Social Issues In West County

The correlation between gangs and drugs has always been an issue for the United States government. Major cities often overlooked the problem of youth gang violence, thinking it was only a 1960’s trend. Sixty years later, gangs and drugs continue to be a problem, but in an increasing number within urban, suburban and rural areas in the United States. People may characterize this problem with words such as violence, increase drug activity, and delinquencies, but not many seem to see the bigger picture. Lack of interaction, collaboration, and strategies from law enforcement, youth centers, businesses, churches, and political icons are increasing gang violence and drug related offenses in major cities. In such cities as Chicago, minority groups are the most vulnerable to joining a gang, which then leads to an involvement with drugs; they are faced with barriers – lack of family support, poverty, segregation, unemployment, etc. An incident that happened in Chicago history is the closing of the Cabrini-Green Project, where people involved with gangs had to find a new home, scattering gang-members throughout the city, and eventually leading to their spread and growth.

“There are approximately 27,900 gangs, with 774,000 members, impacting towns, cities, and communities across the United States. Gangs conduct criminal activity in all 50 states and U.S. territories. Although most gang activity is concentrated in major urban areas, gangs also are proliferating in rural and suburban areas of the country as gang members flee increasing law enforcement pressure in urban areas or seek more lucrative drug markets. This proliferation in non-urban areas increasingly is accompanied by violence and is threatening society in general (Decker, 1996).” The code of the street is silence and to snitch is death. Everyone within Calliope projects knows this so no one talks, not even to the police. In the distance music from a radio playing “Hand on pump finger on the trigger (Cypress Hill)” can be heard as men laughing and joke about how they just creeped up on some guy and shot him and the look on his face. A 187 has just been committed (police code for homicide) but no one cares in this community

In Chicago, there are geographic disparities that affect communities as a whole due to political- economic distortions and underrepresented communities that lack resources. The neighborhood I reside in, Pilsen, is one community in Chicago that is currently being affected by violence and gang rivalry. Pilsen is located in the Lower West Side area and is known as one of the primary Mexican American neighborhoods in Chicago. One current main social problem that Pilsen encounters in the neighborhood is violence in the community that result in high school drop out and death rates. As well as issues in poverty and limited resources. The violence occurring in Pilsen has brought community members to advocate for change within the area. As a member of the community I have seen violence as a social problem that is being committed by the own community members who are residing in the area.

The neighborhood of Flatlands, on central Brooklyn, is a densely populated community, which contain an estimated about 206,963 people. As suggested by the following data, this community is one of the most racially and ethnically diverse in the Brooklyn county; for which 59.6% are Black, 29.2% are White, 2.6 %are Asian, 7.1% are Latino, and 1.5% belong to other racial identity (possibly the recent influx of Orthodox Jews). Due to so richly diverse composition, and the fact that, 39.0% of the local residents are foreign born, 21.9 % of the households in the area speak another language than English at home. The housing in the area is mostly composed by homeowners and co- owners whom represents 60.6 %, while the other 39.4% represent Renters and people that do not pay rent but are not owners. Flatlands is a middle-class community, were the median household income ranges around $61,786 and $62,862. Also, 63.7% of the adults are part of the labor force and only 6.0% of the families live below the federal level of poverty. Concerning the levels of education attainment, 37.9% of the adults have a high school diploma, and 22.3% has a college degree. If we take into account the higher and superior education and compare it to the rest of Brooklyn (high school: 26.91% and College:19.36%), we can say that Flatlands has the highest level of education attainment in the borough.

One of the biggest problems we have is crime, poverty, and race. Crime never seems to go away, and it tends to affect certain areas more than others. When a community is plagued with crime then everyone starts to look at the community that it is affecting, the housing in the area and the race that is mostly affected or committing the crimes. This can create a domino effect, because the citizens are scared, victimized, and they begins to worry more about how they will be able to protect there family and if anyone cares what is happening in their community. Therefore, within this report we will examine statistical data from different areas and see if there is a trend with a particular group, race, or city and compare the data so that we can gain a better understanding of the collection of this data and make suggestions if at all possible on way to improve the data once it has been reviewed.

Gun Hill Road/White Plains has had a rough past for a long time, but over time it has actually been improving a lot. Not too long ago there was a shooting that involved gang members fighting over turf, but NYTimes reports that “It is not a single clash between groups, confined and contained, so much as an accumulation of robberies, deadly family squabbles and turf battles between local

The last time I went to visit family in 2015, grandmother pointed out every shooting to her memory in the past year, “the house next to this one had a couple fighting and the woman got shot,” “The arcade became a bar and has had two shootings this year,” “Right there, we saw a carjacking by gunpoint.” She seemed unphased by the amount of violence near their home. She and my grandfather, Nonno, had become jaded from the long-lasting violence near them. All I could think while being in Kankakee was, “get away.” Ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks rushed past the house every few minutes, meaning something terrible must have happened too often.

It’s around midnight on Saturday. I’m with my friend Jalen at a house party in the west side of Denver. Everyone’s having a good time, when all of a sudden gunshots ring out. Instantaneously, both of us run in the opposite direction of the gunshots we heard; it’s obvious we’re not exactly rookies to this kind of situation. The city and county of Denver has always had problems when it comes to gang violence, but only recently has this violence escalated to the immense issue it is today. I only just recently moved to Denver, and I can already tell that gangs are a major problem here-- that should raise a red flag the size of Vatican City. As an educated African American who has grown up in less-than nurturing environments, I have had much contact with gang members and witnessed gang activity. I extremely urge the policy makers, law enforcement, and gang members--gang violence is an increasingly deadly issue in Denver that affects the lives of many different groups of people, and it needs to change.

My first perception of Homewood made me a little nervous about the idea of going into a neighborhood with such a high crime rate, especially being a kid from a suburban area with mostly white middle class families. Going into a neighborhood that was 95.6 percent black was definitely out of my comfort zone (U.S. Census 2010). My perception of Homewood quickly changed however, once I started to talk to people there. To my surprise, many were well-educated and very welcoming, and ambitious people, striving to make the community better. Many of them noted the issues in the neighborhood, and stated that they had a lot of work to do but they made me leave Homewood West with hope.

The neighborhood that I decided to discuss is the South Bronx. I was born and raised in different parts of the South Bronx. I choice this neighborhood because it is such a rich melting pot of Hispanic and African Americans. The South Bronx has suffered from high poverty, unemployment, and violence throughout history. Through the dark pass, the South Bronx has slowly transport itself. South Bronx, has plan many community programs to help high-risk children. Local gardens around the neighborhood help the community with fresh fruits and vegetables. Police officers make more rounds around the neighborhood to provide safely. However, into eh South Bronx to this suffer still suffers from poverty and violence related to gang.

The community where the fieldwork was performed is Allen County, located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Allen County is located in the Northeast corner of Indiana and is the second largest city in the state with an area size of 110.6 square miles in which Fort Wayne has a population size of 258,522. Fort Wayne is known for the three rivers that run through the city, which are the St. Joseph and St. Mary’s river that converge into the Maumee River. Additionally, Allen County has the largest Burmese population in the U.S. making this an ethnically diverse community. In addition, there are many different religions ranging from Seven Day Adventist to Muslim to Catholics to Baptists as well as Lutherans to name a few. A few of the Lutheran and

familial, cultural and community ties, gangs are often formulated upon strong common interests. In fact, many gangs have a unity strong enough to expand beyond any physical frontier, representing an issue not just for cities like Los Angeles but also for states like California. For the purpose of my research, I will narrow in on the city of Los Angeles which houses more than 400 gangs and about 39,000 gang members (Villaraigosa 2017). That being said, the City of Los Angeles lies at the center of gang violence and health discourses simultaneously. Inclusive, more than 1,500 people were victims of gang violence in 2016 alone (Villaraigosa 2017). Preoccupying indeed, the Urban center is facing an issue that must be addressed sooner than later.

In 1974, Detroit was given the nickname of “Murder City” after more than 700 homicides were committed. Since this is such a sensitive subject for Detroit citizens, one of the biggest issues with

The crimes in Milwaukee are becoming a big thing for everyone and it’s putting Milwaukee higher and higher in the ranks of the most dangerous cities of America... The occasional crime has occurred in Milwaukee and in every city around the world but lately the crime in Milwaukee has been getting out of control and it’s beginning to become a very unsafe place for everyone. The probability of being a victim in a violent crime is 1 in 16. That’s not good and we can definitely improve this and make Milwaukee once again a better place. The most problematic areas in Milwaukee are the North and East sides. These issues are affecting everyone living in these areas, not only mentally as they’re so afraid that something will happen to them but also physically as so many innocent residents have been shot and killed or were put in very critical conditions from gunshot wounds. This is primarily due to stray bullets hitting them or being in the wrong place at the wrong time when a dispute is

I live in “The City of Trees and PhDs.” My hometown is Claremont, California – located about 32 miles east of the heart of Los Angeles. Incorporated in 1907, the town is most famous for its consortium of highly ranked colleges, historic landmarks, and tree-filled streets. According to city-data.com, Claremont has a population of 35,824 as of 2013, with a slightly higher percentage of females than males. The median age is 40.3 years old, which is higher than California’s median age of 35.7 years old. Of this population, 54.3% are white alone; 22.0% are Hispanic; 16.1% are Asian alone; 4.3% are black alone; 2.5% are two or more races; 0.3% are American Indian alone; 0.1% are other race alone; and 0.08% are Native Hawaiian or other pacific islander alone. In other words, Claremont is a predominately white town. For the population 25 years and over, 94.1% have at least a high school degree and 58.0% have at least a Bachelor’s degree or higher. As of 2013, Claremont’s estimated median household income was $85,169, which was significantly higher than California’s median of $60,190. Reflecting this high household income, Claremont’s median house value was $533,600, as compared to California’s lower median house value of $373,100. Finally, measured by count of murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, thefts, auto thefts, and arson, city-data.com estimated Claremont’s crime index to be 168.1 as compared to the U.S. average of 294.7. The higher the index, the higher the crime