Memorial Weekend Violence Highlights The Battleground In The Streets

There is no running or hiding from it, now. There is no way we can bury our heads in the sand and pretend it's not happening. There is no way we can escape the fact that our city streets are the new battlegrounds and killing fields. Ironically, on this Memorial Day weekend, on a day that we honor our war dead, an insane rash of violent senseless murders have exploded into our consciousness and left mothers, fathers and relatives shaking their heads and asking, why?

It started Thursday night in Newark, an off-duty cop was killed in a drive-by shooting. Then over the weekend, 3 young men were shot dead in 3 separate incidents in the same city. Then early Sunday morning in Brooklyn, a young single mother named Crystal Sweet (pictured left) was shot multiple times with her boyfriend and his brother. On Sunday night, Claudia Millan, 28, was shot point blank in the face while holding the hand of her 2 year-old son. 16 year-old Johnny Moore was shot several times about 11 p.m. Sunday across the street from his home in the Paterson Houses in The Bronx. Then, back in Brooklyn, Calvin Louis-Juste, 24, who had just earned his master's degree, was shot once in the neck at close range as he went to meet up with friends.

Okay, people, at what point does it start to materialize in your brain that there is a war going on on our streets that is just as Terror-fying as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? And just as in those overseas wars, the collateral damage is innocent children, women and men dying before they even have a chance to live. One major difference is that in the wars overseas, our soldiers are at least armed and can defend themselves. In the wars in our neighborhoods, the ones usually dying are unarmed and defenseless. One of the problems is that many of us are so desensitized to violence and murder, that we hardly even react to these horrific headlines. Another fact is that, in most cases, the ones dying are African-American and Latino, and it seems as though, in some circles, their lives aren't worth as much as those of other nationalities.

The summer hasn't even started, so you can expect the battleground of our 'hoods to get even worse as the weather and the streets get hotter. At some point, whether it's because this wanton violence hits you personally or you wake up from the stupor of the latest reality show or sporting match, you will finally notice a generation of kids missing from the parks and playgrounds. And then you will ask yourself, 'where are all the children?'

By then, it will probably be too late.

Gil Scott-Heron Passes Torch to 3 Little Girls

With the passing of legendary poet, songwriter, and revolutionary spirit, Gil Scott-Heron, the torch of the power of vocal reformation has been passed to 3 courageous and talented young girls. These girls send a fearless and poignant message to Lil Wayne, but as true truth-seekers can clearly see, Lil Wayne is a metaphor for an establishment that promotes all things detrimental to a moralistically healthy lifestyle and seems to reject images of peace, serenity and compassion.
Rest in Peace, Gil. Seize the time, young poetesses!

Crips, Bloods, Democrats and Republicans Should Follow Baseball's Lead

On the Los Angeles Dodgers' opening day baseball game against the long-time rival San Francisco Giants, a 42 year old man was beaten into a coma because, in essence, he wore the wrong colors. He wore the regalia of the Giants. Bryan Stow, a 42-year-old paramedic and father of two from Santa Cruz, remained in critical but guarded condition at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. He suffered a severe skull fracture and bad bruising to his brain's frontal lobes, said Dr. Gabriel Zada, a neurosurgeon. At one point, doctors had to remove the entire left side of his skull to ease pressure on his brain. The pressure is now normal but Stow remains in a coma from his injuries and from sedation to reduce his brain activity.

According to press reports, Stow was in a parking lot after the Dodgers' 2-1 victory when two shaven-headed young men in Dodgers clothing began taunting and swearing at him and two other fans, who were all wearing Giants gear, police said. Stow was punched in the back of the head. He fell down, bashing his head on the pavement, and was kicked before the attackers ran off. They are still at large and a $50,000 reward has been offered for information leading to there arrest and conviction.

Last Monday night, there was a pregame ceremony by the Giants and Dodgers against fan violence, part of a concerted response to the horrible beating of Mr. Stow that was unprecedented but wonderfully rendered.

Dodger and Giants players gathered on the field and paused for a moment of silence on behalf of Stow. Then, Giants pitcher Jeremy Affeldt took to the microphone and thanked fans of both teams for their support of Stow. What both of these teams did was show that even though they are bitter rivals, they can come together and put aside their differences peacefully. They showed that they can shake hands and understand the fact that we human beings all bleed red and have more in common than we do differences.

If members of Congress, the blue states, red states, put aside differences for the common good of the country and its people--especially its young people, then maybe it will trickle down to other rivals to think peace and set aside their differences. Maybe gangs such as the Bloods and Crips, who ironically, flash the same blue and red colors, can sit down and come to an agreement to work together to change the depressing situation that is prevalent in their neighborhoods.

Peace begins within and starts with people fed up with violence and death and who are willing to understand getting along is a whole lot better than fighting. Tragically, sometimes it takes a horrific act such as the beating of Bryan Stowe to wake some people up and get it.

Once We Stop Glamorizing Gangsters, Things Will Begin To Change

Back in the day, when I lived in the projects in Brooklyn, we had a big, black and white T.V. in the living room. On cold winter days, I would sit in front of that television and watch old movies constantly. One of my first idols was an actor named James Cagney. From the moment I saw him in a movie called ‘The Public Enemy’, I was hooked on his tough-guy persona. In the movie, he plays a cold blooded gangster named Tom Powers; a murderous hood who kills or beats down anybody who crossed him. He even smashed a grapefruit in his girlfriends face. I loved him.

Then I saw a movie called ‘Little Caesar’ with Edward G. Robinson. It was about, you guessed it, a short Napoleonic thug named Rico Bandello who spends most of the movie killing anybody who got in his way. I loved that movie, too.

Now that I’m a grown man, I still enjoy seeing those movies, but I watch them with a more critical eye. I also clearly realize why I loved those films as a child. The reason is the actors who played those parts and how both Tom Powers and Rico Bandello were portrayed. Both Cagney and Eddie G. were two of the most charismatic actors ever to come out of Hollywood. They reeked of machismo, bravado and charm. I now realize that I paid more attention to the way the actor played his part than what the actor was actually doing. I didn’t care who they killed or smacked around, as long as they looked good doing it. It was all about how cool my heroes were. That was all that mattered to me. And as I look back, I can honestly admit that those movies, added to my hanging out on the streets of Brooklyn, distorted the way I handled confrontation, and just as important, distorted the way I related to women.

From ‘The Public Enemy’ to ‘Scarface’ to ‘New Jack City’ to ‘American Gangster’ to today’s latest shoot-em-up, what our young, impressionable males are seeing is charismatic actors doing horrific things. But the thing that remains constant is that Al Pacino, Wesley Snipes and Denzel Washington always look cool. So just like I did, today’s young guys glorify the latest “flavor-of-the-week” hoodlum. And maybe not even consciously, but sub-consciously because it’s been said by many that visual mediums relentlessly seep into our sub-conscious and can be extremely subliminal. Young males usually always mimic what they admire. Another thing is, multiply all the new mediums we have available; videos can be watched on laptops, smart phones, IPods, IPads…and countless other gadgets. Our kids are not only constantly bombarded with violent images, but also with sexual images; and sex and violence always go hand in hand.

Two recent cases I read about cause me to believe I’m on the right track. A young prep school girl was arrested last week and charged with conspiracy and gun charges after allegedly helping out her drug dealing boyfriend who was in jail. She even allegedly went as far as carrying around a loaded 9mm gun in her bag. All reports said she was a brilliant student and a gifted athlete who had gone to a prestigious academy in Massachusetts. Her friends all said she was deeply in love with her man who the newspapers portrayed as a murderous lowlife. Now this girl was smart, right? So why would she let herself become involved with a known gangster? Or did the fact that he was a roughneck make him more attractive and appealing to her?

The other case, a day later, did not have as much fanfare and only took up about a four inch column on page 20 of a New York newspaper. “Bronx Boy Shot Dead On Street”. Jose Marte, 16, was shot once in the chest and once in the stomach on East 184^th Street. The article says he was attending a baby shower in the neighborhood and got into a “dispute” on the street with a man who then shot him. Now we know by now that a dispute in the ‘hood can mean anything from bumping into someone, to stepping on someone’s toe, or staring at someone’s girlfriend too long. Whatever it was, a child of only sixteen was murdered because of it.

And if you really think about it, he was probably killed by someone who thought he was Scarface.

IT HAS NOW BECOME APPARENT--DEATH IS LIFE

It has now become apparent, that in our black and brown communities, among our young people—death is life. Now you even have some teens planning what they want to be buried in. How many more of our children have to be senselessly gunned down before we understand that until we mobilize a united and sustainable force to fight this plague of death on our children, it will keep going on unabated until another generation is lost?


EAST ORANGE, N.J.

A Seton Hall University student who attended an off-campus house party Friday night, was shot and killed. Four others were also shot but they are expected to survive. Jessica Moore (Pictured Above) a 19-year-old honors student majoring in psychology, was shot, and died later at a hospital. An eyewitness described the Friday night party, which lasted into early Saturday, as a "typical fraternity party" with at least 100 people at the privately owned row house.

Students said the shooter was kicked out of the party when he refused to pay the cover charge. The eyewitness said she heard a fight erupt before the man was thrown out. Seconds later, she said, he returned with a handgun and started shooting as chaos erupted. East Orange police were following several leads but had not identified a suspect, spokesman Andrew Di Elmo said.

For Young Males, IMAGE is EVERYTHING

When I was growing up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn back in the 60's, image was the most important thing to the cats I hung out with. You had to project a sense of cool, yet also a sense of an "I take no crap" attitude. That's why the guys we looked up to weren't the, what we thought then, lame mailmen, or teachers or bus drivers, but the hustlers, pimps and drug dealers.

These were the guys who commanded respect. They did it by the way they walked, the way they dressed, the money they flashed and the honeys they always had around them. But they also expounded a sense of danger; of "mess with me at your own risk". In a word, it was the image they projected. In our country, and I guess the entire world for that matter, it's all about the vision of how you picture yourself to everyone else. Perception has become reality.

Today, the art of image and branding yourself is, basically the same as it's been for the last century. The cool, "bad boys" are still the ones the young males look up to and want to emulate, and the ones that most of the women are hypnotically attracted to by the sheer power of their bravado and aura. The tragedy is that most of the time the "bad boys" are caught up in bad behavior and this becomes acceptable to the legion of fans who follow and admire them.

When Tony Montana strutted his gangsterish path of drug dealing, torture and murder up on the movie screen in the '80's, young kids were mesmerized and idolized every move he made. That flick came out almost 30 years ago, but "Scarface" tee shirts are still worn out on the streets today. Tony Montana stood for everything vile, amoral and negative in American life, but he turned into a warped, distorted "god" to a nation of young males. That's because he maintained the image of dangerous cool throughout the two hour movie. And his brand is as powerful in 2010 as it was in 1983.

This brings me to the movie I saw with a friend a few days ago called 'The Expendables' (Pictured Above). I have basically outgrown the violent, action movie that I enjoyed when I was younger and wanted to see another film, but my friend was insistent on seeing old school studs, Sly Stallone, Bruce Willis, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren...etc, all together in the same flick. It even has a cameo by "The Governator".

All I can tell you is that this movie, to me, takes violence to a new level. The weapons they used were state-of-the-art and I found out there are at least 50 different ways you can butcher a person with a knife. Heads were literally blown off and bodies cut in half. And the sad part is: most of the audience didn't even blink.

A while later, I went online and saw this:

(CNN) -- Boston police have arrested three suspects who they say stabbed a Domino's pizza delivery man and drove off in his car.

Two teenangers and a 20-year-old are charged with homicide in what investigators described as a brutal crime.

Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley said 58-year-old Richel Nova's death "was chilling in its callousness and violence."

Perception is now reality.