DiscussMormonism.com

I noticed this on Yahoo a few minutes ago:

https://au.news.yahoo.com/teens-hauntin ... 18739.html

It's also all over Google searches right now. So I googled his name looking for my fav site when pop media articles are hot:

https://heavy.com/news/2018/08/armond-latimore/

So, I was like, "I wonder if Facebook still has his profile active..."

https://www.Facebook.com/DawgAssMondo

https://www.Facebook.com/DawgAssMondo/p ... friends_tl

So, basically this kid was done the moment he was brought into this world. No way he stood a chance, and with St. Louis having ~150 murders this year the question I'm left with is how do we fix this?

I'm genuinely curious if anyone has given this a fair amount of thought, and I ask because if you happen to have some good ideas I'll start parroting it on whatever venue I happen to post on. The fact of the matter is we all share the same country, the same future, and I'd like to see if anyone has solutions that can start to steer our young men and women away from a future that ends in more of the same.

- Doc

I heard an interview at least a year ago with a congressman from Illinois whose district covered part of Chicago. His nephew had been shot and passed away recently over something to do with clothes.

It was interesting to hear his view that the violence and the guns were symptoms of something else he said differentiated the youth of today from the time he was growing up in the same area with many of the same issues that come with poverty. That being, he felt that in his time kids still had a sense of hope that they could somehow or other get out of the streets, make something of themselves. But in his conversations with youth today in the same area, there was no hope, there was no sense they could do anything to get out or make a future for themselves.

His point being, he felt that to address the gun violence we as a society need to address the hopelessness. Of course, being a Democrat congressman, he tied it to rising income inequality and the siloing of America into affluent enclaves while kids in Chicago and similar areas see no way of ever escaping.

It would seem that any solution needs to look beyond the violence and at how society works, generally. I'm progressive enough to believe that will require tax code changes that put higher burdens on the wealthiest to create real opportunities.

I guess it depends on who you see as the most politically correct and deepest pockets to lay the responsibility upon.

blame unwed motherhood?--politically incorrect
blame wealthy gun or knife manufacturers? --politically correct

Sorry - The boss asked that I delete my post.

Thanks for sharing, Ceeboo. I'll have to think on that for a bit and figure out I can do my part.

quick edit: And this comes on the heels of having some experience with trying to integrate a deeply troubled kid into my life, but I'm not sure how relevant that can be on this thread.

- Doc

Inner city as code for "where urban blacks live" or inner city as in the dense, central part of cities? Because the central part of cities are the most economically and culturally dynamic, desirable places in the country right now. Everything always could be better, but I'm not sure why we'd single out Manhattan or downtown Seattle as in dire need of social uplift compared to America in general. Inner cities are great right now. Unless you are rich, good luck being able to afford a decent place in "inner city" San Francisco. That's probably the real biggest problem with inner cities at the moment, and I'd highly recommend loosing zoning laws to allow for real estate development to meet demand across the economic spectrum.

Crime has been gradually getting better over time for a long time. If you want to make it even better, my answer is always first end the drug war and second reform police and prosecutor's offices so they are more focused on solving serious crimes and community policing.

Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:... (snip) ... I'd like to see if anyone has solutions that can start to steer our young men and women away from a future that ends in more of the same.

- Doc

You bring up an interesting topic, and one that has been long considered. Thomas Jefferson and Roseau considered there to be a strong connection between urbanization and immoral behavior. Even modern day science has observed that "cities" have dramatically higher rates of violence and crime than do rural areas. The obvious deduction is that with greater access to crime-opportunity (eg wealth) then greater occurrence of crime...which seems to conclude with the idea that crime and immorality are inherently inescapable human conditions. The physical city can be designed and observed to minimize the success of crime/violence but it does not diminish the desire for crime and violence...just requires proper planning (ie, locks keep honest men honest).
Or maybe cities just attract crime prone individuals.
If immorality and crime are genetic....are immutable....are "born this way", then what?
Is an "outreach" program for "at-risk" inner city youth not just the same as a a Christian re-programming for LGBT?

If not genetic, then crime/immorality must be a choice. When the environmental circumstance presents a crime/immoral opportunity instead of being helpless to the laws of nature a person makes a choice to commit the criminal/immoral act. So the obvious consideration must be to either remove the circumstances (impossible) or "program" the person.

Apparently the only real solution is "no more people"...but obviously a reduction in crime/immorality is best achieved by more rural areas and a discouragement for population density....either that or just redefine what it means to be criminal or immoral; history has proven that such a notion is effective with regards to our collective sympathies.

It's somewhat more risky to live in rural areas than cities as far as risk of death due to injury is concerned because modest increased risk of violent crime is more than balanced out by the reduced response time of emergency services. It's even riskier to live in the suburbs than the city proper.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- ... PJ20130723

I wonder if we were to institute better education along the lines of free technical & trades job training, financial literacy classes in schools, improved healthcare access and affordability so that those struggling with chronic social ills aren't destroyed bills before they can even have a chance to get ahead, incentives for small businesses to embed in impoverished neighborhoods, improved wages and labor laws so that people working an honest full-time job can afford to support themselves at a basic level and have enough time to develop further skills, and build small, affordable housing.

I get that no amount of policies and programs will help some people do any better because they simply don't want to put in the effort. However, I think a lot of that mindset might be mitigated with available counseling & therapy that could address a lot of underlying mental issues that are probably genetic to a degree which, left untreated, probably lead to drug abuse because they're seeking refuge from all the related issues that could be addressed through professional help.

Could you imagine having invested $4T into our own country and citizens rather than throwing it down the drain in Iraq? What a world we could have right here in America.

- Doc