There's No Random Violence in the Hood

Mainstream media is quick to cover extreme or sensational acts of violence but many youth live with similar threats continually.
Young people from the Bay Area's toughest neighborhoods respond to the recent violent rampage across the nation — 53 murders in the past few weeks — of mostly "random" shooting deaths. But when violence is a part of your everyday existence, what exactly does "random violence" mean?

Indifferent to the Violence

In terms of violence, I feel that if it doesn't affect me personally, I don't care about it. When I hear about all these shootings across the nation, I'm indifferent because I don't know those people and they don't know me. I've had friends in the past who were living wrong or grimy, and they got caught up and lost their lives. I don't feel sorry for them because they knew what they were getting into and they were willing to take that risk and got "got."

So, if I don't feel sorry for these people who I did know who lost their lives, why would I care about some people I didn't know who lost theirs?

I think sometimes violence is a random thing, but 50 percent of the time it's planned out. The victims of it are not expecting it to happen to them, basically, they got caught "slippin." It's a dog eat dog world.

- Marina Saenz, 17

World is Going Crazy

I feel like the world is going crazy. For one, there's too many guns out there. It's so easy to get one if you know the right people. I know little kids that are 15 years old, carrying guns around like toys. The other reason I think there's so many killings going on is because times have changed. When I was younger, my big homies didn't smoke with us or sell us weed and give us guns to hold. Now that I'm older, people that are my age are the big homies and – it's crazy – because young homies come to us and ask to buy weed and smoke with us. In 2009, it's crazy because everywhere you go you got to watch what you do because people will try to start stuff over nothing, just by looking at them too long.

I think violence is a big problem because I got shot when I was only 17 and I didn't even know the person. One year later, my little brother get shot in his butt, but is still alive. You can be anybody to get shot. They always say a bullet don't have a name on it. I know a few people that got shot and died, but they weren't even aiming for them – they were just in the wrong spot at the wrong time. Some people, they try prepare themselves for violence by carrying guns around but that don't do no good because they still get killed and if you get caught, you go to jail for life. So, is it really worth it to me? It's not.

I'm really not afraid of street violence or random violence. I just think it's really crazy how the world is right now in the hood and in other places, because you don't have to be into nothing for people to try to start something with you.

-Jaquan Rushing, 19

There's No Such Thing as Random Violence

With all the violence going on I don't what to think about it. I try not to let it affect me, but it does when it hits close to home, which happens all the time. Just recently, I lost my cousin to street violence in the neighborhood.

In terms of all the violence happening nationwide, it's easy to blame the economy, but I'm not going to do that. I'm going to say people make bad choices during hardship. People are losing their jobs, panicking under pressure and just don't know how to act. I can and can't justify that. All I can say is that it's bad that any circumstances arise where another life (or a few lives for that matter) had to be taken in the process of someone's rage.

I don't believe in random acts of violence because I think that if a person commits a crime on a person they don't know, it's simply a problem with them. Homicidal problems are not random. Those who have it in their hearts to kill are not normal. Because at their breaking point, they have no one to turn to. There is a reason for everything – maybe not with victim, but with the violator.

When I wake up, I don't worry so much about these things because I know I can't stop what's going to happen to me – I just have to try to stay out of harms way, but you can never do that because it lurks on every corner. There is no preparation for violence because you never know when it's going to occur. You feel like it's safe maybe when it's not, and to be truthful, it's never safe today in this world because violence strikes at any moments notice and catches you off guard. So just know that all preparation in the world can't prevent a mad person from being mad.

- Amanzi Emenike, 19

This Violence is Nothing New

There is always a lot of violence, but since now it is police that's getting knocked off, the press is trying to make it seem like there's just been lots of violence in the last month. But overall, there is always people getting killed, but they really didn't pay any attention to that before because they were gang members.

I think you can prepare yourself for violence by laying low. If you're out there doing stuff that's hurting people, you better be ready when somebody's trying to come and get at you with a gun. If you not ready, you just another soul lost. I don't have any reason to be afraid of street violence, because I don't live that lifestyle.

- Ricky Rollins, 17

There's No Random Violence in the Hood

I'm not entirely sure why we've had these recent shootings, but I believe that most of these people are suffering from stress – primarily due to the economy. As a society, we tend to notice a problem but don't act until it's too late, meaning that someone may have known of the shooters mental illness before the shootings, but kept quiet.

In general, violence is pretty random because we don't have the ability to tell the future, nor can we see what other people are thinking. It's clear to see that a lot of these shootings were carefully thought out and that these people planned to hurt others – that means they are not fully stable. Depression and confusion can lead to irrational thinking over time and during an economic crisis, acts like this are likely to happen. These shootings are not related but are acts of hurt, anger, self-hatred, and insanity. No one can prepare for violence unless they are the aggressor, but it is society's job to crack down on it and if we notice any strange behavior – we need to report it.

I am more afraid of street violence than any other violence because I live in areas near this kind of thing, and police know about it, but ignore it. Random violence happens more in suburban areas than in projects and dangerous city blocks because people in the hood kill each other for territory and money. Also street violence is so common that it's ignored a lot of times in the media unless it involves authority figures.

The fact of the matter is death is death no matter how it was planned, whom it involves, and where it was.

- Sean Shavers, 19

I'm Cautious on the Street

I don't know why there is so much random violence going on in the last month. Maybe it is because of the recession, because when people don't have a lot of money then people have more stress and that makes them do things that they normally wouldn't do.

When I wake up in the morning, I don't necessarily think about random violence, like I don't wake up thinking that someone might come into my work and start shooting. But when I walk out onto the street, then I definitely get more cautious and watch what I'm doing and my surroundings because you never know when someone going to try and take your life.

- Chris Tamaru, 19

Prepared for Violence

There has been so much violence going on in the past few months, like people just running into a facility with a lot of guns and shooting people.

Growing up when I was young there was so much violence in my area, but my grandmother tried to keep me away from it. I started seeing violence only in my family. My parents were always fighting, siblings would fights, and my cousins would fight with their parents. So violence to me was just another day. But outside, violence like guns and killings were a big deal.

I remember the day I saw a boy get shot. It was a drive by and he got hit just below the belt. I was amazed. I froze up and was just watching the scene. My friend had to pull me and say: "Come on! Let's go!" as we ran. I came to find out that s—t like that happens all the time around here. In fact, it happens so much that I am desensitized to it. When things like that happen, I just think to get away or down not cause I got shot at but because it's a natural reaction.

Thinking of the random acts of violence that been happening, I don't feel scared for my life. The only person I do fear for is my son. I think that people are turning to these things because they feel stressed out or 'pushed in a corner."

The economy is all bad right now, and a lot of people are losing their jobs or cannot obtain one, so they just break and go crazy on a killing spree, which ultimately ends up in them kamikazing themself. I have wondered how it would feel to do something like that. I feel like it would be a rush or a thrill. Of course, I would never do something like that. I have to be a role model for my son. But in a different time zone or in another lifetime, I think I might be a beast and go out like them – taking everyone with me.

- Valerie Klinker, 18

These contributors are interns with YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia and The Beat Within.