Epidemic of Gang Violence Across The Globe Destroying Black Boys

Atlanta Black Star ^ | 31 October 2012 | Nick Chiles

[Lorianne]

From Chicago to Rio, from Jamaica to Nigeria, gang violence is leaving an indelible mark on communities across the globe, leaving authorities at a loss for what to do about the epidemic of lawlessness among young men who see little hope in their futures.

Certainly the global economic crisis has much to do with the rise in gang violence and influence, as young men of color in most of the affected countries see few options for gainful employment.

In Chicago, among 400 murders that have occurred in 2012, an estimated 80 percent of them have been gang-related. The killing in Chicago has brought national attention, with pressure being applied to Mayor Rahm Emanuel and local officials to put a stop to the surge.

The city is statistically more lethal to Americans than war-torn Afghanistan, where 271 Americans have died this year.

The issue of Chicago’s homicide rate was profiled in a new ABC “Nightline” special, “Hidden in America: Don’t Shoot, I Want To Grow Up,” hosted by Diane Sawyer and featuring rapper Keef.

Sawyer and her colleagues teamed up with the anti-violence group CeaseFire (also known as Cure Violence) to invite 38 gang members to sit down and discuss the escalating wars that have been claiming innocent lives. Almost unanimously, participants said that it would take nothing short of a miracle to control the violence.

The same hopeless conclusion was rendered in a local report on the gang violence shown in the video below.

In Nigeria, another killing spree has left 20 people dead as an armed gang stormed the village in the state of Zamfara and began shooting indiscriminately. They were there to rob, as they raided houses for cash and other valuables. The village chief in Kaboro pleaded with them to stop the shooting—so they turned their guns on him and murdered him, too. This attack comes after 23 people were killed in June, with some of their throats slit, in villages in Zamfara by gangs of robbers on motorbikes. This time they were armed with AK-47 rifles and they came on horses and motorcycles, waging an attack that lasted for about two hours, according to the Nigerian Tribune newspaper.

With one of the highest crime rates in Africa, Nigeria is notorious for gun-related violence, including kidnapping and robbery.

In Jamaica, officials are trying to make a dent in the gang violence by rounding up young men and detaining them. In Spanish Town, an area known for gang violence, police recently detained about 100 men, trying to stop an escalation in the gang wars after a local community leader, Donna Cowan, was murdered on Friday in Tawes Pen.

With an estimated 250 criminal gangs on the island, Jamaican officials hope in the next five years to lower the murder rate from the current 41 murders per 100,000 Jamaicans to 12 murders per 100,000. For comparison purposes, New Orleans has one of the highest murder rate in the U.S. with 33 murders per 100,000 residents.

In Brazil, officials in Rio de Janiero have the difficult task of cleaning up the slums (favelas) and curtailing the gang violence before the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games. In Sunday, authorities sent a force of 1,500 marines and paramilitary police in the Jacarezinho and Manguinho favelas in northern Rio to take over control of the area.

In similar raids across the city, the government claims to have taken over control from the drug gangs in some 30 favelas since operations began in 2008, according to Al-Jazeera, using more than 6,700 police. They hope to increase the number ot 40 favelas by the World Cup in 2014. But the problem is the city has around 1,000 densely populated favelas, where one-fifth of the city’s population of more than 6 million resides.

Brazil is currently the world’s largest consumer of crack cocaine and second-largest consumer of cocaine after the U.S.

[DuncanWaring]

So it was ... eight weeks, 100 murders ... they’ve been averging 10 per week ... that works out about right.

Twinkletoes Emmanuel was right that Chick-fil-A doesn’t represent Chicago values.

[Scoutmaster]

I assume you mean the psychologist Jean Philippe Rushton and others.

I haven't read anything meaningful on the r/K selection theory as related to the various races of humans.

I will read some works of Rushton and others on r/K theory and human racial differences before I respond.

Have a Happy New Year.

[Scoutmaster]

I assume you mean works by the psychologist Jean Philippe Rushton and others.

I haven't read anything meaningful on the r/K selection theory as related to the various races of humans.

I will read Rushton and others on r/K theory and human racial differences before I respond.

Have a Happy New Year.

[Amberdawn]

Thank you, yes. Have a Happy New Year yourself!