor you. Poverty, teen pregnancy, illiteracy, unemployment and other similar factors feed young people into gangs.
We bet you never would have guessed.
And because wards 7 and 8 have the highest concentrations of these societal traits, the study declares, “It is no surprise then that these neighborhoods also experience the highest crime.”
Riveting.
Sarcasm aside, the study by the Healthy Families/Thriving Communities Collaborative Council does detail the myriad social programs the District has tried repeatedly in its effort to curb gang violence. Bottom line? You can’t just arrest your way out of youth and gang crime.
All that said, the council this week once again confronted youth and gang violence and whether to be tougher when it comes to police and prosecutions.
Well, confronted might be too strong a word. The council overwhelming rejected Mayor Fenty’s proposal to crack down on gangs by using civil suits to disrupt their activities and ban them from affected neighborhoods.
Despite worries of worsening summer violence, the council majority was concerned more that the tough anti-gang provisions would result in racial profiling, with police cracking down on youths who seem to look like gang members.
Those council members also said the city needs to do still more to provide alternatives to gangs.
D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles and several council members argued that it’s the neighborhoods being terrorized by gangs that are the real losers.
“The council missed a great opportunity,” said Nickles.
• Vote? What vote? While we were away on vacation, Capitol Hill pulled the plug on the latest voting rights effort for our city.
Last year there were rallies and grand statements that Congress would pass — before Presidents Day — the city’s No. 1 priority on Capitol Hill. But then things began to slip. The vote was delayed.
The National Rifle Association convinced its supporters in the Senate to attach an amendment that would have obliterated the city’s latest gun law. House Majority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., tried vainly to get a “clean” bill on the calendar. No go.
Some folks, who believe statehood is the only true route to voting rights, were quick to point out that yet again the voting rights measure has died an embarrassing death.
Yes, it has.
• Tone-deaf president? And what of President Barack Obama’s campaign support in 2007 for voting rights in the nation’s capital?
Not a word from him. Even D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has criticized the muffled White House voice.
Obama traveled to Egypt this month to speak to the Muslim world about human rights and the plight of Palestinians. And Monday he spoke to the American Medical Association, a trade group of doctors that will oppose many of his health-care ideas.
Yet he hasn’t found time to say a word for the Americans who live in the nation’s capital but are voiceless in the Capitol just down the street from him.But, don’t worry. The White House isn’t ignoring District citizens.
First lady Michelle Obama had dozens of District youth in the White House on Monday for a cool jazz event. We’re sure it was a worthy and warm educational experience, and we hope the students got a lot out of it. Some even got to sing for the first lady.
Still, it’s depressingly similar to the actions of all other presidents who have treated District citizens and schoolchildren with colonial indifference. Invite them in for tea and cookies, a little music and smiling applause. Not a word about voting rights.
But hey, look! Here comes the next song. Everybody, altogether now, a-one, a-two, a-three.
• Nine lives. An HBO documentary, “The Nine Lives of Marion Barry,” will be the show-closer Saturday at the AFI/Discovery SILVERDOCS Film Festival in Silver Spring. It’s a 78-minute feature on Barry’s remarkable life, good and bad. Your Notebook will be on a panel to discuss the film at its conclusion. | | | | | Log in to comment on this article |
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