What is happening? How can a city call itself a rising star when it’s resident have to worry about their children going to school?
Unfortunately, as a city, state, and society we are pressed to replace a patients bedsheet that we fail to realize that the fever is in the patient…all the changed bedsheets in the world will not take the fever away.
In order to try to understand what happened last week at Burns School, we first need to try to understand how we’ve gotten to this point. Let’s look at Hartford and it’s recent history.
In the early 80s the city was divided in half; the Northend (Ghetto Brothers, 20Love, and Latin Locos) and the South was held down in large part by the Savage Nomads. Those not in traditional “gangs” were in various cliches which some would argue could be called gangs. Breakdancing Crews, Street Football teams, etc… If I remember well, the Oak City Jets (out of the Charter Oak housing projects) were probably bigger than the Latin Locos who were based out of Broad Street in Hartford.
As members of these other groups, travel to and from different parts of the city was allowed. As a known member of any gang, travel outside of ones turf would most assuredly involve getting chased and the occassional beatdown, maybe a stabbing, rarely…almost never, shootings. Schools, to my memory, were a safe zone. Even the head of the Ghetto Brothers (Bennie Gonzalez) was a substitute teacher in the Hartford School system.
The 80s came and went and we find ourselves in the 90s where something / everything blew up. The Ghetto Brothers and Nomads were replaced by Los Solidos and Latin Kings. Turfs, instead of covering massive sections of the city, now extended from street to street, and block to block. The drug explosion of the 90s coincided with this and we begin to see the emergence of the corner drug store that’s so prevelant in our streets today. The close proximity to a rival combined with the added incentive of a supposed financial windfall based on your drug spot led to disaster. Hartford led the nation in per capita murders and were featured by Dan Rather in a 48 hour special.
note: it was also around this time that Trinity College, in efforts to “beautify” the campus and its surroundings, closed off Vernon Street and knocked out three seperate stone stairways leading up to Summit Street from Zion Street. The lone stairway they repaired and improved (and added wheelchair accessibility) was the stairs leading to and from Timothy’s…how convenient. The Director of Community Relations during this time of seperation from the community was Eddie Perez.
What happens next is key to what’s happening now in the city. Major emphasis and resources are put into the city’s Southend (State Police are brought in, New Police sub-station built on Ward, Pope Park Rec Center gets approved and built) These changes contribute to the following:
- Growing anomosity between Northenders (African American) toward Southenders (Latinos) for perceived inequality in treatment/services. The growing divide between Latinos and Blacks is something never addressed by the city as a whole.
- Where there’s smoke there’s fire…Extra police resources are allocated to the south and never redistributed after major drug stings bust up organized drug dealers. This sets in motion the cycle of violence which will see violent crimes (particularly hand gun violence by youth toward youth) increase in the north by the year 2006.
Also…(I should’ve mentioned that this was gonna be long) The mid 90s saw Hartford leading the nation in teen pregnancies. 28.9% of all births in 1994 were to teen mothers.
note: The work by groups such as Breaking the Cycle has helped greatly to reduce these numbers. This gives us hope for coming generations of students.
So…what do we have here in 2007. Two generations of children growing up to parents who themselves did not possess complete parenting skills during their child’s formative years. These children are growing up in the segregrated ghettos of the city, all the while absorbing, maintaining, reinforcing, and solidifying a growing anomosity towards their neighbors in the other side of town. [can you believe that Hartford is big enough to have 'sides of towns' ?!] On top of all this, these children are growing up in a time (read society) which accepts and promotes unspeakable levels of violence.
Now let’s tale a look at what happened at Burns School. Violence at Hartford High runs like clockwork. Northenders goto the 3rd floor (where the International students [Latinos] take class) and get beatdown. Southenders, in turn are the victims when they goto the cafeteria. The cafeteria ends up reflecting this tension with both sides, both colors, both oppressed peoples seperating themselves. All the while, the adults who otherwise might be interacting with the youth on a positive scale are made to act like sentries at Attica waiting for the next race riot. One groups messes with another, someone says something about someone’s mom and it’s on…This obviously does not end when the school bell rings. A group of kids in a car sees the other and bam, bam, bam. As the Burns school situation unfolds, look to see how race plays a part in the happenings.
So, before we all go buckwild over whether a principal should or should not let some kids who are running from bullets into safety, or is it the mayor’s fault, or the parent’s fault…stop for a second. Realize that this type of atmopsphere does not happen overnight. We have all contributed to deteriorating conditions in this city. Take blame and move on.
To What?
What can we do? I don’t know…sorry if you were expecting such answers from someone who pours coffee for a living. Maybe that should change too.
That was a very interesting, very insightful post…thanks.
Though I dont have an answer either, I believe Hartford needs to change its policies and investments drastically. For too long Hartford has focused on big ticket projects that will be the panacea for all the city’s ills, while the quality of life for the existing residents has gone downhill.
No one has addressed quality of life crimes or done the little things like vigorously address deteriorating buildings a la the broken windows theory (I know it has come under fire by social psychologists as of late).
Hartford is doing a great job of attracting young people to inject some vibrance into downtown, but those people who are able to do wo will leave as soon as they begin to think about their kids attending a Hartford public school. There is a great influx of more affluent empty nesters moving downtown as well…but just wait until the drag racing begins downtown again this summer.
Bottom line is that the City has tried to import a solution rather than build a grassroots solution from within the neighborhoods.
Wow. Excellent, thoughtful post. I just moved back to Connecticut after many years away, blog at polizeros.com, and will link to this post soon.
You go, Luis.
I called the Parisky Group on the teen pregnancy thing. I wil let you know what I get as a response.
I testified for the latest Environmental Justice bill at the Environment and Technology Committee last night, at around 10 pm. We could use your support for SB 1330. Contact Dr Mark Mitchell, MD, MPH, of the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice at 548-1133 for language and details.
Very interesting. I remember the 90s and the rise in youth violence in Hartford, as well as the other cities in Connecticut. It’s just such a relief to know that once all that incoming cash from the downtown revitalization trickles into the neighborhoods this will all end. Of course, we could also just build more prisons since that’s such an effective tool at reducing violence. Why invest in children and social services, when you can spend twice as much in policing and corporate welfare?
I just moved back to the Hartford area from Los Angeles. These problems are nationwide. Schools become like prisons, the poorer areas get even poorer.
Building more prisons is a swell way to funnel favors and money, and to make clean money vanish and dirty money get cleaned up. Then politicians get elected by screaming about getting tough on crime.
Meanwhile, areas like Hartford just get poorer and less able to cope as the better-off burbs suck the money and jobs out of it.
One structural problem here is that there are no counties with actual power and money, so there’s no regional planning and resources. If MetLife moves to Bloomfield, Hartford loses those 2,000 jobs and tax base completely. If there were real counties here, they’d still get some funding rather than nothing.
[...] IOnHartford, who clearly knows the history, details the years of purposeful neglect, the rise of street gangs, and the poverty that led to this. Their post is titled The roots of a breakdown… Now let’s tale a look at what happened at Burns School. Violence at Hartford High runs like clockwork. Northenders goto the 3rd floor (where the International students [Latinos] take class) and get beatdown. Southenders, in turn are the victims when they goto the cafeteria. The cafeteria ends up reflecting this tension with both sides, both colors, both oppressed peoples seperating themselves. All the while, the adults who otherwise might be interacting with the youth on a positive scale are made to act like sentries at Attica waiting for the next race riot. [...]
I never knew that people can turn a gang into a pile of savages to kill people that have families in the world. (Benny Gonzalez) was my uncle and due to the fact that this happened in the 1980s I never got to meet him. His children grew up without a father and a role model to look up at. It is a shame that we his family did not get to enjoy him now. My father suffered a lot in all this time and still is suffering this was his little baby brother that he strongly loved with all his heart. People are so cruel and then again they must have had no compassion for his children that woke up everyday without daddy being there. It is a shame because the year he got killed he had two one year old kids and they never knew who daddy was but in pictures. Almost thirty years are going by and now he missed out on his grandchildren which he will never hold or see. From everything I heards through my father he was a great person with a big heart and always wanted to help everybody out. Everything got taken from him through a viscious set up of people that said that they were his friends and set him up. I hope nothing for everyone that had to do something with his murder because there is a GOD out there and what goes around always comes around. I know that GOD will punish everyone in the worst way possible ever. I love you UNCLE BENNY and we your family have always missed you especially your children that had to grow up without you.
DAMN ANEISHA HOW DID YOU FORGET TO MENTION THAT I WAS IN MY MOTHERS STOMACH WHEN THEY MURDERED MY FATHER BACK IN 84 ON FATHERS DAY?.. YOU CANT FORGET ABOUT ME.. WHO STILL LIVE HERE IN THE NORTHEND OF HARTFORD AND IS THE CHILD THAT BENJAMIN NEVER GOT TO SEE THAT IM SURE HE WOULD BE PROUD OF!!!!.. REAL IS REAL.. HARTFORD HAS TO CLIMB AND IN ORDER TO DO SO WE MUST DO RESEARCH TO FIND OUT ABOUT TO HISTORY A LITTLE MORE! YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU BEEN THROUGH IN ORDER TO KNOW WHERE YOU ARE HEADED!!!!!
People, Not matter what policies are set into place, individuals will make the choices in life that they see fit for them at the time they are making them. No matter what laws, rules or limits we try to place the citizens- we can not forget about the good things that resulted from having gangs in the north end of hartford (at the right time). How quickly we have for gotten that the reason why Hartford is Klu Klux Klan FREE_ Thanx to Benny Gonzalez and his Ghetto Brothers plus all the other gangs that joined him for the cause. Can I get a thank you please and some gratitude that things are not as bad as they could be.