Gang, The

they raped her murdered her and threw her in a ditch that was their answer to a world that had denied [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] I was taking roll this one morning and uh the door opens and standing there are three boys that I had never seen before and one of them calls out to me and says um hey uh are you the teacher and uh I say yes I am and he says um Mr I'm going to kill [Music] you the gun it's absurd maybe the house has a gun inside so any kid can pick one up as easily as opening a book easier actually and sooner violence seems much more exciting than [Music] education [Music] as I think back some of the best times in my life is when me and my brothers would go and pick up my father take him out just show him a good time while we could anyway it happened that night Happened One Night he was at a store pull up to a store to get a little drink long comes this game these chumps come up one of them pulls out a shotgun and puts it to my father's head right here and pulls the trigger point blank my first duty is protection of the community but what about the ones that our supposed to be backing me up the courts the schools the probation department the youth camps they don't seem to be rehabilitating anyone so the kids remain criminals and they get better at it each year criminals that's what they are criminals 12 13 year old law Breakers but when they're brought before me in my court and I look down at their faces faces just like my grandson I think my God what a shame what a a damn shame what they're doing but they don't realize that they themselves are as much the victims of their violence as we [Applause] [Applause] are at the probation department a girl once said to me that she lamented turning 18 because she hadn't killed anyone you couldn't now without risking punishment as an adult the whites simply don't have gangs it's it's always called clubs or or organizations but but it's all the same gangs I'm a principal and my assignment was the worst grammar school in the district a school that was always being vandalized I decided to meet the problem with an action program and I knew it had to begin with the principle because the principal sets the tone of the scho [Music] getting arrested it's always funny because because a court somehow thinks that they're doing something bad to you by getting you arrested it was no big thing for [Applause] us I don't want play a game it's Instant Power it's it's instant status it's instant success it's it's instant friends and instant enemies [Applause] too what I do want is out get some bread and get away from the gang especially those those little dudes man they the stone cold Dude Killing I've been to so many funerals tired tired this [Applause] [Applause] came mail last week an invitation to a conference on crime in the schools I told them they should have a couple of gang members there and they went for it but now they saying they want me to go to a meeting and talk or whatever it is ain't no really no real reason except they want to see a a real life game member okay I'll be there and I'll even dress up for the occasion these people are probably going to expect me to come in and bow and say a aome very pre pleas still meet you the only thing is is they are not going to get a polite smiling Buddha head in 24 hours I'll be stepping out of this comfortable superintendent's office into a room filled with destruction and 10 frighten bitter angry people I know what will happen when such diverse people are brought together all the tensions and pressures of our society will come to boil even the setting of the conference will add to the conflict but conflict if Channel correctly can be a vital force that leads to change and we need drastic changes [Music] now vandalism up 35% homicide up 73% burglaries up 86% robberies up 36% forceable rape up 61% assault on students up 167% assault on teachers up 7,100 now these figures are the increases between 1964 and 1968 for crimes in our schools and between 1968 and today the crime of violence has gotten even worse oh that's an ugly picture ugly like this room well it certainly isn't your normal conference Hall but it is effective I can remember talking to a gang worker I asked him why we administrators were so ineffective how could we reach the people he said it was all a matter of approach and I hope this room will be the beginning so again we sit and talk but this time with people from every area of Youth crime including youth it's the only way to deal with violence in our schools well if everybody's here I've got to ask my question who's a businessman here a factory owner anything well then the right people aren't in the right room and that's a shame a shame for the kids you think businessmen can solve the problem they can do something I work in the bario and I try to help children to to find jobs how do I have time to come to conferences when 50 kids come to me each day 50 kids all begging for work and maybe two or three to give out what do you tell them do you send them back out on the streets for more trouble well I'm sorry we don't have a businessman for you and they say they don't have any money well by the time they fix the trouble it's going to cost them more money you know the people really don't want the good of the world it's just not exciting enough well I do think the problem's a little more complex than that well what would you say it is how much can you say that hasn't been said before okay for one thing the schools are to a large extent responsible for their own situation the problem lies in the extreme of no Discipline Do you know what these kids should be today brighter than ever why isn't this happening because the schools have made themselves the enemy of the kids just take a look down this block you see a whole row of untouched buildings and this one right in the center the only one vandalized a school it isn't fair to blame the schools are the schools your enemy key man it's not your school you don't have a say in what it does the school man I mean like doesn't just ignore you n goes a lot further than that I me it tells you you're going to fail what about you Carson man there just isn't anything there for me even if I was to go to school try to do something hey man that's going to take a lot of bread that's the thing I ain't got just like any place else the schools don't serve the folks the knights and the ladies get all the benefits so you join a gang join a gang for acceptance you join a gang in order to survive man but do they have to behave like animals killing each other devouring each other is that what the children really want we don't have children anymore what we do have as criminals hooders rapists and murderers and that's why you can't blame the schools I I'm not picking on any one of you but we teachers get so tired of hearing it's the school's fault it's the teacher's fault all the time the violence comes to us it's there before we even open the door you look look at how much time a child spends in school and how much time he's at home look at the two it begins in the school but where do the children spend their first years who gives them the way to see things it's the family all children pay more attention to their friends anybody but their parents ever have your child really listen to you [ __ ] see it like I see it the women teachers hugging their purses in their laps trying to teach like that cuz cuz they know their purses will get taken if they leave them up here on the desk how can you teach like that with one hand holding the lesson book and the other hand holding the door closed trying to keep the violence out violence hate doesn't anybody ever use the word love love you can't use love to get through to kid you wouldn't dare give a pair of scissors to that's because they've missed all the joys of growing up you can't teach them they should be removed from the schools for the good of the system now where does that leave us do we just sit here and keep score yes sit back say don't bother me everybody take the easy way out well it does seem that our society is either saying do your own thing or we set limits to the point of repression no middle ground no that's just the point irresponsibility well understand Do Your Own Thing has been Twisted it's been translated into to anything goes well anything can't go or everything will go everything has gone no one fears the law it's time we start doing our job let everyone know if they commit a crime they're going to be punished agreed agreed but the danger is that we use punishment in the same way we've used permissiveness now I'm a bit confused just what exactly are you saying what's our job that's what's important it's Rehabilitation now punishment is a very important tool but only one tool I'd much rather send a man to jail for four or five days rather than 30 because in that time he can come to find out that jail isn't so bad just like slavery put a man in chain after a while he gets used to it he wants to live that way cuz he don't know no better way but you don't keep that man blinded all his life and when he sees what he doesn't have he begins to think very deep about why he doesn't have it like the rich people they want a gym a swimming pool or even a new school it seem like it just Springs up over the night where as people like me we don't get nothing that's just not true I don't believe it you're what's your name car what did you say Carson well Carson I've been to City Hall I've yelled and I've screamed and I said why isn't it safe for me to walk down my street they don't have any answer for me I don't know what you're complaining about Carson the department has set up Sports programs we give up our weekends for football basketball time we could be spending at home with our wives and kids homes homes homes yeah where huh in the suburb where it's safe it's not safe in the suburbs baby if one of the things just one of the things happened in the rich communities that happen every day in the bar you'd bet they'd have meetings and solve it fast nothing gets solved fast if we could just get some money for it would help AA that's an easy argument I'm not saying you're wrong but it will always be a problem of too little money or not enough time but are we doing everything we can with what we have no we're not even doing our job now well here's a whole room full of experts what have we accomplished so far nothing if only we would fight as hard to change society as the children fight each other I think we are fighting hard Vivian your programs do offer some solutions at my elementary school we try to involve our neighborhood the teachers and myself walk the community knocking on the parents' doors inviting them to participate in our many programs yeah well that's a fine and dandy thing if you have a father who cares about that kind of stuff but we've got to start somewhere right on before they get lost in this jungle now I work with the gangs in the streets in the streets where the kids search to find their dignity after a sick and aggressive Society has turned them away but there still must be a way to deal with the hardened criminal we should say look you want to know how long you're going to be locked up that's up to you and set some goals you say look bud before you get out of here you got to learn to read or whatever sure sure what so you can lock me up studying the the philosophy of the world or some other bull till I'm 50 no no no before I set any goals for you I have to make sure they're right you see what I'm telling you is I've got confidence in you what look look I know I make it easy it's easy to say but why is it so difficult because it is concern invested with love and uh that isn't always easy to give that's very beautiful but you said yourself these criminals don't know love out there no man everyone loves you go through life and you go through death man every day out there on the street and your brothers and your sisters are right there beside you they live and they die for you man and you do the same cuz there's something that's always their officer and nobody not one of you is ever going to feel it life and death what do you mean I'll never feel it something's very wrong when the gangs use 12 year olds for Hit Men because they know they're not going to be punished for murder what do you want skip Revenge I don't want them drop back in my lap where they can terrorize me again yes and I I want him out of the schools some place where he can be helped because I cannot help him and I can't stop him criminals pass through the probation department like a revolving door that's an unjust statement well there's some laziness or something going on down there there's no way to be lazy when each probation officer has at least a 100 cases to handle we're all overworked miss an right right we're all overworked if that's not getting us anywhere look the problem is much too big to blame us when everything else is failing the courts the schools how much are people really trying to solve these problems a teacher cannot be a a probation officer a judge a policeman a big brother and a teacher as well that's because the schools are going too easy on the troublemakers come some pig man you think I like being called a pig well you think I like being caught a [ __ ] wait a minute hold on I hate you you say you know where we coming from but you ain't know damn thing about it no more than a little man with a mustach or anybody else in here I hate you man I hate you you hate me man that's the worst part about it you can keep on ripping off each other and keep on tearing up each other's neighborhoods and hating each other oh man you can buckle down and see what's really going on once you explode you tear up everything including yourself and more than likely you'll be the first to go what are you talking about you're a time man it seems like this drum has produce some ugly situations you brought me in here and you blame me you don't know me you don't know what I'm thinking man you say hey this is your fault man this is not my fault this is your fault man the people in this look at me look at [Music] me the people in this room men are a lot uglier than the room no one listens and no one cares and I want to get the hell out of here that's your choice before you go please remember why we came here violence that's what brought us here that's what we have to get rid of the theal are fighting the Latinos the blacks are fighting the blacks the Asians fight the Asians the whites fight the whites and everybody is fighting each other and here we are with our own little f for