Might this kind of culture have something to do with it? - Granite Grok

Might this kind of culture have something to do with it?

In the on going gun / anti-gun battles that have been going on since Aurora and Sandy Hook, much has been made of the “gun violence” and that the gun-grabbers think that all that is necessary is for all gun ownership to be severely curtailed if not outright stopped; no guns in civilian hands (which would put a smiley face on Diane Feinstein).  Chicago has been the focus of much of the discussion as the ongoing slaughtering of of black young males doesn’t seem to be slowing down.  Yet, New York City has it’s own problems as the NY Post lays out the violence Friday night.  And in the listing of the deaths was this:

The bloodshed continued in Queens when a 10-year-old girl in Far Rockaway got caught in a hail of bullets, one of which grazed her hip, cops said.

The girl was stepping out of her apartment at 1:30 a.m. with a group of friends when two males on bikes rode up and started firing at two other men, cops said

The gunmen missed their intended target and struck the young bystander.

She was taken to Jamaica Hospital in stable condition.

As a parent – horrified.  Not just that a little girl was hurt but at the circumstances under which this happened:

  • A 10 year old girl
  • 1:30 in the morning?  REALLY??
  • From HER home?
  • With Friends – her age?

Where the heck were HER parents?  What the heck were they thinking??  Fifth grade – maybe Sixth?  Allowing their daughter (and YES, I am assuming a two parent family which may or may not be in evidence – but even if she only had ONE parent, the same thing applies) to be out in a neighborhood that has been proven to be dangerous (for I am betting that this is not just a one time thing if “two other men” were already out and about.  And her friends – what about their parents?

What does this say to me?  This is a culture problem – not a gun “violence” problem.  It is both a family values and cultural norms crisis.  Today on GrokTALK!, we mentioned the “broken window” crime scenario that Rudy Guiliani took action on  – a broken window was the sign of small time crime – which, if not addressed, grew to larger and larger proportions, intensity, and evil.  The command that came down was “fix the window” and the crime rates went down.  A ten year old getting shot is not the problem but a symptom of a deeper, more serious problem – when family norms dissolve, the culture goes bad.  And then the culture goes bad, it reverts to the Law of the Jungle and the Rule of the Strong Man.  And it just eats its own tail in a downward spiral.

Yeah, I’m being simplistic here to the point of overblown oversimplification.  But sometimes big problems are the result of a lot of little ones – if only those in charge would allow them to see them.  If that little girl’s family had said “no, you are not going out” (or better yet, it’s 8:30 pm – go to bed NOW!) things might have been different.  But to allow an elementary school kid to be up and allowed out? Sheesh…

Fix the families, fix the culture, and I bet the violence problem goes away

(note: and yes, who knows if this was part of the gang wars that are tearing the urban areas apart – even more reason for a little girl not to be out on the mean streets at 1:30am).

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