Why is the news media silent about the gang problem?

[Will Carry]

My wife has retired after 25 years of teaching 7th grade science in an inner city school that is 80% black and 15% hispanic.

She used to come home and tell me all about the Crips and the Bloods and the hispanic gangs. The Durham County Sheriff's Dept even assigned a full time deputy who was a gang expert (later arrested for taking drug money), to stay at the school. We have shootings all of the time in gang areas yet the news NEVER says anything about the gangs! It's like the elephant in the room! According to the local news gangs don't exist, but according to a fellow I work with, you can't even go in to some gang controlled areas without a "pass". I said WTF is a "pass"? He said "you have to be with someone who stays there or have permission from the gang to be there." I said "isn't that dangerous?" "Everybody in the hood is packin'" he says. "You don't go to a place like that unless you are carrying a gun." I recon so.....

So why does the media ignored this? Is it because they are liberal? Is because the city leaders don't want bad press so people won't want to move to their city or shop in it's stores?

Edited May 5, 2012 by Will Carry

[Garufa]

So why does the media ignored this? Is it because they are liberal? Is because the city leaders don't want bad press so people won't want to move to their city or shop in it's stores?

Because it would be racist I'm sure.

[Links2k]

I don't believe that race has anything to do with it. The cops hands are tied due to limited resources and the fact that most of the offenders are juveniles. The gang members are apprehended, given a slap on the wrist and released to terrorize society until someone pops a cap into them.

[TMF]

Probably for the same reason Chicagoans didn't care about gangsters during prohibition because they were only killing each other. It wasn't until the death of a few innocents in the crossfire that there was a public outcry and it became newsworthy.

Even here in Clarksville there are some very active gangs and related violence. Nobody cares because it is all contained to an area that accepts this as normal and usually "victims" of crimes in that area were engaging in some kind of illegal activity at the time they were shot/stabbed/robbed/assaulted and so forth. If innocents started becoming victims then the police would start cracking heads and put the gangs back in their place, but for now the gangs understand that it's bad for business (drug trade) to do that. So therefore a relative peace exists.

[1gewehr]

I used to live in Durham County, NC in the late '80's. Even then it was known as having the worst cops in the state. The PD recruited straight from the gangs, and folks with light skin were seen as fair game for anyone. We soon learned not to bother calling the cops, but to just make sure everyone knew we were armed and willing to shoot.

On the plus side, I bought a very nice Triumph Spitfire for $300 from someone who said it had engine problems. A bit of oil in the carb dashpots and it ran perfectly! You've gotta love SU carbs! I used to leave that car parked up on blocks with the wheels off so nobody would steal it, and so the fellow who sold it to us would think it still had problems and not take the car back. It was THAT kind of a place.

[DaveTN]

You could untie the hands of the cops and let them do their jobs. But anything that is suggested or implemented is seen by many as a violation of rights.

But even if you let the cops operate as our founding fathers would have intended; you still have a problem. Where do you put them? Prisons are letting people out early and County jails are being threatened by the government for being above their allowed capacity.

As our economy declines more cops and jails are needed, but there is less money available to pay them or build jails.

I don’t think the news stations are being silent about it. The Nashville stations I watch report on the gang attacks and killings every night.