Last night a familiar sound rang out about 9:45pm. Finishing household chores, debugging a laptop, homework and a sleeping dog. Pow Pow Pow Pow...speeding wind escaping some old model vehicle and screeching tires. The woosh whip of the pursuing police car and the blue and white lights illuminating the dark neighborhood sky.
I live in a "good" neighborhood. Every neighborhood in my opinion is good. Some better than others. Mine, in particular, is a college neighborhood, filled with cafes, galleries, museums, boutiques and family's homes. But my "hood" also has remnants of lives battered, wayward teens, unconcerned overworked parents and many people who have not integrated fully into the United States.
Unfortunately many of these hardworking parents are harboring terrorists. Or have raised them into their own terrorist culture. "Gang-banging" is NOT harsh enough.
These misled souls are not Al Capone. They are NOT the Gotti's. They are uneducated, angry, untrained, unfocused hoodlums who should be tried and treated as terrorists.
Enough. Enough. Enough.
My family has lived all over this great city , and NO neighborhood is exempt.
My family knows "Hit the floor" and all it entails.
The dog knows and whimpers and barks afterward.
I know that I have written about this ad nauseam; but read this:
§ 2331. Definitions of international terrorism
As used in this chapter—
(1) the term “international terrorism” means activities that—
(A) involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State;
(B) appear to be intended—
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum;
(2) the term “national of the United States” has the meaning given such term in section 101(a)(22) of the Immigration and Nationality Act;
(3) the term “person” means any individual or entity capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property;
(4) the term “act of war” means any act occurring in the course of—
(A) declared war;
(B) armed conflict, whether or not war has been declared, between two or more nations; or
(C) armed conflict between military forces of any origin; and
(5) the term “domestic terrorism” means activities that—
(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;
(B) appear to be intended—
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.
If this doesn't define gangs I don't know what does. This chosen lifestyle far supersedes an aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, Mister and Missus ACLU members.
A felony does not classify what these young people are doing.
I tell them in my office daily that I abhor their actions. I think they are acting stupidly, trifling, and are baby killers (anti-abortion activists take note). I question their tactics. The fact that they tag "their" neighborhoods but have never paid one iota of a tax dollar is a constant topic in my office. "Let me know when you become a homeowner and have a mortgage", I tell them. They have no weapons training, yet they walk around like Rambo. They drive on Kmart licenses and cars bought in a friend's back yard. They never hit their target. They are angry and have no outlet for their anger.
Yet, we the taxpayer, support their off-spring; educate and feed them. Who will feed the dead? The innocent dead? We live in fear and spend our evenings on the floor because they reign. They are the citizen supreme.
By day I am a law enforcement officer who supervises offenders post-sentencing. Once these offenders are before me, long after being shackled and demeaned, they are humble and apologetic. Many of them are escorted to the airport and given a flight home, compliments of me and of you. Many of them are self-genocidal, and that would be most acceptable if they knew how to hit their mark. They don't. Most are home-grown gang members who return to nothing but the streets. It is obvious most have superior intellect that is unnoticed. There are also those who are mentally challenged who have been ignored.
What is the answer to this? Well, we all know that I am a proponent for global education. But it needs to start at home.
Home in the barrios, the ghettos, the projects and the farms. Inner cities and all across this great land. Spend that money here making the U.S fulfill its promise.
Pop culture has made it cute, but it is not cute. The world is not what we should be fearing Newt and Cheney...we have terror in our own backyards because of the 8 years of stripping and flailing government programming in preference of war.
My hope for my family is that they simply survive the terror at home.
Fight the war at home first. Instead of sending my son across the ocean, let him grow up, safe in his own home first.
Then and maybe then, you can harass my President. Until then, spend on President Obama; and YES, I still woke up happy! And VERY thankful -- THANK goodness, I have clean floors.
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