Blade article from yesterday

"Am I the only one that is offended by how this topic was covered?

I guess so.
I got a completely different take from that reporting.

Incredible article. Low life street thugs running a neighborhood.

Toledo is rapidly becoming unlivable.

I think I found the article on the changes to the Catholic Mass more strange. Is that really news?

funny, I was just reading this http://toledoblade.typepad.com/ridealong/2011/11/overstaying-your-welcome.html earlier today - goes hand-in-hand with this article.

I once had a member of the Klan tell me they were nothing more than a service club. I didn't buy that either.

and this: http://toledoblade.typepad.com/ridealong/2011/11/fernwood-homicides.html

I read the article, but didn't really get the impression that they were glorifying the criminal lifestyles.

Who knows? Maybe I interpreted it wrong. But I thought they were pretty clear on the negative consequences (death, prison time) and also that...no matter what the "group" says...pretty much everyone thinks of them as a gang.

That puzzled me too, Molsonator.

Star56 - Certain parts of the city are definitely much too dangerous to just pass through, let alone live there. I think the police do what they can with the limited resources and manpower that they have available.

A better funded and expanded court and jail system that could handle the case load and increased incarcerations would certainly be a step in the right direction.

However the mood of the taxpayers is "no tax increases and get your own gun for your own defense". Basically, as the criminals learn they can act without repercussions for all but the most violent and serious of offenses, we, the citizens are being left to fend for ourselves. And.. its our own doing if we won't fund more jails, judges and police. As said in another thread, we are going back to the days of the wild west. Only this time around the criminals will definitely have the upper hand. There weren't any AK-47's in the 1880's.

Brainswell and Holland - I read that article the other day and was scratching my head as well. I believe it is a glamorization of the lifestyle - being hard, being tough, getting respect....

I do not want to make this political, take it to a National level or make it a race discussion but the one thing I hoped for with an Obama presidency was that there would be some type of renaissance or rejuvenation that occurred in the inner city where earning [RESPECT] came more and more from trying to educate oneself and make better choices than it did from [being hard].

Until that gangster lifestyle is soundly admonished, disrespected and rebuked entirely I expect little positive change to occur. It doesn't take Billion dollar inner city grants to affect these changes either, in fact those type of solutions have proved to be waisteful and actually hinder change. The change must come from the community itself - it has to be sick and tired of being sick and tired.

I would also make one other comment - If I grew up in a similar situation I can not honestly say that I would make better choices. Again, it has to come from the inner city community.

"We're trying to get up out of here," said Dominique, who raps in "Rest in Peace." "We trying to get rich and get out the hood."

okay, when an ex-con approaches you about making music...the end result will be violence not getting rich and moving away.

If the first goal was to move away, the group should of moved away and found a place to safely make music...then maybe they would have to be rappin about one of their "family" being dead.

and

"We all just a family," Jontae said. "There are a lot of people against us. We stay strong. We stick together."

why would there be ppl against them?

"Justin and Deandre were both founding members of the Lil Heads, a group of about 50 that has dual purposes. First and foremost, members say, they look out for one another."

what is the other purpose? to take care the children left behind after the parent has been murdered?

"They say we're carrying guns and shouting, but it's not like that. We been going through it for so long," Shawn said. "Everyone act like they hate us, so we've got to stay together."

huh, when the reporter asked how many were packing guns, only one responded to "lift a shirt to reveal no gun" one only has to assume that the rest of the bunch was.

Of the four Lil Heads who agreed to be interviewed, three have felony convictions.

Cant carry a gun with a felony or if there are some on probation/parole, they cant associate with other felons

jeez, what a mess. I have known someone that lived on that street their whole life with his grandpa. When he was in his early 20s, his grandpa died and he pickup and moved. Today he is doing great, as far as, job/family/housing/money. After spending some time with him in that neighborhood (back then) I am proud of his foresight to work hard and get a better lifestyle for his and doing it the right way.

The national media has been running the story too...it isn't just the Blade.

Actually, it's one of the lead stories on Yahoo.com's news section right now.

I agree with many of the comments here. I don't feel that these articles were meant to glorify but I can't disagree that some of it comes across that way.

My big takeaway from the "overstaying" article was how incredibly naive this reporter is. A couple of young, suburban looking girls (assuming that the "Amy" of the story is the same age as the reporter's photo implies) heading into an area like that multiple times is asking for a bad outcome. And then she actually sounded surprised when these guys wouldn't talk to them after they did a ride along.

I hope for her sake she makes smarter decisions about where she's going and who she's going with to get a story in the future...

Agreed, idinspired. Especially the part about sounding surprised after the ride along!

Actually, it kind of spooked me a little to realize that I have driven past this neighborhood a few times. I work downtown and have cut across Dorr to get over to UT a few times. (When there was a lot of construction over on Bancroft near the Swayne Field area.)

In the online Blade, they also had links to the videos from these "family" members. I think posting their music videos was unnescssary. Who wants to watch these thugs in a music video?

I actually find those videos interesting. It's a glimpse into a world that I don't (thankfully) know anything about. Most of it is just posturing BS but it's like a train wreck that I can't look away from.

Search Youtube for Toledo gas station and there's more bizarre-ness. If you've ever driven by the gas station by Monroe and Auburn or on Detroit just off of 75 on late weekend nights in warm weather you've seen the surreal gatherings that I don't understand at all.

Terrible to see it making National News - that is exactly what is wrong with the picture. They just got famous, they just got respect (in their minds).

Terrible, terrible shame...

Feed the monster, own the monster.

Just to clarify - it was the Catholic Mass change that I saw in the national news. (Someone else mentioned earlier that they were more surprised that the Blade considered the Mass story to be newsworthy, so I was responding to that.)

Unless someone else saw this Fernwood story get picked up by other sources?

I don't get that it is glamorizing the life to anyone except those that probably already thought it something to emulate.

The cub reporter may be a little naive, her blog says she got a lyric from the Postal Service (the band, not the mailmen) tattooed on her arm: "I want life in every word to the extent that it's absurd." and also a tat that says "Cleveland ---"

This is why I am of the opinion that you should be over 30 before you get a tattoo.

I will gladly pay more taxes if they guarantee me the money will go for the court system, police, etc. But it seems the powers to be use the money as they wish.

What is really sad is my husband grew up near this area in the 49's and 50's. It was a nice neighborhood at one time.

FYI I am NOT willing to get a gun for my protection. The police are empowered to protect its citizens. Let them do their job and as citizens we must see that their ranks increase.

Sad, but there just isn't enough interest in that area to act against these thugs. Let's face it, unless the resistance against this type of behavior is greater than the actual acts, it will continue and probably grow stronger.

Reading the blog post puts a different spin on the story as well, and not in a good way. I really am surprised that she thought these guys would treat her the same when she came back with police.

I guess what irks me the most is that someone at the Blade (whoever approved or reviewed this story, if anyone did) apparently didn't think a story like this benefits the gang itself (notoriety, street cred, etc.) and the resulting effect this has on the community (how we view our own community, what local issues are important). Gangs operate just like businesses, and the Blade gave them free advertising. When local gang violence ends up on TV, any gang information (actual or alleged) is usually scrubbed from the record for such purposes. Linking the YouTube videos and using gang names in this instance amounts to tacit approval of the gang activity, and I think the Blade can do better.

I wouldn't have been surprised if this type of reporting was done by a reporter from out of town, but no one who makes this community better benefits from this type of journalism and it makes a lot of people ashamed about the city they call home.

Are these the beginning of American Extremist Terrorists? If the current welfare system were curbed, restricted or ended, what whould these groups that are so set in their ideals do?

My big takeaway from the "overstaying" article was how incredibly naive this reporter is.

You sure got that right. I don't know what she thought she was doing, but the way she wrote things up these gang members started to sound like upstanding, civic minded libertarians or something. Choir boys, even.

"My big takeaway from the "overstaying" article was how incredibly naive this reporter is." - This is nothing but a well documented cause of White Guilt. Her inner whitness shining through to help the "poor, undeserved black man" to make reparations for her great, great, great, great grand pappy having slaves.

Honey get over it, people who continue to make bad choices (white, black, or fuchsia) will continue to suffer for those choices. Surely there are there are things we could be doing better as a nation/society to help ALL people, but suburban kids trying to get street cred by exposing the light on the ghetto and then going back to your lattes and iPads sure aint gonna do it.

Couple thoughts:

1.) Anyone want to guess the over/under percentage of these guys who come from single-parent/broken homes? I say 97%.

Those that don't have families will seek them out...in any way...and probably not a wholesome way.

2.) The fact these guys can switch on/off good behavior ("choir boy" behavior) indicates they know very well what is socially acceptable to most people and what is not--and they chose to live on the anti-social side. Fuck 'em.