What's wrong with the District of Columbia?

I’m a bottom line thinker.

To me, things are either good or bad, up or down, left or right, black or white. Very little is gray or neutral.

So it is easy for me to say, without caveats or conditions or disclaimers... “The District of Columbia is very a dangerous place.”
(AS I TYPE THIS, THE CHIEF OF POLICE HERE IN DC HAS DECLARED A "STATE OF CRIME EMERGENCY" - 13 PEOPLE HAVE BEEN MURDERED IN THE LAST 11 DAYS!!!)

Now some folks will get all bent out of shape and start whimpering and whining about,
“No it isn’t…”
“It’s no worse than a lot of places…”
“The media just paints it in a bad light…”
“Statistically it’s no different from many cities…”

To them I say, “Wake up and smell the coffee burning!” Better yet, “Go walk a mile on New York Avenue after 11PM.” Or, “Ride the Green, Red or Orange lines for an hour or two with an Ipod on.” Or, “Go leave a Georgetown party and walk down the street alone.”

I add the Georgetown part in because a few nights ago in what was considered the last bastion of safety in the District of Columbia, four hoodlums (two adult males, one female and one 15 year old male) [I don’t call hoodlum criminals “men” or “women” because that would imply that they were human…] descended on this man and woman, beat and robbed them, slashed the man’s throat (killing him) and attempted to rape the woman. I heard the sheer violence of the attack sickened even the hardest of the DC homicide cops. This was just one crime in one part of town, I mean this stuff happens all the time it seems. Everywhere in and around Washington DC.

I drop the comment that “The District of Columbia is a very dangerous place.” Because it is true. DC has a frighteningly high rate of murders, shootings, stabbings, beatings ,carjackings and kiddie car-theft/crashes! Whats a kiddie car-theft/crash you ask? It’s when a little 8 year old monster breaks into a car, starts it, steals it and then goes driving around at high speed until they kill someone or crash into something. Yeah – an innocent lady was killed a stop sign by an 9 year old car theft last year.

It is an awful trend and it is spilling over into adjoining counties and communities. Cops have a fit because these bastards creep into Maryland sometimes, do their dirt and then flee back into their holes in the district. When my car was stolen – the first place I went to look for it was in Southeast DC – where did cops find it? Southeast DC. When my buddy’s father’s car was stolen from him at gun point, where did they find it? Southest DC.

Sadly, the perpetrators of almost all of these crimes are “young, black males, aged 16 to 28” [damn, it hurt me to write that!] That is the largest portion of the population here. Sure, you have whites and Latinos, but YBM’s are the majority and almost every night you see them either making the ‘perp walk’, or they’re ‘wanted in connection with…’, or they’re ‘convicted of…’ or they’re ‘a suspect in…’

I truly think that there is only one way to cure this problem running rampant throughout the District of Columbia. One way – with three parts.

PART ONE – Improve the schools. Put extra money into books, computers and teachers pockets! Hire more teachers and make classes smaller and help the children to truly learn so that their future can be brighter than the futile dreams of going to the NBA or being a rapper.

PART TWO – Build another jail and improve correctional training. Yeah – I know, most black folks hate the word “jail” but I don’t. You know why? Because there are some truly scary mother fuckers that truly belong there. You KNOW you feel the same way – don’t lie to yourself! I think you need to make more room to house and hold those hardcore murderin’ types that you and I never want to see walking down the street in our neighborhood! Make more room, because there are plenty out there that should be off the streets. Tell the bleeding hearts that you can’t save them all! Some folks just need to spend the rest of their lives locked away! But for those that can be saved – have REAL correctional programs for them so they can have an opportunity for success when they get out and they’ll have options beyond sticking a gun in someone’s face.

PART THREE – This is most important! We have to stress to our young people that a complete family unit is a must! To be 15 or 16 or any age [and stupid] and get pregnant by some other 15 or 16 year old [or stupid person] is statistically going to prove to be a disadvantage to the child as they grow up. To any single mom that CHOSE to be a single mom because “I can be a mother and a FATHER to my child.” I’m sorry – YOU CAN’T! Children need both a woman to be a mother figure and a man to be a father figure… that is just the truth, plain and simple. Keep in mind that I said “women who CHOSE, [to go it alone].” (Not the ones that were abandoned after-the-fact) Our young people, our girls and boys need to understand that babies are not just an accidental by-product of sex – they are living creatures that need nurturing and guiding and they need to be molded into mature, successful and compassionate adults! Far too often do “grown” mothers or fathers find out that their teen aged daughters are pregnant and do nothing but cry and wait for the delivery. We have to stop accepting this foolishness from youngsters and take matters into our own hands – yes, I’m talking about abortions here (please don’t act all offended, this is a blog for God’s sake!) – especially when the ‘baby daddy’ is either a bum, a child, a dummy, or nowhere to be seen [or any combination]. The children these kids produce are going to grow up disadvantaged and/or impoverished because as they get older mom will be called Brenda and Grandma will be called Mama, and Brenda will have three other kids and want to spend all her time in the club and every other week, because the real daddy split town, Brenda will have a new man in the house for the kids to call, “Daddy.”

I'm not saying that having a mother and a father is a guarantee for success in a childs life, just like I'm NOT saying that growing up in a single parent home is a guarantee for failure. What I am saying is we need to stress responsibility to our kids and we need to encourage them to be careful and not start families before they are mature enough to be reasonable parents. We need to stress to our young people that when children grow up with little to no, social and moral training, it is far easier to turn towards a life of crime as time goes by. We need to stress that having a mother AND a father working together as a team will be invaluable to the healthy and successful development of a child.

We have to save the kids. The ones that are out here now in DC who still have a chance, AND the ones that are yet to be born. Without guidance, supervision, parenting and sound judgment in the lives of these kids in DC, people will be declaring the District of Columbia a very dangerous place for years to come.

TTBM