Detroit Motorists Under Siege in ‘Carjack City’

Published Friday, May 23, 2014 | 7:39 a.m.

DETROIT (AP) — When they pull up to a gas station these days, Detroit drivers are looking beyond theprice per gallon at a far more threatening concern: carjackers. 

The armed auto thieves have become so common here that parts of the bankrupt metropolis are referred to as "Carjack City," and many motorists fear getting out of their vehicles even for a few moments to fill a tank. 

So gas stations are taking steps to protect customers, and the city has formed a special police team to go after suspects. Convicted carjackers will even get their faces and prison sentences plastered onto billboards. 

"You need to catch these people and make a good example of them," said Mousa Bazzi, who owns a Mobil station in a semi-desolate neighborhood bordering Detroit's east riverfront. He keeps his business well-lit and continually has two to four employees inside to ensure "there's always an extra hand or two" in case of trouble. 

Authorities blame many of the carjackings, ironically, on improvements in vehicle security. Anti-theft equipment, GPS systems and advanced locks now prevent many vehicles from being driven without a key in the ignition. 

That makes it difficult or impossible for thieves to steal parked cars, leading them to target vehicles that are occupied, said Jonathan Parnell, of Detroit's auto-theft squad. 

Also contributing to the thefts is a strong demand for stolen wheels and tires, police said.
Bazzi's station displays pale-green decals depicting a lighthouse — a sign that his business has joined the city's anti-carjacking effort. To be part of the program, stations must have security cameras, good lighting, be open 24 hours and have clerks willing to help motorists and provide a phone for emergency calls. 

"There is a waiting list," Sgt. Michael Woody said. "We have so many gas stations that want to become a lighthouse. You get better protection with that big sticker in the window that tells criminals there is proper equipment that will help police investigate these crimes." 

Detroit police reported 720 carjackings last year in the city of fewer than 700,000 people. That's down from nearly 850 in 2011 and 1,231 in 2008. 

The decline may partly be due to Detroit's freefalling population, but the thefts still exceed the carjackings in some comparably sized U.S. cities. 

Sharlonda Buckman, executive director of a Detroit nonprofit, was at a gas station on an October morning when she ran inside for aspirin. Back inside her SUV, she was just closing the door when she saw a carjacker shove his gun inside. 

She screamed and jumped out of the vehicle. The carjacker jumped in and drove off. Three other customers gave chase in their vehicles. One caught up to the SUV and got shot in the leg by the carjacker, who was later arrested. 

Now, Buckman said, she tries not to pump gas at all. 

"If the night catches me, I won't pump gas in the city," she said. "Or I'll call somebody to meet me." 

It's difficult to know how Detroit's carjackings rank nationally because many police agencies lump carjackings with all armed robberies in annual reports to the FBI. 

Newark, New Jersey, with a population of 280,000, had 382 carjackings last year, giving it a per capita rate that is actually higher than Detroit's. Memphis, Tennessee, with a population of 655,000, had slightly more than 400 carjackings over three years from 2011 through 2013. El Paso, a rapidly growing western Texas city of 670,000, reported only 15 carjackings last year and 18 in 2012. 

Through May 19, Detroit has recorded 191 carjackings in 2014, including the Feb. 24 shooting death of CVS security guard Courtney Meeks, who rushed toward a car being taken by three men, and the Feb. 4 slaying of Donald Bradshaw, a 68-year-old man who was beaten to death with a tire iron after he was carjacked at an intersection.

Prosecutors, the FBI and Detroit police recently announced a campaign to spread the word about stifferfederal penalties for carjacking, which can include the death penalty if someone is killed. A similar campaign that includes billboards with photos of convicted carjackers started last summer in Newark.

Detroit police have also announced a partnership with General Motors' OnStar roadside assistance service to track down stolen vehicles and promote rewards tied to an anonymous tip line. 

To avoid becoming a victim, security guard Greg Champion wears a handgun on his hip whenever he's pumping gas. 

"I don't want to surprise you," Champion said. "I want you to know I'm armed, and I want you to know I can defend myself, and I want you to go somewhere else."
Christine Reed takes the opposite approach. The 27-year-old mother of two won't stop for gas in Detroit. She lives north of the city in Warren and works four days a week cleaning offices downtown. 

If she's in a bad section of town, Reed said, she passes through red lights because it's tougher to carjack amoving target. 

"It's not a safe place anymore," Reed said. "It's dangerous." 

The state-appointed emergency manager tasked with restructuring Detroit's $18 billion in debt has said crime needs to be reduced to make the city attractive to new residents and businesses.
That's going to take more and better resources, said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who complains that she has only a few assistants to try carjackings. 

"When nobody has any resources ... all we can be is reactive," she said.

Obama's Midterm Transportation Project Push - Pulling A Fast One?

Barack Obama, the Campaigner in Chief, is busy dividing the country by race, gender, age and income for the midterm elections.  The 2014 elections will be hard for the Democrats to excite their base and get out the vote, but a list of the manufactured 'issues' Obama and the left are pushing makes their efforts apparent.  For gender, the extension of the 'war on women' was easy to identify.  Obama began  pushing the outright LIE with the 'women earn '77 cents on the dollar' to men speeches.  That was easy to debunk, yet it still continues to garner the female vote and those gullible, bleeding hearts in pursuit of  'social justice' .

A story today that covers multiple demographics for more efficient Division, was an article on Student Loan Reform legislation. A tax increase on the wealthy will enable students to lock in a permanent, very low rate on their student loans after graduation. A dual purpose piece of legislation, divide us by age and income and motivate the youthful, useful idiots to get to the polls.  Any opposition is deemed racist, so that is easy. Great job, at getting out the vote, Democrats. The only thing left would be a more unifying, common enemy for the pro-union labor base. Besides demonizing the Koch Brothers and the Tea Party, that really only leaves the GOP to target.

The article that stands out today to attack the GOP:

Obama: GOP took credit for transportation projects they ‘refused to fund’

President Obama accused Republicans of taking credit for transportation projects they refused to fund as he pressed Congress for more federal infrastructure spending in a speech Wednesday.  

"Instead of making investments that grow our economy by growing the middle class, they're still convinced that prosperity trickles down from the very top," Obama told a crowd gathered at the Tappan Zee bridge outside New York City, the site of a $3.9 billion, federally backed construction project. 

"If you want to tell them what you think about that, don't worry, because usually they show up at ribbon cuttings for projects that they refused to fund," the president added.

You see, those greedy GOP bastards are stuck in the past, pushing trickle down economics and taking credit for Obama's hard work. The nation would be so much better off if the GOP weren't around, interfering with the Dear Leader Obama and his great vision. Barack Obama  needs your help or the nation will crumble. Don't worry, infrastructure is like contraceptives, it is free, so how can you be against it.?

Coincidentally, another great infrastructure story hit the headlines too. Lets trumpet an Obama success in the solid Democrat State of Minnesota. Nothing says transportaion and infrastructure like light rail trains, correct?  Mass transit is reliable, fast and cost effective.  Let's take a look at the Metro Green Line expansion, a subject of Barack Obama's February 2014 visit and hailed as a great success, shall we?

Light rail train derails after Obama visit

Obama touted the expansion of Minnesota’s Metro light rail system to St. Paul, which is scheduled to open in June, as an example for the nation to follow. Hours later, a train ran off the tracks. 

copied from conservativebyte.com

“I just had a chance to take a look at some of those spiffy new trains,” Obama said Wednesday of the expansion of Minneapolis’ Metro light rail.  

“They are nice and they’re energy efficient. They’re going to be reliable. You can get from one downtown to the other in a little over 30 minutes instead of when it’s snowing being in traffic for two hours."

Okay, maybe it isn't reliable, but fast and cost-effective still  isn't bad.

11 miles in 67 minutes? Met Council's Green Line engineers look to shave time

Traffic engineers for the Metropolitan Council have exactly one month to figure out how to speed up light-rail trains along the new Green Line. 

Test trains along the route connecting St. Paul and Minneapolis have been taking an hour or longer to travel from one end to the other, exceeding initial projections of 40 minutes. 

Met Council officials they're working hard to shave off those extra minutes in the weeks leading up to the June 14 launch.

Okay, well it least it was cost-effective.

The project, which cost $957 million or almost  $90 million dollars a mile to build, — half of it supplied by federal funds, with the balance divided among state, regional, county and city governments — includes 18 new stations in addition to five to be shared with the Blue Line in downtown Minneapolis. 

Officials heralded the economic development promised by the Green Line, which will link the two downtowns and the University of Minnesota via University Avenue. The Met Council estimates that the line so far has yielded $1.7 billion in private development already built or still to come. 

“This is really going to pay off,” Haigh said.

Great projections, any foreseeable shortfall? 

However, about 30 percent of the Green Line development counted by the Met Council also is along the Blue Line in downtown Minneapolis. The analysis is mostly based on published reports in daily, weekly and business newspapers.

Well, there is that double counting........

I think I can, well I know I can think of this as the little train that could be a money pit. Toot your own horn, Mr. President.

Hillary's State Dept. Refused to Brand Boko Haram as Terrorists

Hillary's State Department Refused to Brand Boko Haram as Terrorists

Under Hillary Clinton, the State Department repeatedly declined to fully go after the terror group responsible for kidnapping hundreds of girls. 

The State Department under Hillary Clinton fought hard against placing the al Qaeda-linked militant group Boko Haram on its official list of foreign terrorist organizations for two years. And now, lawmakers and former U.S. officials are saying that the decision may have hampered the American government’s ability to confront the Nigerian group that shocked the world by abducting hundreds of innocent girls. 

In the past week, Clinton, who made protecting women and girls a key pillar of her tenure at the State Department, has been a vocal advocate for the 200 Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram, the loosely organized group of militants terrorizing northern Nigeria. Her May 4 tweet about the girls, using the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, was cited across the media and widely credited for raising awareness of their plight.

On Wednesday, Clinton said that the abduction of the girls by Boko Haram was “abominable, it’s criminal, it’s an act of terrorism and it really merits the fullest response possible, first and foremost from the government of Nigeria.” Clinton said that as Secretary of State she had numerous meetings with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and had urged the Nigerian government to do more on counterterrorism.

What Clinton didn’t mention was that her own State Department refused to place Boko Haram on the list of foreign terrorist organizations in 2011, after the group bombed the U.N. headquarters in Abuja. The refusal came despite the urging of the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, and over a dozen senators and congressmen. 

“The one thing she could have done, the one tool she had at her disposal, she didn’t use. And nobody can say she wasn’t urged to do it. It’s gross hypocrisy,” said a former senior U.S. official who was involved in the debate. “The FBI, the CIA, and the Justice Department really wanted Boko Haram designated, they wanted the authorities that would provide to go after them, and they voiced that repeatedly to elected officials.” 

In May 2012, then-Justice Department official Lisa Monaco (now at the White House) wrote to the State Department to urge Clinton to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization. The following month, Gen. Carter Ham, the chief of U.S. Africa Command, said that Boko Haram “are likely sharing funds, training, and explosive materials” with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. And yet, Hillary Clinton’s State Department still declined to place Boko Haram on its official terrorist roster. 

Secretary of State John Kerry eventually added Boko Haram and its splinter group Ansaru to the list of foreign terrorist organizations in November 2013, following a spate of church bombings and other acts that demonstrated the group’s escalating abilities to wreak havoc.
‪Being placed on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations allows U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies to use certain tools and authorities, including several found in the Patriot Act. The designation makes it illegal for any U.S. entities to do business with the group in question. It cuts off access to the U.S. financial system for the organization and anyone associating with it. And the designation also serves to stigmatize and isolate foreign organizations by encouraging other nations to take similar measures. 

The State Department’s refusal to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization prevented U.S. law enforcement agencies from fully addressing the growing Boko Haram threat in those crucial two years, multiple GOP lawmakers told The Daily Beast. 

“For years, Boko Haram has terrorized Nigeria and Western interests in the region with few consequences,” Sen. James Risch told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. “The U.S. government should have moved more quickly to list them as a terrorist organization and brought U.S. resources to track and disrupt their activities. The failure to act swiftly has had consequences.”
Risch and seven other GOP senators introduced legislation in early 2013 that would have forced Clinton to designate the group or explain why she thought it was a bad idea. The State Department lobbied against the legislation at the time, according to internal State Department emails obtained by The Daily Beast. 

In the House, leading intelligence-minded lawmakers wrote letter after letter to Clinton urging her to designate Boko Haram as terrorists. The effort in the House was led by then-Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King and Patrick Meehan, chairman of the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. 

Meehan and his Democratic counterpart Jackie Speier put out a lengthy reportin 2011 laying out the evidentiary basis for naming Boko Haram a terrorist organization, including the group’s ties to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and to Somalia’s al-Shabab terrorist organization.
In an interview Wednesday, Meehan told The Daily Beast that if Clinton had placed Boko Haram on the terrorism list in 2011, U.S. law enforcement agencies now being deployed to Nigeria to help search for the girls might have been in a better position. 

“We lost two years of increased scrutiny. The kind of support that is taking place now would have been in place two years ago,” he said. The designation would have “enhanced the capacity of our agencies to do the work that was necessary. We were very frustrated, it was a long delay.” 

Moreover, Meehan and others believe that the Clinton State Department underestimated the pace of Boko Haram’s growth and the group’s intention to plan operations that could harm U.S. critical interests abroad. 

“At the time, the sentiment that was expressed by the administration was this was a local grievance and therefore not a threat to the United States or its interests,” he said. “They were saying al Qaeda was on the run and our argument was contrary to that. It has metastasized and it is actually in many ways a growing threat and this is a stark example of that.” 

Not everyone agrees that Clinton’s failure to act had significant negative effects. A former senior U.S. counterterrorism official told The Daily Beast that despite the State Department’s refusal to put Boko Haram on the terrorism list, there were several other efforts to work with the Nigerian government on countering the extremist group, mainly through diplomatic and military intelligence channels. 

“Designation is an important tool, it’s not the only tool,” this official said. “There are a lot of other things you can do in counterterrorism that doesn’t require a designation.” 

Had Clinton designated Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organization, that wouldn’t have authorized any increased assistance to the Nigerian security forces; such assistance is complicated by the Leahy Law, a provision that prevents the U.S. from giving weapons to foreign military and police units guilty of human rights violations. 

“The utility was limited, the symbolism was perhaps significant, but the more important issue was how we were dealing with the Nigerians,” this official said, noting that three Boko Haram-related individuals were personally sanctioned during Clinton’s time at State. 

Meehan and his Democratic counterpart Jackie Speier put out a lengthy reportin 2011 laying out the evidentiary basis for naming Boko Haram a terrorist organization, including the group’s ties to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and to Somalia’s al-Shabab terrorist organization.
In 2012, more than 20 prominent U.S. academics in African studies wrote to Clinton, urging her to not to label Bok Haram as a foreign terrorist organization. “An FTO designation would internationalize Boko Haram’s standing and enhance its status among radical organizations elsewhere,” the scholars said.

Inside the Clinton State Department, the most vocal official opposing designating Boko Haram was Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson, who served in that position from 2009 to 2013. Several officials said that the Nigerian government was opposed to the designation and Carson was focused on preserving the relationship between Washington and Abuja. 

Carson defended the decision to avoid naming Boko Haram a terrorist organization in a Wednesday phone call with reporters. 

“There was a concern that putting Boko Haram on the foreign terrorist list would in fact raise its profile, give it greater publicity, give it greater credibility, help in its recruitment, and also probably drive more assistance in its direction,” he said.

Read more at The Daily Beast:
Hillary's State Department Refused to Brand Boko Haram as Terrorists

The Democrat's Dark Money Group 'Democracy Alliance'

Two articles at the Washington Free Beacon expose the Democrat's secretive dark money machine Democracy Alliance. This is how liberals can funnel large amounts of money to progressive groups in a coordinated fashion without being exposed or demonized like the Koch Brothers. Hypocrisy knows no bounds on the left.

Markay Discusses Story on Democracy Alliance’s Confidential Document

May 6, 2014

Washington Free Beacon reporter Lachlan Markay was a guest on The DerekHunter Show Tuesday night to discuss his scoop on the left-wing DemocracyAlliance and its secret list of wealthy liberal partners in its money-funneling efforts.

The shadowy group’s conference in Chicago last week got almost no attention from members of the media besides the Free Beacon, with Markay pointing out that only Politico reporter Kenneth Vogel was also in attendance.

“There are details out there, but they do everything in their power to make sure that everything that goes on there is as secretive as possible,” Markay said.

Markay found a document on the floor going over some of the new DemocracyAlliance members, prompting his story. He reported:

Read the Confidential Document Left Behind at the Democracy Alliance Meeting
A list of new members of the Democracy Alliance offers a revealing look into the secret group of liberal billionaires

The Democracy Alliance takes pains to ensure that its work disbursing millions of dollars to top left-wing organizations remains secretive and free from public scrutiny. But a document left on the floor of the group’s recent gathering reveals for the first time the names of a number of individuals involved in the effort.

It lists new Democracy Alliance “partners,” individuals who every year must pay$30,000 in dues and contribute at least $200,000 to the groups that DA supports. It also reveals names of DA “advisers,” foundation participants, and individuals getting a “sneak peek” at the group’s activities.

Among its new partners are top labor union bosses, financial and business leaders, and heirs to billion-dollar fortunes who have made names for themselves as high-dollar Democratic donors.

Security was tight at the Democracy Alliance conference last week at the chic Ritz Carlton in Chicago. Politico reporter Ken Vogel was manhandled by security when he tried to interview an attendee. Other conference-goers ripped off their nametags when a Washington Free Beacon reporter approached.

The Democracy Alliance does not actually accept donations. Instead, it solicits contributions from left-wing millionaires and billionaires, and serves as a “pass through” between those donors and top liberal advocacy groups, including the Center for American Progress, Media Matters for America, and Democratic Super PAC Priorities USA.

The group emphasizes secrecy in all of its operations, even as its members and the DA “favored organizations” to which they donate decry the role of “dark money” in American politics. DA does not disclose details of any of the transactions it facilitates, and its members and donation recipients are prohibited from speaking publicly about the organization and its operations.

While few conference attendees would speak with the Free Beacon last week, one mistakenly left a revealing document on the floor of a publicly accessible area of the conference. The list of new partners provides previously unreported details on one of the left’s most powerful dark money groups.

Big Labor Bucks

Labor unions have for decades served as financiers for some of the left’s most prominent think tanks and activist groups. The list of new DA partner reveals increasing involvement by top labor bosses in the group’s work financing those organizations.

New members in 2014 include Noel Beasley, president of Workers United, a textile union affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, and Keith Mestrich, president of the union-owned Amalgamated Bank, where Beasley, also a SEIU vice president, serves as chairman.

Amalgamated, which is majority-owned by the SEIU, is still owed $8.5 million by the Democratic National Committee for a pair of loans taken out in 2012 to support the DNC’s work to reelect President Barack Obama.

“We are a partisan bank that’s owned by a union,” Mestrich told theWashington Post last year. “There’s no question that unions are very tight with the Democratic Party, and we make no bones about that.” He would not answer questions about the bank’s involvement with the Democracy Alliance at last week’s conference.

The addition of top officials at Workers United and Amalgamated comes after DA added other top labor bosses in 2013, according to the list of new members.

Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America, and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, both signed on as partners last year. The document also lists CWA senior director George Kohl and Michelle Ringuette, Weingarten’s assistant, as new partners in 2013.

Weingarten and Cohen both sit on the board of the Economic Policies Institute, a labor-funded think tank. Richard Trumka, who attended last week’s conference, is also a board member, as are SEIU president and DA board member Mary Kay Henry, and one-time DA board member Robert Johnson.

While union higher ups are well compensated—Weingarten and Cohen made$550,000 and $200,000 in 2012, respectively, while Ringuette and Kohl each pulled down more than $150,000—the $100,000 minimum aggregate contribution requirement likely means that AFT and CWA, rather than the individuals listed, are the entities providing DA pass-through funds, with top union officials serving as liaisons.

The Washington Free Beacon Article continues with a profile of a few BIG donors.:

Washington Free Beacon - A Breakdown of Big Donor Contributions

A list of some new members for Democracy Alliance.

Democracy Alliance new members list by Washington Free Beacon


NEW PARTNERS, 2013

Paul Boskind: CEO of Deer Oaks Mental Health Associates and theater producer.

Larry Cohen: President of the Communications Workers of America.

Randi Weingarten: President of the American Federation of Teachers.

George Kohl: Senior director of the Communications Workers of America.

Michelle Ringuette: Assistant to the president of the American Federation of Teachers.

Amy Goldman: Author, horticulturalist, and daughter of the late New York City real estate magnate Sol Goldman.

NEW PARTNERS, 2014

Adam Abram: Founder of James River Group, chairman of Franklin Holdings, chairman of Piedmont Community Bank Holdings, former president of Adaron Group.

Noel Beasley: President of Workers United, vice president of the Service Employees International Union, chairman of Amalgamated Bank.

Keith Mestrich: President of Amalgamated Bank

Philip Munger: New School professor, son of Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman Charles Munger.

Colin Greer: President of the New World Foundation.

Heeten Kalan: Senior program officer at the New World Foundation.

Rick Segal: CEO of Seavest, Inc.

Ryan Smith: Unknown. It was originally reported that Smith was the CEO of Qualtrics, but that was not the case.

Henry van Ameringen: President of the Van Ameringen Foundation, son of Arnold Louis van Ameringen, founder of International Flavors and Fragrances.

Dirk Wiggins: Founder of Code for Progress, former director of targeting for Field Strategies, former outreach director for the Florida Democratic Party.

Teen 'Crews' Linked to 40% of NYC Shootings

NEW YORK May 1, 2014 (AP)

By JAKE PEARSON and JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press

There are more than 300 of them in New York — violent crews of dozens of 12- to 20-year-olds with names such as Very Crispy Gangsters, True Money Gang and Cash Bama Bullies.

Police say these groups, clustered around a particular block or housing project, are responsible for about 40 percent of the city's shootings, with most of that violence stemming from the smallest of disses on the street, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

"It's like belonging to an evil fraternity," said Inspector Kevin Catalina, commander of the New York Police Department's gang division. "A lot of it is driven by nothing: A dispute over a girl or a wrong look or a perceived slight."

The trend of smaller, younger crews has also been seen in Chicago and Northeast cities over the last few years as police have cracked down on bigger, more traditional gangs, experts said. While the Bloods, Crips and Latin Kings still exist, operating such money-making schemes as drug dealing, their members are usually older and understand the timeworn mantra of organized crime: violence is bad for business.

Not so for the crews, whose recklessness prompted former Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly in 2012 to launch an initiative to confront the crews dubbed Operation Crew Cut.

Investigators now focus on gathering intelligence about specific crews — understanding their activities, allegiances and feuds which they glean through traditional street policing and trolling of social media sites, cell phone photos and even recorded jailhouse calls.

Police have also stepped up arrests of the most active crew members. In Manhattan, prosecutors set up an internal email alert system that notifies them when crew member are arrested, even on minor charges, and provides beyond-the-rap-sheet details for bail arguments. The prosecutor might mention that the person was a suspect in another crime or had made threats on Facebook, for instance.

In a recent case in Harlem, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. says a 2009 killing kindled years of vendetta attacks, including three killings and 30 shootings. Sixty-three people were rounded up, and at least 62 entered guilty pleas, including crew members so young that one told another to "mob up" after school.

"The evidence was very powerful," said Robert Anesi, who represented a 19-year-old who pleaded guilty to attempted murder and conspiracy charges in the case last week. "They had such access to social media and they knew who the players were."

NYPD statistics show gang arrests are up citywide nearly 14 percent from 2013 — and more than 28 percent from two years ago. Shooting incidents citywide are about the same as they were last year, with 282 recorded so far, and are down by nearly 23 percent from two years ago.

Still, crew-related violence persists despite record dips in overall crime in New York City over the last few years. The most notable recent case came in March when investigators say a 14-year-old member of the Stack Money Goons shot a .357 revolver at a rival member of the Twan Family on a crowded bus in Brooklyn. The bullet instead killed an immigrant father who was working two jobs to support his family.

"When you ask young adults, 'Why? Why did you shoot that young man?' Probably 80 percent of the time the answer is: He disrespected me," said Kai Smith, an ex-con-turned-businessman who runs a gang-diversion program in city high schools