Pasadena Gang Killings Not Due to Poverty, Racism or Unaffordable Housing

The Pasadena Pundit ^ | July 29, 2007 | Wayne Lusvardi

[Moderate right-winger]

Good Lord! How can we regulate illegal immigration
if we can’t even handle our very own delinquent citizens?

[Judges Gone Wild]

If we got illegal immigration under control, we would at the same time put a lid on gangs and drugs. The street gangs are involved in human smuggling as a source of new members.

[theDentist]

... working for $7 per hour at McDonald's can't compete with $300 per day selling drugs on the streets.

Yes, but there's no risk of another franchise wanting that particular hamburger dealership'd turf by coming in and shooting the cashiers, cooks and customers down during a drive thru.

[There's millions of'em]

..."Ironically, the scandal plagued Heritage Square project in Pasadena is proposing to build affordable housing by removing land owned by a church - a mediating social structure."

My experience is that "churches" often own much of the property in inner city poor areas. They can afford to hold it, because of favorable tax treatment.

The article suggests this project is replacing a "church", but I would doubt that is the case.

[WayneLusvardi]

Here’s the link to the newspaper article reporting the City of Pasadena bought property from a church for the Heritage Square affordable housing project:

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_6486407

[ObadiahLynch]

You can make $300 a day selling dope on the street? Sheesh, that’s better than carpenters or electricians do.

[P-40]

$300 per day selling drugs on the streets.

Is that gross or net?

[Inquisitive1]

I’m willing to bet that stated figure is not even close to the real number.

[Wheee The People]

To Diane Segura of the Pasadena YWCA it is because there is an income "disparty" between the rich and the poor.

Nonsense. Utter nonsense. As Walter Williams and others have pointed out time and time again, throughout history there has been poverty without the crime and violence. Segura needs to get a clue and buy a vowel.

[theDentist]

I don’t know where she came up with $300... I’d expected it would be an even larger daily profit...

[Yaelle]

In order to prevent gangs, we would have to bring back shame. There should be shame in having babies one cannot care for properly. Someone should be home watching that child from age 0 to age 18, be it Grandma or Mom or Dad. That child needs discipline and love as well as a roof over his head and food on the table.

In this MTV culture, kids don’t learn shame. They learn that their private parts are for semi-public display, and all of their bodily functions are to be obeyed whenever it feels good.

You can’t just get knocked up by some jerk and then have that baby and spend your days either working or doing drugs, either way leaving the child to the streets. Who knows, maybe the “father” is on the streets. Women have to THINK about who they put between their legs. That shmo is going to be their child’s hero, even if he’s a gangbanger and spends part of every year in jail.

Larry Elder’s website should still have his list of things you need to do in order to avoid poverty forever. It’s an easy list. #1 is something like “Do not have children before you can afford them.”

[ozzymandus]

Didn’t bother to read the article, but my first comment after reading the title was “No Duh, Einstein”.

[oldenuff2no]

Well said.
It’s a very basic problem of teaching and then enforcing a right or wrong mentality in the children in those areas. If they don’t understand that selling drugs is wrong then there is nothing to keep them from the temptation. It all falls back on the total failure of the parents to be good and effective parents.
It’s like a bad bear who raids camps and cabins for food and takes her cub with her. The cub learns that this is acceptable behavior and will continue this activity right up until the time somebody gets tired of losing their hard earned dollars. Then they shoot the bear.
The moral of this story is that if you raise, or fail to raise, you child in such a way that it becomes an out of control animal don’t bitch when others shoot it. A gang of kids is nothing more than a pack of human wolves. If you really intend to eliminate them from a certain area the only real cure is to keep shooting until the are all dead or they leave the area. It is not possible to reason with a pack mentality.
Every kid in those gangs is either trained to be that way or allowed to be that way by the adults around them in their homes.

[Sherman Logan]

Don’t take these numbers too seriously.

An economist did a survey and found that most of the guys selling dope are barely making minimum wage.

The gangs are organized in a very steep pyramidal structure. Those at the top make a lot of money. Most of the members make very little, but keep plugging away on the theory that someday they will make it to the top.

[BenLurkin]

working for $7 per hour at McDonald's can't compete with $300 per day selling drugs on the streets

Well there you go -- McDonalds, start paying $300/hour. Right now!

Reportedly, the gangs are recruiting from the public schools.

Of course.

Alternatively, the only other way we have to treat delinquent boys is to throw them in jail

Oh ... there's another way.

[ObadiahLynch]

“The gangs are organized in a very steep pyramidal structure. Those at the top make a lot of money. Most of the members make very little, but keep plugging away on the theory that someday they will make it to the top.”

Ya, that’s what that Freakonomics guy said too. As far as I know, you’re right. (Haven’t sold much crack lately, doncha know.) So I dunno where the $300/day thing came from. These guys would have cars and apartments if they were making that kind of money. Yet they live with their moms, or couch surf.

[WayneLusvardi]

Just don’t spank them.

Also in California, environmentalists have devised a new form of prison “chain gangs” which once were only found in the South. Incarcerated juvenile delinquents are made to clear brush and “non-native species” of plants from around the homes of wealthy elites. Call it “environmental chain gangs.”

[WayneLusvardi]

Just don’t spank them.

Also in California, environmentalists have devised a new form of prison “chain gangs” which once were only found in the South. Incarcerated juvenile delinquents are made to clear brush and “non-native species” of plants from around the homes of wealthy elites. Call it “environmental chain gangs.”