look, she still loves him and if there had been more opportunity for him to have a real job, maybe he wouldn’t have gone down the path he did. There is no opportunity in the city. The jobs for teens are now taken by adults whose job lives have been devastated by our huge unmanageable no debt problem. There is a lot of pressure on these guys to produce money from somewhere, caused by our culture’s sick emphasis on money and the wrong idea that everybody is a star. Obama contributes to it by acting like a nouveau riche conspicuous consumer. He probably has a little baby somewhere too and so the state is after him for child support. Selling drugs is a career choice, pretty much the only one in the urban areas. It is bad out there. I do not approve of the police shooting these kids, they should reach out to them and tell them there is hope not gun them down.
Has the dad weighed in yet?
No one is forced to stay there.
Hey, kids!
Here’s a way to not get shot and stay out of poverty!
Sound good?
OK, here goes... it’s actually really simple.
Don’t do anything your “urban” culture encourages,
and do everything it discourages.
There ya go.
So, it is society’s fault he turned to drugs and gang-banging? I’m not buying it.
I would like to see his school records, his class attendance records, to hear from his teachers. Was he an avid student, studying so he could get and hold a job, determined to change his life for the better? If he could not find ‘a job’ that someone paid him for, did he figure out a way to work and earn money on the side, so he could get out of his desperate circumstances?
Did he have the moral fortitude to know that it was HIS responsibility to work so others did not have to support him? Not his momma, not the government teat?
Signed, a mom and a teacher
So, if one of those “disadvantaged” teens points a gun at someone, they should go ahead and let him pull the trigger?
That's a heartwarming sentiment, but don't kid yourself. Many of these young urban hoodlums are second and third generation ferals. The debased micro culture they're born into is all some of them know. Aspiring to a normal, hard working, law-abiding existence is something that's beyond the reach of reality for many of these kids.
Gangsterism today is no longer about stupid turf wars. It's about money. LOTS of money. Money by the bucketfuls. Some of these kids make $1,500 a day selling crack and other hard drugs. Once they've become fully immersed in that life, there's no going back for them.
Losing his life to the cops was probably just the price of doing business for this kid.