The violence that hurts us all

p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-1c727c87-a004-42a7-2ed3-e3db0668c200"span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"ldquo;Itrsquo;s okay, Puddin, itrsquo;s okay, wersquo;re good.rdquo; I was more focused on calming my 10 year old daughter down than tending to my knee I hurt while hitting the floor as ldquo;Hood Terroristsrdquo; riddled our block (Eddy and Laguna Sts.) with bullets that missed my neighborrsquo;s head by an inch. A young man in his early 20rsquo;s was wounded in that shooting. On the scene of the evening shooting, a few of the Plaza East families had to patiently wait in the cold until the crime scene investigators were done with collecting the evidence and families were allowed to return to their homes. /span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-1c727c87-a004-42a7-2ed3-e3db0668c200"span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"I went to the hospital with the rest of the community to check on the person who was shot. When I came home, they still had the neighborhood blocked off, and I couldnrsquo;t get into my house./span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"emImage: Scharod Fleming was a great dancer and beloved son who was killed in 2004 at the age of 15 at a dance party. Scharod#39;s Law, which allows promoters to be liable for violence at their events, is named for him./em/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-1c727c87-a004-42a7-2ed3-e3db0668c200"span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"I elected to follow my feline counterpart Tifah and take to the backyard. We both climbed the fence, resembling 2 members of Mama Naturersquo;s thick curvy club, a thick cat and a thick lady. (Outch!)/span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-1c727c87-a004-42a7-2ed3-e3db0668c200"span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"Earlier that Sunday, another man was killed while exiting the McDonaldrsquo;s drive-thru area across from the Northern Police station in the Fill-no-moe. ldquo;Shootings that happened directly across the street from Northern police station is normal these days.rdquo; Says an onlooker who did not want to be named due to lack of trust of the media. This is PNN, not CNN I reminded the humble resident who then let down all guards./span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-1c727c87-a004-42a7-2ed3-e3db0668c200"span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"Traumatized children stayed home from school the next day because of anxiety that led to a sleepless night. Windows on the right side of the 1200 block of Eddy street were shot out and a few are still awaiting repair. As of yet there has been no word of any suspects in both Sunday cases./span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-1c727c87-a004-42a7-2ed3-e3db0668c200"span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"Richmond has had its share serving as another killing field for our young men. 14- year old Xavier McLanahan, 15 year-old Malik Barnes and 21-year old Joshmahl Russell are the latest victims of the violence that continues to rob and devour our children in the Bay Area. These kind of child murders would be declared a state of emergency if the youngsters had the ldquo;complexion protectionrdquo;/span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-1c727c87-a004-42a7-2ed3-e3db0668c200"span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"In my opinion, this is like a horror movie where our children are being slaughtered by the porsquo;lice and this ldquo;unseen monsterrdquo; or ldquo;community terroristsrdquo;, like some weird version of ldquo;A nightmare on elm streetrdquo; except the nightmare is on my street and not on a picture screen. Its soul-boggling that no one in either category rarely is brought to justice. Itrsquo;s frustrating and disrespectful to us, all of us who lost loved ones (my brother Marcus) and because of this racist, porsquo;lice state will pretty much never have any closure other than waiting for a year for an autopsy report and a xeroxed copy of a ldquo;Thank Yourdquo; letter from survivors that have benefitted from ldquo;donated for profitrdquo; organs from the deceased./span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-1c727c87-a004-42a7-2ed3-e3db0668c200"span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"While watching mainstream media, I couldnrsquo;t help but notice that almost every Black, Brown and other children of color murdered in our communities are immediately labeled a gangsta so therefore therersquo;s this reserved attitude of ldquo;one less.rdquo; If a murder victim unfortunately had run-ins with the ldquo;lawless with badgesrdquo;, there really is a vibe of ldquo;good riddancerdquo;, and that makes a cop that much more comfortable with laughing at half-assed jokes as a poor Mama wail over their love onersquo;s body. I know, (judgemental ones) itrsquo;s not the porsquo;licersquo;s job to feel our torment, but I would rather see a blank faced cop than a laughing one. I donrsquo;t think itrsquo;s decent to be laughing a few feet away while someone is catching hell right in front of you, itrsquo;s a human thing, you know?/span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-1c727c87-a004-42a7-2ed3-e3db0668c200"span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"Changing the conversation to the side of the coin thatrsquo;s hardly voiced, a lot of our children are killed because they ARE NOT in a gang and REFUSE to engage in any wrongdoing, often being called ldquo;goody-two shoesrdquo; or ldquo;square.rdquo;/span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-1c727c87-a004-42a7-2ed3-e3db0668c200"span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"Like in the case of Joquan, a young black man who was on his way to the store after receiving news that he was going to be a father, was approached by 2-3 gunmen who ldquo;emptied outrdquo; their guns, shooting him dead after he refused to partake in a crime. (His mother subsequently died from a broken heart over her loss)/span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-1c727c87-a004-42a7-2ed3-e3db0668c200"span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"The youngsters who resisted the temptations to fuel the ldquo;Those people in low-income housingrdquo; stereotype are then targeted because of their choice to do the right thing. There is a need to support the children who are bullied, and ldquo;Not scold us and make us feel bad for doing the right thing or treat us like criminals, like officer ldquo;Jezzyrdquo; did!rdquo; Said one teen who feels like ldquo;Black teen life mattersrdquo; also in the Western Addition area./span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-1c727c87-a004-42a7-2ed3-e3db0668c200"span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"There have been some shine on the news lately praising the success of laws that were created in the name of child victims. Legislation like Meganrsquo;s law, Jessicarsquo;s law and the Amber alert, an alert system that lets us know whether wersquo;re at home or on the highway that a child is lost or has been abducted. These are powerful tools when it comes to the safety of our children, returning them home to their families, and implementing harsher sentences for those who are responsible for committing crimes against our youth./span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-1c727c87-a004-42a7-2ed3-e3db0668c200"span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"The sun will also shine on Scharodrsquo;s law, coined after 15-year old Scharod Fleming, a young, black talented ldquo;dancing machinerdquo; from the Western Addition who was killed outside the YMCA in the Tenderloin leaving a ldquo;Black Saturdayrsquo;srdquo; event by Eugene Cockerham, Jr. a promoter that had of reputation of throwing events that ended in fatalities, who also failed to provide adequate security for the young partygoers after fights had broken out later that evening./span/span/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"nbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-1c727c87-a004-42a7-2ed3-e3db0668c200"span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"Scharodrsquo;s law was introduced to provide stricter regulations to hold promoters (more) accountable for violating licensing rules and the required security staffed at dances, but Scharodrsquo;s Law, along with ldquo;Let the Children Dancerdquo; foundation created by one of his relatives is not taken seriously, not supported and swept under the rug, like many of our childrenrsquo;s lives./span/span/p pnbsp;/p p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"span id="docs-internal-guid-1c727c87-a004-42a7-2ed3-e3db0668c200"span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;"Queennandi X, PNN/span/span/p