We probably will never be able to move forward, I think. Note this article. Apparently, the whole problem with Memphis AND Detriot is not anything crazy like economic issues, infrastructure or education. It's black mayors not being nice enough to white folks. I guess that's convenient for all of us. We don't have to do anything if that's the problem. We'll elect a new mayor, and if he's not all we desire, it'll be his problem.

That reminds me- a man from Chicago was talking about reducing violence against children in the school system.

But in many neighborhood high schools, adults add to a culture of aggression. Security guards holler, teachers curse. Kids get physical and adults do to.

A year ago this week I was at Robeson High School reporting another story. Robeson is now one of the 38 schools targeted for a culture makeover.

It was October 16, about 3 PM, sunny…Students were leaving school. I was driving out of the parking lot when I saw one of Robeson’s assigned police officers grab a boy and slam him against a police car.

The officer raised his arm and hammered the side of the boy’s head, smashing it into the car. Another officer held the boy, even though he wasn’t putting up a fight. The first officer punched him in the face again.

I stopped my car and scrambled to turn on my tape recorder…This is all I got—the police sending away the crowd of kids who'd gathered.

POLICE: Get the f*** away now! Get this motherf***** in the back of your car! I headed for a group of kids who saw the beating.
UTTON: Did you see it?

GIRL: Yes I did. OK. The little boy was walking he looked like he was on his way home. The police just ran up on him, grabbed him from behind, boom boom boom—started punching him all in his face

GIRL2: And then the other police officer… In the past four years, CPS says there have been more than 400 cases of district employees physically abusing students. That includes everything from coaches paddling athletes to kids being hit with staplers. Huberman says he wants to re-train security guards as part of his culture of calm—he’s even suggested a security guard academy.


That sort of chaos where the adults are useless or may even be contributing to the violence... I don't think children can learn much in that environment. Instead of us believing our children[the children of the city are the children of all the city, I say] are always chaotic evil maybe a more nuanced understanding of the world would help our cities?