What I’m saying is that mentoring is a solution to question that is not being asked here. The benefits of mentoring poor youth have nothing to do with keeping people safe in the community. It’s like offering me tourniquet when I’m having a heart attack. When people suggest “programs for the yoof” whenever a small number of people can’t follow the basic rules of humanity it’s just plain laughable. Laughable.

The thug that shot this young man and the thug that shot two people last week in CH need to be locked up forever. Period. There is no mentoring, after-school program, hand-out, up-lift, or taxpayer subsidy to fill the gaping hole where their humanity should be. They are empty, useless, soulless and lost. The best thing for them and for us to lock them away where they can’t hurt anyone else or become an inevitable casualty themselves to a thug with a quicker trigger finger.

“Forced mentoring” as some suggested here… well… I just have no words for how completely stupid that is.

“Odentex, your energy, smarts and passion are great, but your efforts are misplaced.”

But isn’t that what Odentex is saying – Mentor, intervene, educate, do whatever you can to help those who are not lost but throw the book at the ones who are lost.

The current crop of teenagers is lost. Stop reacting to them and start working on their younger siblings who can be saved.

Odentex, your energy, smarts and passion are great, but your efforts are misplaced.

If the killer that took your brother’s life was allowed out of jail before he was tried you can thank one person for that: Phil Mendelson. For years he’s refused to change the law to keep killers, gun criminals, and other dangerous thugs in jail pending trial and he doesn’t see a problem with letting them prey on neighborhoods like ours. He doesn’t see a problem because his family lives in AU Park while innocent people like your brother suffer the consequences.

I can’t tell you how much I am sorry and how angry it makes me. Just know that there are plenty of people that want to see justice in DC and stop seeing young men die. What’s going on here? Why can’t we punish the killers and gun criminals like we think it’s serious?

People should read about the zero-tolerance policies they put in place in NYC under Giuliani. I think Giuliani is one of the oiliest sleazebags who ever walked the earth, but on this point he was spot on, and the city is far better for it.

There’s another problem in DC, which was not so much of a factor in NY, and my mentioning of it will probably bring down howls of protest. But whatever. In DC, a large portion of the black community either actively supports crime committed against white people, or passively refuses to take sides against their own community against the outsiders. I’ve actually been on a Metro train where a group of 3-4 teenage black kids got on, started screaming and running all over the place, swearing loudly, pushing each other into people on the train, etc. When I got out at the next stop to complain to the driver, another black passenger got off too and went out of his way to defend the kids, saying “They just horsin’ around.” It was obvious he didn’t like the white boy narc-ing on the homies.

On a somewhat off-topic but similar vein, they had an article in the Post (I believe DCist talked about it) at about the time that Michelle Rhee came in to run the school system. that some blacks openly admitted they wanted her to fail because, if she succeeded where black administrators failed, what did it say about the black community’s ability to handle its own problems? The same thing is at play with the crime situation, to a degree.

The fact is that “warehousing” accomplished by the establishment of federal mandatory minimums for drugs and guns, and similar state laws, are what allow New Yorkers to walk the streets in peace while DC residents waste time discussing bullshit.

You don’t reform a 19 year old who shoots people on a busy street in broad daylight by giving him a handout “job” – you throw the keys away. Could the picture not be made any clearer by the events of last week? “Programs” don’t reform the unreformable. You can’t “mentor” a criminal. Why must everyone be subject to the violence and crime of these people because Mendelson and people like you get hurt feelings over upsetting thugs and their families?

Most importantly, in WHAT FANTASY WORLD does the criminal from last week’s shooting positively effect the life of his spawn whether he’s in or out of jail? Are you fucking kidding? His kid couldn’t pick him out of a line up. You’re hilarious with this cause in effect regarding punishing criminals!

LOL!

Take kids away from homes where the parents aren’t doing their job? Good luck with that. As long as the child isn’t being seriously abused there is simply nothing you can do about the cycle of ignorance and dysfunction. You can’t remove the child. You can’t “force” mentoring or participation in whatever make-good program you promote.

The 2% of kids that turn out violent are not showing up for mentoring sessions or taking advantage of community resources. That’s not their interest or background, nor the interest or background of their parents (if their parents are even around). The kids that benefit from mentoring and other intervention are typically not the ones using guns on others. People make differences in the lives of children, no doubt, but the children participating in these programs and benefitting from them are not the ones that end up shooting at each other.

And BTW, I totally agree with you that such initiatives are useful and bring some kids along in ways that otherwise would not have happened. But these initiatives can’t reach, won’t reach, will never reach some children. All we can do is make sure OUR children and the children of out law-abiding neighbors don’t suffer the consequences of now adult criminals.

I’ll give you an example. Grandmother on my block was raising her daughter’s children. Children were doing well, in school, had friends, seemed to be as happy and healthy as any children you’d ever meet. Immature and troubled daughter realizes she’ll get more money for housing and aid if she has kids and proceeds to take kids even though she has no place to live. Kids go to shelter with erratic, but not clearly abusive, mother. Grandmother never had custody so she can’t do a thing. Judge says “what can I do?” Maybe the few years with granny will serve those children well and they’ll make it through, maybe mother will grow up and put her children back in school and pursue mentoring and other opportunities, but maybe not.

The bottom line here is that the result will have nothing whatever to do with your plans or mine. Unless someone else’s child is seriously abused the environment they live in is never going to be up to you. What they’re taught, if they are made to hate and have no respect for themselves or others, that’s just beyond anyone’s control. No program can fix what’s broken there. I hate to say it, but on this front, Nate is 100% right. The level of dysfunction is impenetrable and their ain’t no “program” to fix it.

And BTW, enforcing the law and protecting the public isn’t a “short term solution” it’s the primary job of any government.