I read the following in the Huffington Post this morning:
In Newark and New Orleans, the level of violence is rising as a result of the war here at home. Record numbers of people are being killed on the streets of these cities. One reason often attributed to the violence is drug killings. The most common response to violence, especially when it is related to drug dealing is to call for more police and often more jail cells. And despite how inviting, how sexy, a “tough on crime” approach sounds, it has yet to emerge as a policy that reduces violence and the suffering of everyday, hardworking people. Our skyrocketing prison population alone should signal that the way we are dealing with crime is a failure. If it were successful, there would be fewer, not more, incarcerated people; as we write this, the US now leads the entire world in the numbers of citizens it locks up. Why is this the case?
Our country has fought this war on drugs at home for 30 years, and for 30 years, drug prohibition and increased law enforcement have not made our streets safer nor rid our society of drugs. Rather, much like the days of Al Capone and alcohol prohibition, our policies on drugs have led to turf wars and murder.
So what should elected officials, community leaders and residents do to reduce the violence from the drug trade and reclaim their streets and families? We don’t have all the answers, but there are a number of factors to consider so that we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past and instead create a better way to heal our families and communities.
We have to create jobs if we don’t want people to sell drugs. (more…)
I stopped reading this article after the last line I bolded above.
Before I comment on this issue, here is an excerpt from an article in Time magazine back in 2001.
The homeboys call him Frog. But as he swaggers through the Rancho San Pedro Housing Project in East Los Angeles, Frog is a cocky prince of the barrio. His mane of lustrous jeri curls, his freckled nose and innocent brown eyes belie his prodigious street smarts. Frog is happy to tell you that he rakes in $200 a week selling crack, known as rock in Los Angeles. He proudly advertises his fledgling membership in an ultra-violent street gang, the Crips. And he brags that he has used his drug money to rent a Nissan Z on weekends. He has not yet learned how to use a stick shift, however, and at 4 ft. 10 in., he sometimes has trouble seeing over the dashboard. Frog is 13 years old.
[...]
LIKE MOST YOUNG AMERICAN people, they are material girls and boys. They crave the glamorous clothes, cars and jewelry they see advertised on TV, the beautiful things that only big money can buy. But many have grown up in fatherless homes, watching their mothers labor at low-paying jobs or struggle to stretch a welfare check. With the unemployment rate for black teenagers at 37%, little work is available to unskilled, poorly educated youths. The handful of jobs that are open — flipping burgers, packing groceries — pay only minimum wages or “chump change,” in the street vernacular. So these youngsters turn to the most lucrative option they can find.
[...]
“They are drawn by the more enticing lure of fast money. “They can make $1,000 a week dealing,”
[...]
“In a hot market like New York City, an aggressive teenage dealer can make up to $3,000 a day.” (source)
There are other things in this article worth mentioning, but I will stop for now. While this article may be dated by 6 years or so, the fact that a kid can make more money selling drugs than flipping burgers is just as real today.
While the belief that job creation is the silver bullet needed to combat the trend of our young people’s involvement in the illegal drug trade, very few people are willing to face the reality of this matter. How many wherehouse workers do you know are paid $1,000/week? How many fast food workers out there are getting paid $2,000/week. How many 13 year olds out there are pulling an honest daily income of $100/day? The truth is, to many young people out there who may come from a low-income family with no breadwinner, minimum wage is a straight up joke. The key factor here is addressing the VALUES of this particular demographic. While getting a young person who is making big money selling drugs to work at Target (for example) may seem impossible, we must develop ways to get them to think long term. This is where a person’s values come into play. When values aren’t addressed, you will end up with a false perception of the world similar to the following:
From the Time article mentioned above -
“Today Woodberry is a member of J-CAP, a rigorous two-year rehabilitation program. He sounds down to earth when he talks about earning his graduate- equivalency diploma and getting a job as a computer technician. But it soon becomes clear that Woodberry is still far removed from the mainstream, workaday world. When asked his minimum salary requirement, he replies, “At least $100,000.” He shrugs. “Hey, that’s comfortable.”
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February 8th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
It’s wild how Anderson Cooper is gonna have a program about “Murder City USA” (New Orleans) where crime is all over.
as for this entry though. ….
not only do you have to create jobs, what needs to happen is The City has to create a way to give STUDENTS something to do. even if its Playing Football for Small change,
before the storm (before the cutbacks on everything too) Each Recreation Center and Park had Sports and childrens activities . So did Middle and High schools. Once the money was taken away. The Violence Rose because it was CHILDREN doing the crime .
Now days. its still CHILDREN .. 17 year olds are CHILDREN in my book ..
EVERYBODY needs something to Occupy their time instead of being on the streets getting bullets in their heads ..
N.O needs The Money for the programs
October 21st, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Dysfunctional families produce drug addicts & drug addicts buy drugs from illegal drug dealers & many also sell drugs so they can pay for their on personal drugs. Some sell sex & some rob & steal to pay for their drug habits. Some have an education & a good paying job & most of their paycheck goes to drug dealers every week. No two addicts are alike. Some are rich & some are poor. Some are black, some are white & some are from other ethnic backgrounds but all have one thing in common. They can not stop or quit using drugs under their own willpower once hooked no matter how hard they try or how many times they resolve to quit for good. Less than 10% of all drug addicts ever get clean & sober & stay that way. Sad fact of life & proof that drug addiction is a serious disease & medical condition & not a moral problem or issue. Native American Indians have more problems with addiction than do white or black Americans & their drug of choice is most often alcohol.
The only solution is legalization with a doctors prescription & offer them help every time they come in to buy their fix.
This will generate millions of dollars in sales taxes & income taxes that can be used to pay substance abuse counselors & treatment centers that will be available to the ones that want help at government expense. The War On Drugs is a total waste of time & money & Ron Paul pointed that out & everyone laughed at him & made fun of him & he is a doctor that knows all about dysfunctional families & addiction. He knows that government can do nothing about these things & they can not be controlled through laws or leglislation that resulted in The War On Drugs which has not worked & never will.
Believe it or not many middle class families of all races or ethnic backgrounds produce drug addicts & their sons or daughters are also dead from drug addiction.
This is not a problem confined to poor black people that grow up in slums & ghettos. Ask me about it? I am white as a sheet & my son was robbed & murdered by two black drug runners in Dayton, Ohio when he went to them to buy drugs for another person to make money to feed his own addiction. He was raised in the best of neighborhoods & sent to the finest schools & ended up being a drug addict & that got him killed at age 30. He was a builder & made a lot of money but all of it went to buy drugs over & over again.
Addiction runs in my family & goes back generations & my son was not the only one that fell to this disease.
People born into this world with the disease of addiction are very unfortunate people to say the least. It is not rare by any stretch of the imagination & no race or class of people are immune fron this disease. Barack Obama’s father was an alcoholic & so was John Mc Cain’s. One was rich & one was poor but both hopeless addicts. LBJ was an alcoholic & drank heavily while in office not to mention Betty Ford. The famous black poet Paul Lawerence Dunbar was an alcoholic & that killed him at an early age. Many famous & rich celebrities have been killed by their addictions to drugs or alcohol. Jimmy Hendricks a drug addict dead of drug overdose. He definetly had a good job & was the best in the whole world at what he did & very few made more money than he did.
The War On Drugs got my son murdered because he did not have the option of going to safe sources to buy narcotics for his own personal use or for re-sale to make some money to pay for his next fix. Drug dealers are dangerous & that is why 420,000 people have been shot & 137,000 murdered here in America since September 11, 2001. 80% were drug related. They were carried out by a variety of people of different races & ethnic backgrounds & not just by black people & not just in bad neighborhoods as many illgeal drug dealers live in the best of neighborhoods & have huge piles of hard cash available to them 24-7.
The War On Drugs must go but never will because of religious people & their voting power in America.
The politicians will not push to end the War On Drugs & legalize drugs because it is a political hot potato & that will cost them votes from religious people & their seat in office.
The crime, violence & killing will simply continue all over America & good jobs will not stop it just like they never stopped alcoholism before drugs became more popular among addicts.
The real problem is addiction not drugs.
Addiction is caused by dysfunctional families & denial & delusion keeps them stuck where they are.
Recovery for addiction is not about stopping or quiting anything. It is really about getting it that you are not a worthless & valueless piece of crap. Dysfunctional families have a way of doing this to children. Alcohol or drugs takes away the pain & that is how they get hooked. They feel good when they use or drink but feel worthless & valueless when they don’t just like they were taught to do by their sick caretakers who had no idea they were doing this to their children.
The whole mess in going nowhere fast.