Jackson and Farrakhan attend funeral of slain teen

One of the gang members perhaps who thought it would be "cool". Or, it was a security camera that is permanently there.

Parents are the problem. Jobs are a problem. Drugs are a problem, that is, making money selling drugs.

For me, what we did was eliminate a lot of manufacturing jobs while the Baby Boomers embraced the drug culture, particularly cocaine.

And, the CIA allowed some of the cocaine dealers to have immunity to bring their stuff into the US. With or without this, as a teacher in Central Juvenile Hall in LA, I heard how much money these young men and women made in the drug business.

And even if the parents both work, the kids are neglected. Worse, if the neighborhood is a neighborhood of nearly all single mothers, then the boys raised without fathers have some real problems with their masculine identity.

Those problems, and the added lack of supervision by adult males to check young male "exuberance", generate a lot of violence, and when you add in the need to enforce your control of the territory where you sell your drugs, you essentially have the complete breakdown of your society.

Gangs rule there. The graffiti is there to announce it, who they are and why you, outsider, should stay out.

I'm sure that we all agree that there needs to be an end to youth violence.  However, it seems to me that  Jesse Jackson hasn't done much to improve things.Throughout the years he's appeared to be more concerned with photo-ops, fancy clothes, and the blame game, as opposed to helping inner city kids. Quite frankly, I think that Jackson is a fraud, a fake, and a phony, let alone a role model for the African-American community. I have much more respect for Louis Farrakhan in that regard.

I agree about Farrakhan. I oppose his anti-Semitism and race-baiting, but I have to say that, other than that, his program has quite a few good points.

Jackson used to be more pro-active. Remember when he ran for president? I agreed with a lot that he said.

He changed.

Roy: Jackson in my opinion is a race hustler and an opportunist. There's a lot of those out there unfortunately. Al Sharpton is another one. Both of them are "reverend".

Seriously, this is what happens when black fathers dont do their jobs. No way, any of those accused of the beatings had a father worth a dam or they would'nt have been there. That's the problem. It's not the white man's fault. Until black men confront that reality, little will change with our young black men. Period.

It seems there is a double-standard (at least in Buffalo, NY).