Since the time that I began watching the Howard County Police Crime Bulletin more than seven years ago, I have seen, on a continual basis, that overwhelmingly, the assailants, the suspects, and the convicted are primarily young and mostly male.
Maryland is a state that values the rights and privileges of youth, but something is seriously wrong.
All indications are that many of the young men arrested, have juvenile records. There is no way to immediately prove this assumption, but nevertheless, by talking to police officers in the county, off the record, they tell me that the juveniles they apprehend, they arrest again as adults. There is no doubt in my mind that our collective society has no effective plan for preventing kids from becoming criminals.
There are those of us who march and those of us who complain, and we have some great groups in Howard County, Baltimore, and all throughout the state that do wonderful work to patch up the walking wounded.
But where is the master plan? And if there were a master plan, would we implement it or would we simply agree that the plan looks good?
Looking at Howard County, specifically, just in the past 30 days, several young men, not long out of high school (assuming they graduated) were convicted and sentenced for the commission of violent crimes — even involving the dreaded illegal weapon.
This is not one of those articles where the purpose is to indict the police for their behaviors — I will leave that to others.
This is about starting the much needed conversation about reaching FAMILIES. But let us not make this about race or poverty or anything that inappropriately categorizes. This is about the state of families in Howard County. Young men, probably still living with relatives, are holding store clerks at gunpoint, shooting other young men over drugs, breaking into homes to steal valuables, stealing cars, breaking into cars, and so much more.
We gladly squabble over tax dollars and public school budgets, but meanwhile with all of the good here in Howard County, young men turn to heinous crimes and these lost souls attend our precious schools.
We can do better. I would love to hear your thoughts.