I found the following article to be very enlightening about how our youth in America are suffering by the deadly hands of the 'youth gone wild' culture.
Philadelphia: Teen 'afraid every day' as gun violence soars: "Philadelphia is just one of the nation's cities trying to deal with a murder spike. As of Wednesday, 150 people have been slain in the city, compared to 140 by this time last year." - Fr: cnn.com
I saw a report on a news show sometime ago about the violence in Philadelphia and about how 2-3rds (66.7%) of all homicides in Philadelphia go un-prosecuted. Largely in part that people who witness these homicides and/or learn of them after the fact do not report what they have learned to law enforcement.
Unfortunately, it's not that most of them don't care, some don't, but most of them fear a quick vindictive attack by the gang members or criminals who committed the violent crime or homicide. This allows rapists, homophobes and murderers' to go unpunished.
These same types of fear tactics have been used by countless people for countless generations to prevent justice & karma from holding them accountable. More recent examples would be people like Hitler and Saddam Hussein; and their violent propaganda to remain in power and punish those who oppose them.
This reminds me about the old Star Trek saying: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one."
Some may see remaining silent about witnessed/learned violent crime as a long-term out from violent reprisal; doing so, even with remaining silent about it, still increases their chances of becoming a victim themselves; for several reasons.
1) Although you may remain silent, the violent offender either knows or will possibly find out that you know about his/her violent crime and exact revenge on you; even if it's down the road. Silence may be the rule, but you don't have to break it to be punished.
2) Remaining silent about violent crime only encourages the offender to commit more violent crime now and in the future. It's proven, when someone gets away with a crime, the likelihood of them re-offending goes up dramatically & exponentially as they 'get away' with more crime over and over.
3) Remaining silent also dramatically increases the risk that either you or someone you care about will be victimized by violent crime in the future. As the offender's 'get away' with it; the risk of you being victimized goes up substantially.
The only way to reduce the risk of you or someone you care about being victimized or killed in violent crime is to take a stand. Offenders are much less likely to offend when behind bars.
Apartheid and/or genocide is only brought to extinction when people are willing to not only fight for their personal rights, but most importantly fight for the rights of others.
This karmic rule of thumb applies to all forms of violent crime and the use of intimidation to get away with it.
America is only free because of the countless people who have fought and died for the rights of others. The war can never be won, because there will always be those who enjoy and promote the suffering of innocence.
Even if the WAR cannot be won permanently, the BATTLE can be won!
The War can and will only be lost due to our silence and/or inaction. Fear is no excuse...
Kevin Smith - 05.18.07
There are people, and/or gang members, who pass out tee-shirts saying 'no snitching', going on to say how bad things happen to them.
Keith Boykin from Indiana reports on this: "No Snitching" Rule Makes No Sense. Check it out.
You can also check out a related story from thesmokinggun.com about Cam'ron.
Rapper's Change Of Face. "...Cam'ron is appearing on "60 Minutes" this Sunday to explain why he would never help the police..." - Fr: thesmokinggun.com
