Sounds like something this new "Save Our Sons" initiative needs to be on, yesterday. We've got to have the will to do something about this horror in our house.

I agree. It does seem hard for the police and the community to prevent this type of crime. I can't say what would help. I just don't know.

Is retaliation the way to go? Why were they not comfortable letting the police handle the situation?

Why were they not comfortable letting the police handle the situation?

Yes, that's the pivotal question.

I can't imagine being comfortable handling something like this any way BUT involving law enforcement.

Why is my response so different from that of this young man seeking immediate retaliation?

Was he just impatient, or was his presumption that justice wouldn't be served any other way???

I do understand the mistrust of the justice system. He who has money wins. I do understand the mistrust of police. We all probably have a fear of getting arrested for something we didn't do, then we need money to prove our innocence.

As best I can, I understand the culture of macho and the need for revenge. I also understand we don't have to react to these feelings.

In this instance, the young man who went for revenge could have prevented two deaths by waiting for the police to handle the shooting on Dallas Street. There would then have been no shooting on Badgett Drive. He wouldn't have died from gunshot wounds on Natchez Street. Although, the shooting on Dallas Street could have been aimed at him instead of his mother and he was destined to be shot.

The police say they have the shooter of the Fulton High football player. What about the person(s) that shot Lisa Perry?

This is Domestic Terrorism. Gang retaliation. They don't reach out to authorities. Black on black and gangs cause more deaths than police authority. It takes police authority and cooperation from 5he community to battle this. This young man didn't deserve this fate.

I work with a man whose daughter is friends with the deceased. He was a 1-A talent. This man informs me that gangs are returning to Knoxville. While our police are busy hassling innocent and honest people to meet their traffic ticket quotas and staging shootouts over shoplifting in West Knoxville, they have allowed gangs, not just gangs but the East West boys (whoever the hell they are) to establish what appears to be a strong foothold in our community. Among other things, it will be an expensive, time consuming and likely bloody battle to get rid of them. Our community police system's misplaced priorities of the recent past is coming home to haunt us.

So much for that ounce of prevention. Prepare for the pound of cure.

Where was the press conference when a 13-year-old innocent kid got shot near Austin-East a few years back in a gang shooting in which the shooters literally stopped their vehicles in the middle of MLK and casually began shooting? Or a few weeks before that one, when some tweener girls were hanging out and their house came under literal attack - more than 30 shots fired. Luckily, they escaped without actually being shot, though a bullet went through the nightgown of one. Gangs aren't new here. Please. I've been writing about gang violence since 1994 and it was well underway then. There is a gang related shooting in Knoxville at least once a week. Mostly, they're bad shots so no one gets hit or, if they do, no one dies. These shootings don't get any serious investigation. Major crimes doesn't even keep a tally of the shootings to see who is pissed at who and who the next target might be. If no one is hit, major crimes might not even be called. And let's define gangs here. These are boys (and, yes, there are girls but not as many) with guns. These shootings aren't over territory or drugs or gang retribution. That's Hollywood bullshit. You winked at my girl. You dissed my boy. You tweeted something mean at me. (Yes, we had a "gang" murder over twitter talk). We have a gang enhancement statute that is being very broadly applied in our court system right now and we are locking away 18-25 year old black youth left and right for decades using it. And, yet, more bullets. What we love here in Knoxville is a good innocent slain story to get us all fired up about this sudden appearance of gangs. In 1996, it was Brittany Daniels, age 5. We were going to get tough by gosh. We created a gang task force. KPD actually admitted the existence of gangs. Community meetings were held. We got really tough on graffiti cause, you know, the kids with spray cans were marking territory (not). And then, nothing. Gang task force went away (though KPD kept the money). In 2000, we had an honest to goodness gang in the traditional sense in the Vice Lords headed up by parolees who joined up in prison. These guys actually operated as a gang, selling dope, defending territory, executing the wayward and the competition. Who took them down? The feds, using plain old drug conspiracy charges. It's not hard to take down an actual gang. But what we have and what we have for decades now had are children living in poverty among violence with no dads and, more and more, no moms. The Vice Lords (all men) sired 105 children among roughly 30 or so women. Drug dealers recruit these parentless children to sling dope. Money is the lure. And if you sling dope, well, you better go armed and you better not rat. Police are always the enemy because you are pretty much always holding - a gun, dope, a warrant or a juvie petition. And because these children are constantly in danger and therefore constantly in fear, they band together, forming gangs, not to sell dope together or to mark territory but for sheer companionship and protection. Your gang boy always has your back. Membership comes with a price, of course. We have a pending case right now in which a father coming home from work was murdered because the price of admission to the rollin' 60s was pulling off random robberies. A 15-year-old is the accused shooter in that case. 15. I know I'm rambling a bit but I have spent a quarter century of my career watching this cycle repeat itself over and over again. We have an innocent victim - a hero - and press conferences and talk of stopping gangs. We round up some examples, lock them away, leaving fatherless another generation ready to join up. I've interviewed a lot of gang members and I can tell you without reservation that once they join up with a gang, it's over. Nothing short of a miracle will turn them back. They will wind up dead or locked down before they ever see age 25. If we want to stop gang violence, we as a society have to catch these children, these parentless, poor, throwaway children, before the age of 12. Really, the age of 10 is getting into iffy territory. The police - well, they've got their faults with ignoring these shootings until forced to pay attention. But fixing this "gang" problem isn't a police function. Danny Mayfield and Chris Woodhull had the right idea, though not the resources or the community support, in Tribe One, in forming "gangs" of mentors so drug dealers weren't the only ones these children can turn to. Save Our Boys sounds just as good on paper. Boys and girls clubs are also excellent ideas. But it's just not enough to occasionally go shoot some hoops with a kid in the inner city or do some crafts with the kids after school. There are very real structural failures within society that need to be addressed. I agree with Betty in that, yeah, we should be talking. But we've been talking for decades, and I keep watching young men die - on the streets or behind bars.

Jamie eventually says, "There are very real structural failures within society that need to be addressed."

This would require fundamental change in the political economy of this city, country, world. What exactly do poor kids have to look forward to in a system where honest ways to make much money are scarce?

More hoops won't do it. Neither will music. Both of which are important and maybe even helpful in some instances.

But real opportunities for a satisfying and comfortable life? Not without addressing "very real structural failures."

Thanks, Jamie for laying it out.

Brilliantly written. Thank you.

Will we ever know exactly what happened and why? Who knows?

However, Brandon Perry had a mother and a father and a little sister. They lived in the same house. Brandon's father is defending his son and does not believe his son is person who shot the young Fulton High football player.

Kudos to Mr. Perry for defending his son. Please, Mr. Perry, be careful out there.

Perry wants police to look at cell phone data. He said it will hopefully show his son was nowhere near the scene of the deadly shooting.

He said he's willing to take the case to federal court to clear his son's name and hopes the people responsible are caught soon.

I have been asking this question here for years and only got one answer that makes sense:
HOW DO THE rival gangs here in Knoxville and in Knox County get access to GUNS, AMMO, DRUGS and MONEY?

The one answer, that came from a former Knox County District Attorney General is this: Local gangs are connected to outside influences. Some guns are stolen and used in crimes here, but most are sold on our streets by those who have "Federal licenses" and local law enforcement does not have power or authority to stop this dealing in murder. The former DA also said that he would go every YEAR he was in office, take the Sheriff and Chief of Police to Testify in Nashville about the need for stricter laws needed to stop the guns and drug trade. But the "committees" would not allow their testimony...nor has any bill been proposed to tighten the sell of murder weapons in this State. Also, instead of destroying weapons connected to crimes here, another question: WHAT HAPPENS to all these GUNS confiscated in crimes?

Thanks to Jamie for all her knowledge and truth telling. And she is correct. And so are the young people who stood on MLK Avenue yesterday and demanded that WE, those who care about our young people, DO MORE and demand more of our elected officials, local neighborhood groups, and NOT WAIT until more lives are lost. We do have dedicated groups who adopt, mentor, and guide our young people away from gang life, but according to the local "Task Force", they assert that over 1200 young people are involved in gangs here today. Something more must be done to save our children. Most of the deaths here have been "accidents, or children and young adults who WERE NOT involved in crime...but innocents. I attended a community forum last week where men who had turned their lives around spoke about how their experiences could be explored and their suggestions made sense and should be considered.

I fully and freely admit to not knowing every Black person but, of those within my sphere of knowledge, there are none who operate import/export businesses and damn few who have aircraft or watercraft capable of international travel. That would seem to suggest that such guns and drugs that are being sold or used by the gangs come from sources outside the community, the physical and cultural community.

In years past, elements of the CIA or other governmental organizations have been the supplier. But as long as they are coming from outside, the denizens of the community are the victims. Some might well be bad people when given the opportunity but, those who knowingly give that opportunity are the ones you would track and investigate and arrest if there was any real interest in addressing the issue.

Really, spending your time and efforts chasing around poor people for problems that are clearly national and international in scope is the thinnest veneer possible for covering up how little you really care.

Robert Hayden Middle Passage

10 April 1800—
Blacks rebellious. Crew uneasy. Our linguist says
their moaning is a prayer for death,
ours and their own. Some try to starve themselves.
Lost three this morning leaped with crazy laughter
to the waiting sharks, sang as they went under.”

We've got some real upset teacher friends at Fulton HS right now. They see the problem holistically instead of the reductionist fallacy bits and pieces approach which never seems to add up to the full equation. Ta-Nehisi Coates has a good take on how to deal with Jamie's structural problem. A problem that isn't solved by schools or the free market.

I interviewed the West Side "leader" if you will back when Brittany was shot and I asked him about guns. He said gun shows are a good source, not from dealers necessarily, but folks selling their own. You can do that without a license or background checks under our state laws. He also said there are guys who pull up in the hood with guns for sale, didn't know their source. Retired KPD Capt. Charles Coleman, who lived in East Knoxville and fought gangs back in the 1990s, always said the biggest problem was the "casual sale" exception, whereby, as my West Side guy said, any gun owner can sell their own guns with no paper trail. Of course, junkies trade guns for drugs. Some of those are stolen.

Jamie's post was really insightful and well written. Our church recently delivered Xmas gifts to 50 youth who will remain in Knox County juvenile detention over the holidays. Richard Bean and the staff confirmed that the gang problem is getting worse and the number of grandparents able or willing to take over for absent parents is dwindling. I was most disturbed to hear that DCS children removed from abusive homes are often housed along with those charged with crimes. Can't we at least provide a safe haven for these kids?