All Articles Tagged "youth violence"
Study: Fear of Partners Put Black Teens at Risk for HIV
(BET) — Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania recently released findings from their new study about violence, African-American and HIV transmission risk. Of the 64 African-American girls ages 14–17, 46 percent of them told the researchers they hadn’t used condoms during sex with their partners, mostly because their boyfriend threatened them physically/and or sexually or actually abused them in some way. This kind of abuse is called “condom coercion” and usually includes physical or sexual abuse, emotional manipulation and men taking off condoms during sex.
Feud Killed Basketball Star
(Wall Street Journal) — A New York City high-school basketball star died after being ensnared in a longstanding feud between groups of young men from neighboring Harlem housing projects, her family and police said Monday. Tayshana Murphy, 18 years old, was found dead from a gunshot wound Sunday morning in the fourth-floor stairwell of her West Harlem housing project after trying to flee a violent confrontation on the street, said a law-enforcement official. Detectives were questioning several men on Monday, but it wasn’t immediately clear if they were suspects or witnesses, the law-enforcement official said. No arrests had been made. Neighbors and Ms. Murphy’s family said there has recently been violence between young men from the Manhattanville projects and those who live in Ms. Murphy’s complex, the Grant Houses.
Chicago's New Curfew Law
(Chicago Tribune) — Edward Da’Quan Smith dangled upside down, his lower legs wrapped around the metal rungs of the monkey bars at Kenwood Community Park. On a recent Tuesday night, the South Side park was abandoned except for the boy’s family — a rambunctious trio of children racing around the playground under the watchful eye of Da’Quan’s mother. ”When it’s dark, people can hide in the shadows,” said Da’Quan, somersaulting to the ground and landing firmly on his feet. “In every little corner, there is a piece of the dark where they can hide.” Even at 10 years old, the fourth-grader grasps the dangers facing children on Chicago’s streets. “It’s in the nighttime that violence breaks out,” said Da’Quan, with a glance toward his mother, who smiled in approval.
Cops Get Ready to Take on ‘Flash Mobs’
(Washington Examiner) — Washington-area police said they are preparing to combat the “flash mob” phenomenon, a new tactic being used by criminals and violent youths around the country and in the region. Flash mobs are groups that form quickly, often coordinated using social media such as Twitter and Facebook. The earliest flash mobs engaged in more innocent pursuits such as dancing or throwing snowballs, but some groups are now gathering to attack innocent bystanders, fight among themselves or commit other crimes. About 30 young people suddenly showed up at a 7-Eleven in Germantown at 2 a.m. Saturday and began grabbing merchandise off the shelves. People swiped drinks, candy and ice cream, and then left almost as quickly as they appeared — without paying.
Emotions Still Raw in Tillman Beating
(Atlanta Journal Constitution) — Bobby Tillman and his accused attackers didn’t know each other. They attended different high schools. They ran with different crowds. But when their lives intersected last Nov. 6, it resulted in a tragedy that, nine months later, still has many in Douglas County shaking their heads. Tillman was beaten to death in front of a Douglasville house where two teenage girls were throwing a party to celebrate good grades. Earlier this month, on what would have been Tillman’s 19th birthday, the Douglas County district attorney David McDade filed court papers indicating he plans to seek the death penalty against two =of four young men accused in the attack. For some, the callousness of the killing has changed their opinion on the death penalty. Others have concerned themselves less with the punishment the accused might receive and more with trying to prevent such tragedies from happening in the future.
Youth Program Brings Fears of London-Like Mobs to Chinatown
(Washington Examiner) — The District is organizing a “youth engagement” program Friday night for the teens who gather in Chinatown every weekend, but some business owners fear the event will draw more youths to the area and unleash destructive forces similar to the mobs that have been rioting in London. ”We’ve been assured that the police department will deal with it,” said Proof owner Mark Kuller, who has decided to close the restaurant’s patio Friday night — one-third of his summer seating — rather than submit his customers to the sound and crowds he expects to come.
Cities Crack Down on Mobs of Black Teens
(Christian Science Monitor) — State police are roaming the Wisconsin State Fair in Milwaukee, looking for teenage troublemakers. Philadelphia is stepping up enforcement of a curfew for teens in the Center Citybusiness district. Chicago police have beefed up patrols along the city’s “Miracle Mile” district in response to recent teenage “flash robs,” some which police say were orchestrated via social media. What connects the three city crackdowns are teen-perpetrated crimes that are part opportunistic, part thrill-seeking, and, some residents fear, part racially motivated: dozens of black teenagers collectively targeting, and attacking, white people they don’t even know. Resentment fueled by dogged segregation, poor unemployment opportunities for young black men, and historic inequalities may all be playing into an atmosphere of racial discontent, sociologists say.
London Riots Spill Beyond City’s Borders
(New York Times) — Prime Minister David Cameron pledged on Tuesday to flood the streets of London with 10,000 extra police officers and said Parliament would be recalled in emergency session after rioting and looting spread across and beyond London for a third night in what the police called the worst unrest in memory. Mr. Cameron spoke after cutting short a vacation in Tuscany to return home as violence convulsed at least eight new districts in the metropolitan area and broke out for the first time in Britain’s second-largest city, Birmingham, and elsewhere. Coming after a cascade of crises, the measures announced by Mr. Cameron seemed to represent a bid to restore some appearance official authority after nights of chaos and near-anarchy with rioters taunting or out-maneuvring the police, raiding stores and torching buildings in the face of little evident restraint. The violence has left many Londoners stunned at the spectacle of hooded and masked marauders rampaging with seeming impunity despite hundreds of arrests that have filled police cells to overflowing. In a cautious response on the streets, some citizens took to cleaning up the debris on Tuesday, cheering police patrol vehicles passing by.
Southeast D.C. Corner Brings Tragedy to Grandmothers
(Washington Post) — The two Southeast Washington women met in the 1970s as activists in their Anacostia neighborhoods. Their friendship grew as they pushed for better schools, programs for teenagers and more jobs. Together, they went into crack houses, coaxing addicts to return home to their families. One woman, former D.C. Council member Sandy Allen, 67, turned to politics to help her community. The other, the Rev. Joyce Scott, 58, turned to faith. Early on Jan. 2, tragedy brought them even closer. Scott’s grandson, Brian C. Scott, 21, was gunned down at 13th Place and Congress Street SE, becoming the city’s first homicide victim of 2011.
Teen Guilty in Beating Death of Derrion Albert
(Chicago Tribune) — Moments after hearing the verdict pronouncing him guilty in a murder that shocked the nation, the 15-year-old boy slumped in his seat, slamming the back of the chair against a wall. His aunt let out a high-pitched wail as she hurried from the courtroom. ”O Lord, Lord, Lord, no, no,” she cried before collapsing in the hallway. The boy was the first to be convicted for the brutal beating death of Derrion Albert, 16, a Fenger High School honors student whose murder in September 2009 was captured on a videotape that went viral and came to symbolize youth violence in Chicago.
