I was reading a NY Daily News Article earlier today – it was an article about a Bronx female gang member who allegedly had a rival male gang member shot and killed. The article goes on to say that both individuals were not the people police describe them as and were “good kids.” The woman was 24 while the male victim was 20. As I was reading the comments, as I often like to do, someone commented “as long as they kill each other it’s fine.”

I have a few issues with this.

One issue is – how can someone, people, society, or anyone think it’s okay for people to kill each other? Aren’t all lives of value? I mean, I get the fact that we think they are “bad” people, but should they just be killed?

Secondly – “they” are not just killing each other. Innocent bystanders are shot and killed frequently. So shouldn’t this now be something to care about (seeing how it was “okay” when it was just themselves”.

Lastly, my biggest issue with this is that no one cares to know what brought these people (or people like them) to a violent life. The problems that created violence. I believe, and Geoffrey Canada would agree, that violence is a learned behavior. People aren’t born with guns in hand. Even the children that are born with a mental disorder that might prompt them to do something dangerous to themselves or others or cause them to be violent – they weren’t born already committing the violence. It may have had less to do with learning violence, in this case, – though the learned behavior of violence still plays a large role – but it has to do with a failed system. The mental health system continues to fail almost anyone who doesn’t have the financial means for private mental health care. The system of cities, ghettos, public housing, public education, and society as a whole also fails these violent individuals from the very beginning. We know, or most know, that much of the violence committed comes from poor areas and by and large poor urban areas. The poor have continually been looked over. Violence is a part of the urban culture of survival. The emergence of guns have been an issue since they entered into the cities. How did they get there? Why do people feel they need to have this grand means of protection or weaponry? What got us to this place and why is violence part of this culture of survival? And yes, us. It’s not just those who are violent. It’s also the people who look at violence as okay – so long as it’s just themselves they kill.

Now that we’ve had this horrific tragedy in Connecticut, people are opening their eyes to senseless violence and guns. A Thai Noodle House Restaurant owner in Austin, TX made an insensitive comment along the lines of, he can’t seem to care about these white kids when it happens to minorities all the time and it goes largely unnoticed. The insensitivity in this, for me, was his timing. It was only shortly after the incident happened. I do find his comment to hold value. He should care that all of these children have died – no matter their color. However, the value is in the truth. Many poor, urban, or minority children are killed in senseless acts of violence. Where is the national outcry for them? Why is just okay when “they” kill each other?

The “they” in the daily news comment reflects the two alleged gang members. They were poor urban minorities.