I google his name. It is amazing that there is no follow- up on what is a fairly serious crime. Did Jim Grahan manage to get it swept under the carpet?

Wobble

Clearly the gun ban is futile without consequences for carrying a loaded weapon. Some would argue that there is no deterrence in a mandatory sentence for a loaded weapon. I think that’s wrong, but let’s assume the law won’t deter a single person – even in that case we wouldn’t be discussing this shooting right now and two people wouldn’t have been shot in broad daylight because this gun criminal would have been behind bars where he belonged after carrying a loaded weapon the first (second? third? fourth?) time instead of collecting your tax dollars for his summer “job”.

It’s like a bad joke… but it’s only this twerp, and the other gun criminals on our streets that are laughing… at all of us.

When will the excuses for criminals stop? When will you people wake up and expect the bare minimum of civility from certain people? Does your child or spouse have to be caught in the crossfire before you will take gun crime seriously and DEMAND that the city impose real consequences for the criminals who LAUGH IN YOUR FACE?

Although juveniles have made up 6.6 percent of arrests in the District over the past five years, they have been arrested for violent crimes at nearly twice that rate (12 percent) during the same period.

“He joined for friendship, juvenile mischief and, later, protection against rivals from other neighborhoods. Partying and ditching school gave way to fights and eventually violence that led to gunplay and deaths.”

Wow, is this really the place I should raise a family? Seems like a big mistake, can’t hardly fathom my little girl getting “jumped”!!! Argh

I’ve been saying for months now that discussions about everything from the gun ban to more after-school programs are pointless whenever there is a shooting. What is the common denominator here?

Is it really that hard to see?

People who continually carry guns until finally they get pissed and settle a beef with them. We know what the problem is, we just refuse to make people like Mendelson responsible for their decisions that make us less safe.

People wring their hands and say “oh what can we do, oh what can we do?!?” and then there is the requisite torrent of bullshit from “they only need a role model” to “sterilize them all”. From the absurd to the truly scary. All of it, every boneheaded “solution” is totally unworkable, unreasonable, and amounts to nothing but a circle jerk. All the while cities like New York, whose crime problem in 1991 (200 murders, anyone?) dwarfed our own, and where now the possession of a loaded firearm gets you 3 years. Period.

You have one question to ask yourself: are you serious enough about your own life, and the lives of your fellow citizens to DEMAND real penalties for dangerous acts, or are you too worried about hurting the feelings of gun-carrying thugs?

This isn’t rocket science people. You get caught with a gun, you go to jail. Period. Don’t tell me it doesn’t work, don’t tell me it isn’t fair. Go tell that boy that was caught in the crossfire at the Metro that locking this kid up wouldn’t have worked. Go tell that boy, when he wakes up screaming from another nightmare, that it “isn’t fair” to punish people with serious sentences for carrying guns illegally.

Wake the fuck up, people.

I got harassed by the cops once as a kid and the judge basically told me I did. I got a second chance. Then I screwed up for real but the only victim was myself. That time the juvenile justice system came down on me hard. I picked myself up, dusted myself off, and to this day have kept my nose clean and my behavior moral. I understand the concept of second chances well. But you know what? If I had been really shown the error of my ways the first time, if they shame had come down on my hard, if the judge hadn’t told me that the cops were out of line, if I had to seriously work hard to… well I had nothing to fix in that first case, but you can see where I’m coming from… then I might have realized the severity of NOT SCREWING UP AGAIN.

I am a student of American culture. I read De Tocqueville. This kid believes in a criminal culture. Kids listen to music that is unabashedly criminal. They wear ugly clothes which are based on prison uniforms (the baggy pants represent being in lockup without one’s belt). They assault women and gays physically and verbally because of perceived weakness in their sicko worldview. And it’s cultural. It’s ingrained in the families and in the friendships and in the community groups.

A friend used to volunteer with the Latin American Youth Center before she got sick of the institutional homophobia and sexism. Another friend volunteered at a homeless shelter and said that the ex-cons working at community centers were still committing minor crimes and infecting the children with their criminal attitudes. KRS-One used to have this mentally disturbed worldview he called “Criminally-minded” which many tired old men still trot out- that African-American youth must still act like they commit crimes and must still embrace anti-social-personality-disorder because some old farts think Tupac is still cool.

Shut down the community centers. Shut down the summer youth jobs program. Shut down the gang-themed schools.

Built skateboard ramps. Build community websites run by the kids. Train the kids to become tailors. Train the kids to be chefs. Train the kids to fix bikes. Train the kids to pass MSCE Exams.

KILL HIP HOP CULTURE before it kills you.

I don’t see where years and years of DC handing out money and jobs to “underprivileged” brats has done us any good. Since when did just being handed something you didn’t work for make a difference to anyone? This program doesn’t even require the kids to show up consistently and yet they still get paid.

Did you guys here the quote on the news when Graham asked some kid how to stop this kind of violence and the kid said “give them money.” Are you kidding me?

Maybe I’m unusual, but I grew up on free lunch, with a mom raising four kids on $13k a year and a deadbeat dad that couldn’t be bothered to show up even when he said he was taking us for a weekend. Oh, and when he did, he usually beat at least one of us to a bloody pulp. I didn’t sit on my ass thinking that was the best way out of the situation. Grow up, people, and stop your bellyaching. No one is going to improve your life but you.