Councilman urges residents to channel anger on 4th night of Brooklyn unrest (Shorten)

PIX 11 ^ | 3/15/13 | by Jay Dow

[Kartographer]

For the fourth consecutive night residents, police officers, and news crews converged on East Flatbush Brooklyn Thursday to take part, respond to, and report the outrage over the fatal police shooting of 16-year old Kimani Gray. Carol Gray told Pix11, “He’s not the public’s angel. But he’s my baby. And he was slaughtered. And I want to know why. Even after the first shot, second bullet, why third bullet, why fourth bullet, why?”

Gray’s mother seemed to acknowledge the negative characterizations of her son now swirling in the media.

Statements made by the NYPD that Gray was armed, his gun recovered at the scene and other media reports that the teen was an alleged gang member.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

If you even begin to point a gun, or a knife, at me you’d better be faster and more accurate, and I’m damned sure not gonna aim at your feet.

[L,TOWM]

The military.
Getting what you can out of the crappy school and making the attempt to be somebody and do something other than a felon.
Hanging around with some of the community successes in legit activity — pester the politician, store owner, local cop, firefighters, or other people that are actually doing stuff to learn and grow and make yourself known.

Those are 3 paths right off the top of my head. Everybody has there own cross to bear — the direction of my own life was pretty touch and go for a few years. Point a gun at a cop, I don’t care if you are 6 or 60, and that will probably work out poorly for all concerned. Frankly, this boy had to have some people somewhere, but they aparrently did not give a $—t enough about him to teach a basic survival skill — “don’t point a gun at a cop, boy!”. Mamma seems to be pretty good at wondering ‘why’? Perhaps a few minutes with the closest mirror may give her some answers.

Plenty of kids grow up in the ‘hood, grow up poor, grow in f’ed up circumstances. Very few of them make this piss poor of a choice when they are teenagers.

[Bigg Red]

Seriously and ideally, if the women only had sex after marriage to a well vetted, established, and upright man,

there would be a lot more established and upright men to choose from to marry.

&&&
Exactly. It’s the women who control the culture. And there are not enough women doing their duty in this area.

[MrB]

Feminism “empowered” them to fornicate like they thought men always have.

[Uncle Chip]

the looting and the rioting – allegedly instigated at least in part by “out-of-town” members of the Occupy movement — Williams says it’s now time to unite – peacefully.

When is it time to enforce RICO statutes, arrest and indict them???

[wbill]

What would it take for whites to riot? And what would they destroy?

The last major one that I can think of was back in the 40s and it destroyed most of Europe.

;-)

[wbill]

someone’s character doesn’t significantly change from the dating period to post-marriage

I'd disagree with that, I think. I'm a significantly different (I'd like to think, "better") person now, than I was, say, in my 20s. But, I also have a solid, long term marriage and kids - life events that change a person.

But, I suppose, her point taken literally - a man at, say, age 28 and a year or two into a marriage isn't going to be significantly different from one that a girl started dating at age 24 or 25.

And "pick better" is always good advice. No matter what. :-)

[Bigg Red]

Amen to that!

[aquila48]

I had never heard of it - thanks for sharing. The ending captures exactly what’s going on.

[TXnMA]

So, if one of those “disadvantaged” teens points a gun at someone, they should go ahead and let him pull the trigger?

[TXnMA]

" And what are the pathways out other than death?"

They are called "the Interstate Highway System".

There is a whole, wonderful country outside Flatbush. Anyone stupid enough to spend their life in one of those urban hellholes you describe deserves nothing better.

[Windflier]

...if there had been more opportunity for him to have a real job, maybe he wouldn’t have gone down the path he did.

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.