Gangs- Outside Reading 1

Book: Gangs
Author: Linda M. Schmidt

I'm not going to lie, this is a lengthy book. Last semester I touched on the issues of childhood obesity and how the schools are not helping the epidemic, so this semester I picked a book that deals with another large issue effecting kids as well. Gangs. Whether you live in the city, suburbs or rural America all of you have most likely know people that partake in gangs. From the first 50 pages my book it talks about the issue of children in gangs, how it taking over america. In Chicago we hear of countless drive by shooting that kill. Gangs Kill. Just recently a 6 month old baby's life was taken due to a drive by shooting of a rival gang, they had the wrong person. Schmidt talks about the system of how they enter the gang and how its very family oriented. For example if you dad was in the gang growing up, sold drugs and most likely ended up being locked you would have a 78% better chance of following in his footsteps. Its an old system that fuels on hate. Everywhere law makers and police are trying to implement plans to stop the gang violence but they have yet to come up with a sufficient plan. "Its not seen as breaking the system, it what their friends do, its as normal to most as an extracurricular activity"-gangs. Its a huge issue, people in these gangs don't see what they are doing and how wrong it is. Something must be done, I cant wait to read more on this controversial topic! Thoughts??