Citizen Staff Writer
ReadFAST Online Comments
The story: Although Tucson is one of the major hubs in the country for marijuana distribution, gang violence here could be “much worse” than it is, even though 22 of 74 homicides in 2008 were gang related, a Tucson Police Department gang expert says.
Your take: Some of you blame Mom and Dad, but most member of the Citizen’s online community aren’t thinking too much about the root causes of gang violence; they just want to root out what xflbret calls the “punks who are too scared, usually too small, to take care of themselves.” Some representative comments:
• “Given that people are products of their material conditions, we need to be asking what are the conditions that lead to being a gang member and engaging in bad behaviors?” leftfield
• (The problem is) lack of supervision, especially at a very young age.” KC01
• “Could it be that perhaps instead of it being someone else’s fault (typical liberal thinking) that it could be their own responsibility to be good people?” John7294
• “You don’t cure poverty by giving poor people money. It is people behaving poorly that causes poverty . . . .” DonM
• “We need soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan; if they wanta fight – sign them up and let them fight” speedwayswanguy
Compiled by PAUL SCHWALBACH
pschwalb@tucsoncitizen.com
The big debate:
Tucson’s gangs
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For Tuesday, Feb. 24
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