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Ron Jackson's Perspective
The Sunday Journal -
Think
Kankakee, Illinois
March 19, 2006
Why does society
tolerate
violent gang members? |
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I had every intention to consider some readers' suggestions and
write about something positive this week. In particular, I was
going to write about the Helen Wheeler Center for Community Mental
Health that serves those with chronic mental heath problems.
However, something negative keeps eating at me. Fortunately,
it is not a local story; but it is close enough to potentially work
its way to our community.
In less than two weeks, two young, beautiful girls from the
same Chicago Southside neighborhood were murdered by people with
guns. One was 14; the other was just two days shy of her 11th
birthday. I don't know either of the girls, their families, or
anything about that community; but it eats at me how senseless
murders of young innocent kids keep happening. A bullet hit the
14-year-old girl just under her left eye while she was looking out
the window of her home. The 10-year-old was killed by bullets fired
by members of a gang shooting at other suspected rival gang members
who had just left the girl's surprise birthday party.
What bothers me most is all the media attention these cases get
and how short-lived that attention is. The focus of the attention
seems to center on the weapons. There were vigils, speeches, and
demands for more police protection. There were the often-chanted
promises to "Take back our community" and "Please stop the
violence." Hordes of politicians, community leaders and clergy
convened and complained and made promises and pointed fingers.
In the cases of gang violence, it is no secret who the villains
are. In particular, the family members of the 10-year-old knew that
some members of their family were gang members. Why did they allow
them at their party? If people have a gun in their home and it
results in the accidental killing of a child, you can bet that those
people would be charged with criminal negligence. Why aren't
homeowners who harbor gang members charged similarly when innocent
persons are harmed as a result?
The point is that we all know gang members. Politicians know
gang members; church leaders know gang members; family members know
gang members. So it is very insincere when these publicity-seeking
groups cry out for more government protection from gang violence
when it's those same factions they harbor that betray them. We
don't need any more gang task forces. We need gang elimination
forces. Police agencies all over this country have compiled endless
amounts of information on gangs. That information is useless if
they can't get any help from the communities.
It is not illegal to harbor gang members because it is not
illegal to be a gang member. Of course, there will never be laws
making it illegal to be in a gang because to outlaw gangs would
result in some do-gooder group claiming that 4-H, Boy Scouts, and
community choirs are gangs.
Gang violence will stop only when family members stop it. If
families ostracized gang members, gang violence would decline. It's
so easy to look the other way a when relative is a gang member.
When family reunions, graduation parties, 50th wedding
anniversaries, and Grandmother's 80th birthday parties make it loud
and clear that gang members can't attend, that will make more of a
statement than anything the local police can do. You can't party
with a gang one night and then act surprised when they kill a loved
one the next.
Calling for more federal dollars to get guns off the street is
a big copout. Guns aren't killing innocent kids. Known family
members who associate with gangs are killing innocent kids. I don't
want another tax dollar spent on more buy-back-guns programs. Thugs
and gang-bangers aren't turning in their weapons. Stop wasting
money on task forces to study gang violence. Put that federal money
in state's attorneys’ offices to help them prosecute gang-harboring
homeowners when a senseless death occurs in their home.
Leave your pet in a car on a 100-degree summer day, and you
could face serious jail time. Allow a gang member to live in your
house with your young children and one gets killed, and you could
end up being a martyr.
Politicians should spare us their anti-gang and guns campaigns
when we know there is nothing they can do. Clergy should stop
offering public prayers when they have knowledge of gang members'
activities but zero influence over such activities. Family members
should stop crying for others to react when their loved ones are
killed as the direct result of another member of the same family’s
gang association.
Communities won't get gangs and guns off the streets and out of
their neighborhoods until the residents put them out of their homes.
The Helen Wheeler Center is having its 7th Annual Second City
Comedy Troupe fundraiser Saturday at the Kankakee High School
Auditorium. Yes, it's the real, famous Second City Comedy Touring
Company; and it's just in time, because I sure do need something to
make me laugh. |
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