For my community, the way I keep my children safe is by first knowing what's going on with my children as much as possible.

Second, I take interest in what's going on in my neighborhood as far as the type of things that I tolerate or not in the community.

There is too much of the attitude that says "well, it's not my business" going on which gives space for weeds (people of a unwanted element) to grow.

I cannot understand the attitude that people have when they see things going on that should not be in their community and they refuse to get law enforcement involved, CRAZY!

See, it's just like how the drug culture grew (like a weed). There was little or no mention of drugs and it was something that some people flaunted until those in higher income areas found themselves in rehab; "They tried to take me back to rehad but I say no,no,no..."

Presidents even said there was no drug problem until the suburban crash or exposure of the ugly side of addiction and then Reagan came on television proclaiming the war against drugs.
Point being, when problems are ignored b/c we figure it's not affecting our house eventually we find that the problem will swell and become our very own.

If I take an interest in gangs and what to do about them in my community then maybe my child won't join one or get gunned down by a gang member for some senseless initiation.

If we're all a product of our evironment, which includes our children, then maybe it is time to start focusing on the things around our children in our community.

If we don't all do this perhaps we will eventually come to a day when more than "home school" we will have "home amusement", "home" this and that b/c we'll find the exterior of our home's walls too hostile to impose our offspring upon.

what we need is a program not for the children but for the parents. Most of these crimes are brewing from inside county jails,no visits,phonecalls and mail should be limited only to leagal matters.
Remenber parents are gang menbers to.

I agree with Debbie about you need to start early with the raising of our children. Back in my day, my parents taught morals and values through literature, stories, idioms, fables, cliches', and old sayings. In schools, teachers continued to build a better you by teaching character education. They also taught how to be at your personal best, by making a difference, and coming up with a creative solution to your problems. I believe when you know better you do better and when you do better you expect better. Parents need to take charge of the rearing of children and train them up right. Let's take it back to the old school way with a little of new school perhaps we can cut down on a lot of the violence. These are lessons that we learned and is what they need in order to take back our neighborhoods in order to survive.