In the end children, yes children are being murdered by children everyday. We must stop gang violence or inner city violence and save our kids and our streets. But the questions everyone ask is where do we start? How do we protect ourselves and our children from the streets? Mosts people opt to move out of the city into the suburbs with hopes that they will avoid the violence that plagues the city streets. I am not really sure what the answer is to ending violence and I am not sure if anyone has that answer. But we can all band together and do our part with hopes that the violence will stop.

Saving Our Communities

Many pastors and church members, specifically in the City of Boston have banned together in order to try and prevent crime. Or work with city officials to help solve crimes that have already been committed. Some went so far, they actually hit city street corners in dangerous neighborhoods and held marches and rallies againsts gang violence. Even the Mayor of Boston Menino has said churches represent a key ally in crime reduction. Alot of pastors from different churches get together to support families and victims of crimes. By doing so they may actually be preventing another murder or city street violence threw retaliation. Pastors can be a great help to police by persuading teenagers and young adults to tell police what they know about crimes, Menino has said. ''We cannot, we will not allow you to terrorize our community," said Pastor Raymond Hammond, chairman of the Boston TenPoint Coalition, an anticrime group credited in part with reducing crime in the last decade. ''We will not have mothers and grandmothers afraid to step out of their homes. We're not going to live like that." Pastor Hammond is one of the few pastors in the city who has actually done something about trying to prevent violence. At the church Pastor Hammond is head of Bethel A.M.E in Jamaica Plain there is a youth program called Brighter Horizons. Which is ran by a ex-gang member turned good in which Pastor Hammond played a significant role in changing this young mans life. The Brighter Horizon Program is for Boys and Girls between the ages of 10-17. It provides after school programs for the kids who some are referred by court officials, school counslers, and concerned parents. The kids go after school and do home work and educational field trips as well as fun projects and field trips they can enjoy and the biggest incentive for these young kids they all receive a payment each month for attending. The actual payment is based on how many days out the month they attend. This itself gives the kids a reason to show up and look forward to something at the end of the month. The kids receiving a payment may in some cases prevent these very same kids from doing illegal things to make money to buy the new pair of sneakers or clothes they may want, which could lead to violence if they chose the road to make money illegally.

Are celebrities raising our kids to be thugs?

Many young inner city children listen to rap music, they watch sports figures and movie stars constantly do illegal crimes and get away with a slap on the wrists. For example rapper Tupac Shakur was one powerful figure in the rap community many young kids looked up to him. But he continued to potray a thug image and was shot several times on several different occasions before finally dying from a violent act of crime. But to many young boys he was "cool" and they all wanted to be like him "real" is what they called it in the streets. And even though as parents our hard earned money was spent supporting these rappers and buying their albums for our kids or providing them with money to support these rappers. The rappers do not care, they continue to get caught with guns, commit crimes, and behave inappropriatly in front of the youth. The rappers feel they have no obligation to these kids who listen to their music.

Kids killing Kids

Everyday a child under the age of 18 dies from street violence. Parents are outliving the kids, and continue to bury their young teenagers due to street violence. we ask the questions why? There are many reasons why, violence is at a higher rate in the inner city and more so with minorities. It goes back to far to get into, but the out come of the history of minorities leaves alot of single parent homes, drug addicted parents and parents working 2 and 3 jobs just provide a roof over their family heads that the kids are left alone to raise themselves. With that they turn to the street at a early age and look for someone to care for them and they feel that being in a gang is like having a family..the family they are missing. Ultimately these kids drop out of school and by the time the parents find out, its too late they are drop outs, selling drugs and committing violent crimes.

The Truth!

Think of how rattled you might be if you lived in constant fear of a gun going off. Then imagine you are only six or seven years old and trying to do your homework. This is the reality for many children living in America's inner-city neighborhoods today. Now think of how it must feel to be walking home from school or driving in the car and see gangs of kids of each corner and how flashy,cool,and "in" they look to other young boys. As adults we all look and say its so sad to see kids like that, but as a young black boy struggling into man hood and trying to find his identity it may be the only place that looks like it will accept him. Studies show that young black men report that:

• 75 percent had heard or seen a shooting.

• 50 percent had seen a killing or serious beating.

• 50 percent reported that murders occur in their neighborhood.

• 39 percent had had a friend beaten or killed.

• 25 percent reported that teachers at their school had been injured by students.

• Only 8 percent reported no exposure to violence. Many teens who reported seeing violence also admitted to being a part of the violence studies also show that
  
• 50 percent had been in a serious physical fight.

• 33 percent had used a weapon in a fight.

• 25 percent had been physically cruel to someone.

• 10 percent had been arrested/jailed for violent behavior.

• Only 33 percent said they had not engaged in any violent behavior.

Introduction

Our group decided to do our final project on violence in the inner city, due to the recent crime rise in the inner city. Violence has always been a huge deal in the inner city streets amongsts young minority boys/men. Why?? we ask...there could be many reason why young men fall into the trap of gangs and drugs. IN this final project we will try to explore why violence is so popular amongst minorities and why they choose to take the path of violence.