BY LEON B. CREWS<\/b><\/p>\n
Sentinel Staff Writer<\/b><\/p>\n
Retired educator and coach, Billy Reed<\/b>, said he\u2019s disgusted with the rise in Black-on-Black crime, and feels the problem lies with the families of the perpetrators, and the need for young people to attain some kind of status.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u201dWe are shooting our own people, and I can\u2019t understand why. It just doesn\u2019t make sense why a young man would want to kill another young man his own age, and for no reason.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was growing up we had what they would call a gang, but it wasn\u2019t about status or violence. It was about identifying with your neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Reed<\/b> said today, you have babies having babies, and families disconnected from the church.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason there are so many churches in the Black community is because it has always been our foundation. The church is a part of our history, and has always been our refuge and a place to go when we are troubled.<\/p>\n
\u201cFamilies don\u2019t worship together anymore, because they either don\u2019t care, or don\u2019t think it makes a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Reed<\/b> said the gun violence makes no sense, is for no reason, and are all senseless.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just confined to inner-city communities as some would have you believe. Now, we have professional athletes doing it, and that really bothers me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to know, what makes a person fire shots into a crowd of people and not care who gets shot, even a small child?\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Reed<\/b> said there is a lack of accountability by young people today, and not only do they want to do whatever they want, they rebuke all authority figures.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey carry guns all the time, because they are cowards, and when they go to clubs or other places to have a good time, they hang outside and wait for a reason to pull out their gun and shoot someone. It doesn\u2019t matter who.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many things that have gone wrong with our young people, and until more is done to get the guns off the streets, it\u2019s not going to stop.<\/p>\n
Coach Reed<\/b> said outsiders aren\u2019t trying to kill us, but they bring us the tools of our own destruction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are people who bring guns into our communities, sell them to our children, and just wait for us to kill each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing to prison means nothing to them until they go. That\u2019s when they revert to the immature little boys they really are. I think they are afraid to grow up and assume real responsibility for themselves, and the people who count on them for support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Reed<\/b> says he will continue to do what he can to help turn lives around, but he also expects others to step in and do their part.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s supposed to start inside the home. No young person should seek help outside of their family, unless they feel the family can\u2019t do anything for them, or they have no respect for the family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BY LEON B. CREWS Sentinel Staff Writer Retired educator and coach, Billy Reed, said he\u2019s disgusted with the rise in Black-on-Black crime, and feels the problem lies with the families of the perpetrators, and the need for young people to attain some kind of status. \u201c\u201dWe are shooting our own people, and I can\u2019t understand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}