Stop the Violence…No, Stop the BULLSHIT

In the wake of the numerous shootings here in New York City, community leaders are making calls to stop the violence.

Shawn says stop the bullshit.

Twenty years ago when I was a teenager in the South Bronx during the crack epidemic, there were similar calls for the violence to stop. Back then over 2,200 people were murdered and thousands more victims of gunfire that plagued New York City Streets.

After all those rallies and marches all those people had were sore feet and sore throats. The violence still continued. Because all people did was go and release some anger at the protest but made no active efforts to make changes in their communities.

Instead of making calls to stop the violence I say people should just stay angry. Maybe it’ll make them passionate enough to do something in their communities outside of paying lip service.

Instead of protesting to stop the violence How about we:

Stop promoting Thug Culture. Want to know why there are so many shootings in the inner-city? Because people in the neighborhood keep promoting Hyper-masculinized images of Thugs, gang bangers and other assorted criminals as the ideal image of manhood in the inner-city.

And because people in the community promote this image, many young boys identify with this image as to what a “real” man is. Others dress and act like this to get the attention of girls who are also misled to what a man is.

Many don’t know that this image is FAKE and MADE UP by people in Madison Avenue and Hollywood. That it’s a caricature created to sell products to them like those $200 sneakers and $50,000 Escalades. Moreover, it’s created to keep them from competing in academic circles like high school and college and making real money and building wealth that will improve the quality of life for people in the inner-cities.

I guarantee you if Brothers going to college and starting their own businesses as the ideal, many an inner-city male would stop trying to be thugs and go a different route. Maybe even the homicide rate would go down in the Black community.

Stop Supporting gangs, dope boys and other assorted thugs. Many of the very same people who are protesting the violence are covertly supporting it. They’re the ones paying lip service at the rallies and crying when their friends die, but flash gang signs any other time. The ones who cry over children who are shot but have gang members in their homes selling weed. They’re the parents who enable their kids to bully and recruit kids into gangs in local schools.

If inner-city residents really wanted to stop the violence, they’d stop enabling the criminals and the criminal activity they bring to the community. You can’t stop the violence in a community if you’re actively participating it. Moreover you can’t ask to stop the violence in a community if you’re actively enriching yourself from it.

Stop being afraid of your children. If all the parents in the community put their foot down and told their kids they weren’t going to be in a gang, there wouldn’t be any gangs in the inner-city. The reason so many kids are in gangs are because parents are afraid of them.

If enough parents in the community put their foot down and told their kids that if they joined a gang they would be put out of the house, they’d quit that gang in a minute. Those children would be so scared they’d disband that gang in an instant. After a few days on the streets with no home and no food, and no money, they wouldn’t even think of uttering the word Crip or Blood. But too many adults are too scared of their children to enforce such tough love on them to get them in line.

Personally, I believe parents are too scared of ACS and Child abuse laws. It’s time to start regulating on these kids and enforcing the strict discipline they need to become functional adults. A child isn’t a thug or a gangsta. They’re just parroting the bullshit Madison Avenue and Hollywood are telling them. They’re you’re children. Tell them something different. And if they won’t hear that, break a foot off in their ass. It’s better for you to put a shoe in their behind than have the police put a bullet in their back a few later and say it was a justified shooting.

Men need to Stop acting So Bitch-Made™. Want to know why so many innocent people get shot? Because Bitch-Made™ males get bested in a fight or laughed at and can’t take it like men. In the face of social humiliation these emotional cowards run away (sometimes crying) and go get a gun then come back and start shooting. In their attempts to get revenge innocent people wind up in the crossfire because these little baby boys can’t handle the little pressures in life. LIFE IS HARD. MAN THE FUCK UP.

Stop Trickin’. One reason why so many dudes pull out a gun in a club is because they’re fighting over a woman. Only both these fools don’t know that they’re probably being played. They’re both so thirsty for some ass they can’t see the bigger picture.

Neither man understands that both of them are going to lose. When the smoke clears, one man is dead, the other is in jail. And the chick they were both fighting over is out taking advantage of two other men. Dudes need to understand that no woman is worth fighting over. She’s not going to do your time or give you your life back.

Men need to stop being so damn Macho. Another reason why so many men pull out a gun and start shooting is because they think they’re so macho. When in actually just insecure. They can’t stand someone looking at their girl. They can’t stand someone talking to their girl. And because they have no self-confidence, they have to hide behind a fake tough guy veneer and start fights over nonsense, and pull guns on people so they can look like a badass. If these baby boys would stop being so insecure about their manhood maybe it’d save a life or two. It might even save their own.

Stop getting so emotional. On the streets people get hot because someone looked at their woman. In the club they get angry because someone bumped into them or said something they didn’t like. Some go crazy when someone just looks at them. Instead of just walking away like an adult, they let their emotions get the better of them. They lose it and in some cases they lose their lives or wind up doing prison time. People need to stop letting their emotions get the better of them. Count to ten, walk around the block. Do something before they do something they regret. It only takes a moment of anger to do something that can cost a person 10-25 years of their life in prison.

Stop drinking until you’re drunk. There’s nothing wrong with having a drink. But in a lot of cases of street violence many people are either drunk or high out of their minds. Because of this they’re not thinking straight, they make rash decisions that have lifetime ramifications for others and themselves. If people would stop drinking until they were drunk on the weekends maybe it’d save a life or two.

Stop getting high. Most of the crimes committed in the inner-city are done by individuals who are high on weed laced on cocaine, PCP or people on cocaine or other narcotic substance. If people would stop drugging then their inhibitions wouldn’t be lowered and they wouldn’t go out and commit the stick-ups, shootings and stabbings that fill police blotters on Friday and Saturday night.  

Start bringing in your kids at a reasonable hour. Many shootings happen way after midnight. And at that time I’ve seen eight and nine year old children out in the park or on the streets when they should be at home in bed. How about parents start insisting their kids come in at a reasonable hour. No child under the age of twelve should be out on the street after eight. And no teenager should be out on the streets after eleven. Maybe so many kids wouldn’t be caught in the cross-fire if people brought them in at a reasonable hour. And maybe so many kids wouldn’t get into trouble if they were at home at a reasonable hour.  

Start enforcing discipline. Want to stop kids from acting out and participating in violence? Enforce discipline on them. Impose curfews. And if you have to tear that ass up with a belt.

Start finding out what your kids are doing. Want to find all those illegal guns? Do a search of their stuff. Want to find that weed? Look around in their rooms. Or just talk to your kids. Until they turn 18, they are your responsibility. Find out what those kids are doing and what they’re involved in.

Stop with the bullshit.  We shouldn’t have to wait for someone to get shot to do something. No, stopping the violence shouldn’t be a reactive thing. Instead it should be proactive. Moreover, it should be something everyone does every day.

We don’t need poverty pimp activists to rally us or get us to march in the street. We don’t need more calls for a stronger police presence. We’ve been calling for that stuff for close to 40 years and our communities continue to get worse with each passing generation.

No, people in the inner-city need to get their stuff together and stop making excuses for their irresponsible behavior and the irresponsible behavior of their children. It’s the little things ALL of us in the ghetto do that have a big impact on the quality of life for everyone. If we all made small efforts each day towards maintaining our neighborhoods then the violence would stop.

Inner-city residents can’t ask the police or anyone else to clean up their community. No, that starts with us. We need to stop protesting for the police to give us safer streets and start making efforts to make our neighborhoods safe for ourselves.

Don’t Stop the Violence. Stop the Bullshit. Clean up your own neighborhoods.