gang violence
i've never lived in a place where gang violence is as prevalent as it is here. at this point it is normal to have at least one gang shooting a week in my neighborhood. in one weekend, 11 people were shot and 3 killed. on saturday, 3 people were shot and one killed at a club i go to blocks from my apartment. chris and i walked past minutes before the shooting. the night before there was a gang shooting 2 blocks from gwen & tom's place (which is about 8 blocks from my place). a couple weeks before that there was the killing by adrian's place outside of garfield community center. inside the center, kids were planning for an antiviolence rally.
there were 28 homicides in seattle in 2009 but at least 9 of those were gang related and happened out in public with witnesses. there has been one arrest. more than half the homicides in seattle were of men between the ages of 14 and 34.
i've been giving this a lot of thought and intend to start posting about it and my thoughts on gang violence, peer pressure, the need to belong to a community, the idea of "turf" and how real these invisible lines actually are, how the internet and social networking affect gangs (they all have myspace pages!! it's insane), and if there is anything i can do to make a positive change in my neighborhood. the common bond between me and gang members in my neighborhood is a love of dance, music and belonging to community.
there were 28 homicides in seattle in 2009 but at least 9 of those were gang related and happened out in public with witnesses. there has been one arrest. more than half the homicides in seattle were of men between the ages of 14 and 34.
i've been giving this a lot of thought and intend to start posting about it and my thoughts on gang violence, peer pressure, the need to belong to a community, the idea of "turf" and how real these invisible lines actually are, how the internet and social networking affect gangs (they all have myspace pages!! it's insane), and if there is anything i can do to make a positive change in my neighborhood. the common bond between me and gang members in my neighborhood is a love of dance, music and belonging to community.