Reply to DC May have a high walkability score but on bike trails you will get beaten by gangs of youths

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]That trail is problematic. There are people who are literally being squeezed out of neighborhoods they have lived in for years because of gentrification. There are youth who are at loose ends, who have not been raised correctly for MANY reasons, who are filled with anger, and taking it out on whoever they see. This is a difficult thing, there are no simple answers. Police DO urge folks not to use the trail during certain times, and to ride in groups, etc. They've admitted they can't keep it safe in certain neighborhoods. The neighborhoods where they cannot keep it safe are among the most heavily gentrifying neighborhoods around.

I don't think these small adults should be coddled in any way. Our juvenile justice system is woefully broken and these children go almost unpunished for even very severe crimes, such as this. So I think we need to get tougher here, with meaningful reform programs in the jail, meaningful reforms of jails themselves that turn them from just holding pens (temporary) where criminals get hardened further and places where the ones who can be saved can turn their lives around and get skills and a way out of the only way of life they know.

Additionally, we DO need to work to strengthen these communities. We absolutely have NOT been funding preschool for these kids universally. DC has some free preschool but not all kids get into good programs. Would you want to send YOUR 3 year old to an east of the river school for preschool? Didn't think so. Additionally, welfare to work programs have forced mothers to get jobs while they have young kids, without providing any sort of childcare for them. So these children are minded by older siblings or grandparents at best, left on their own at worse. It's hard for me to be a good parent all the time, and I have lots of resources. Now imagine you have no money to put food on the table and see how much time you devote to "free play" with your chidlren at night to bond with them, etc.

I'm not giving people a total hall pass. Some folks are able to lift themselves out of poverty in remarkable ways. But for others, it is a relentless, vicious cycle. You better believe I feel torn when i hear about things like this. [b]It's pretty darn clear that this 50 year old was targeted for his race.[/b] That is horrible. At the same time, we let vengeance carry the day, and it carries over to how we feel about the kids growing up. These kids get a chip on their shoulder at age 4 and for good reason in many cases. So no, absolutely positive does NOT excuse it, but shouldn't we try to save the next generation from this kind of listless unhappy life? And save ourselves, as greater society, from the effects of it?

Too many people are living in such squalor. It is impossible to imagine good outcomes for most of them, and that is beyond tragic. [/quote]

So it was a hate crime against a white guy? Is that possible (By definition)? Wow I can't believe that would happen I thought we were past this. [b]In NOVA we are very diverse and have come together against hate. [/b]This is terrible and sick, not just bands of youth roaming the trails but they are targeting certain people? [/quote]

Wow, really?  I had no idea that NOVA was such a utopia and that you've convinced all of the gun-toting Republican hicks that diversity is great.  You'd never know that from all of the ignorant racist bullshit they spew on this board all the time.  [/quote]

I think you are confused NOVA is very liberal and different the rest of Virginia. I think you need to get out of DC and experience our wonderful area inside the beltway. In face NOVA is responsible for Virginia moving from red to blue. Perhaps you should educate yourself about the realities of our area. I appreciate the fact that we also have the so called gun totting republican hicks. True diversity includes all asian, hispanic, south asian indian, black and even the white people so your version of diversity is one color?[/quote]

I have been outside of DC.  I've worked outside of the city and have friends all over the region.  I worked at a private school in NOVA and trust me - lots of sheltered, racist attitudes there.  An applicant for a teaching job came in with very neat looking dreadlocks, pulled back off the candidate's face.  He was dressed very professionally in a sharp suit, was well-qualified, articulate, personable and engaging.  he would have made a GREAT teacher for this school. His application was thrown in the trash because he looked like a "thug" (NOVA native collegues' word, not mine).  So don't give me this Kumbaya crap.  I know that NOVA is blue, but's it not some utopia of tolerance and love either. It's a pretty razor-thin margin. . .which is why the Obama campaign asked me to canvass there CONSTANTLY this past election. Get off it already.  [/quote]

So you went to work at a private school probably full of rich white people and consider that the entire sampling of NOVA?

That would be like me taking this bike incident and painting DC as a bunch crazed youths attacking people.

I guess you didn't have the gut to stand up for the guy either, you're just as bad. [/quote]

You have no idea if I stood up for him or not.  And no, unlike OP I am not saying that all of NOVA are hicks.  But neither is it the kumbaya utopia of tolerance, love and zero crime that was painted here either.  Your arguments are pretty lame.[/quote]

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