TR> high  points. Parents nearly always figure into the equation. There 
TR> have been many  studies done on this subject, many with the gang 
TR> members themselves. Many  lack an adult role model in their homes 
TR> they can respect. If dad is adope  dealer and mom is a prostitute, 
RB> So what you are saying is that poverty, violence and abuse
RB> are generational.  But this conflicts with your idea that
RB> race/class are not the cause of these  things. Why do they
RB> lack an adult role model? Maybe prison. Maybe a bullet.  Why
RB> is dad a dope dealer and why is mom a prostitute? If we
RB> aren't talking  about class, why didn't you say "if dad is a
RB> financial consultant and mom is a  surgeon"? 
I hate to pop your bubble but there is a lot of crime
in the "financial consultant" class also.  You just
don't hear a lot about it because of a couple of
reasons. 
One is the company would rather handle 'the problem'
itself.  Bad PR when you put one of your people in
jail.
Another is the fact that a headline of "Man embezzles
$10,000" isn't as eye catching as "Man dies in shoot
out!"
A third fact is you don't have a SWAT team charging
into someone's office to arrest them for "white collar
crimes".  If you see two men dressed in suits enter an
office building you can't really tell if they are two
salesmen or two police detectives.  Now it these two
people exit with a third person who is holding his coat
in front of him you might not even know the third
person is wearing handcuffs.
TR> belong to a street gang, so  how do you explain this? There are many 
TR> street gangs who live in rich  neighborhoods, so how does this effect 
TR> your class and poverty ravings?
RB> You missed the point: gangs, drugs, and violence do not
RB> exist on the scale they 
RB> do in poor neighborhoods. You would truly have to be a moron
RB> to think that life 
RB> in the ghetto is the same as life in Beverly Hills. Yes,
I don't think anyone would even try to say that.  That
would be almost the same as saying that life in the
ghettos was the same as life in the old South Africa.
RB> there are drugs and  fights in rich neighborhoods, but there
RB> is a definite difference, both in what  goes on and how far
RB> it goes. Period. 
One things there are fewer people in "rich
neighborhoods".  They also tend to be able and do spend
their own money on protection.  When was the last time
you saw a house/apartment in a poor neighborhood with a
security system?  If you look into it you will find
that the poorer neighborhoods have more police per unit
of area then the rich ones.
But none of this has anything to do with the amount of
crime.  The area I live in is very poor.  The county
wide average income is a couple of thousand dollars
over the government set poverty level.  Yet the crime
rate in much lower then the next county over where the
average income is well over the government set poverty
level.
My county has a total of less then 20 LEOs where as the
other county has to have over 200.
Now how can this be?
TR> risk" kids.  Mentorship, Big Brother, Big Sister, and many other 
TR> programs help to provide  an adult role model these kids can respect. 
RB> I see. So for those poor black kids, its off to the 'special
RB> program,' and  sports or whatever - never stopping to think
RB> about the social conditions that  these kids are growing up
RB> in, and if that is right or not. 
That maybe what he is saying but I doubt it and its up
to him to say.  As for your social conditions argument,
the government has been trying for over 50 years
(starting well before FDR's programs) to fix these
problems and it hasn't worked.
The police are a band-aid.  They are there to fix the
injury that is there right now not to remove the thing
that caused the injury.
                      Remember:  Freedom isn't Free!
--- timEd-B11
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