Gangs of St. Paul cover story comment thread

• I don't agree that these problems stem from bad parenting. The "gang" ptoblem in St. Paul stems primarily from 1. No programs for teen aged youth, and 2. the lack of integrity that many of the adults around these kids have. In 2000 when the After School Program Grants were cut, many of the small organizations providing services fro these youth went under. The youth of our communities relied on many of these organizations to provide positive activities for them to be involved in. They knew that the adults running these programs supported them and truly cared about their well being, even when it came to giving them food and clothing out of thier own pockets. When you don't have enough positive things for kids to do then the resort is trouble. Stop giving so much attention to the negativer and focus in on those young people and real adults doing something good for themselves and their community.

• Unfortunately these problems stem from bad parenting. Our schools are good at determining at Risk Youth, they are not so good at turning them around. We need to focus on the worst of the bunch at an early age and set these kids up with dedicated mentors to fill the void of neglect and abuse in these kids home. This problem will never go away until we support strong mentoring programs in our school.

• I couldn't aggree more with the naming of the gangs. Especially singling out two of them specifically. What's to say more of the gangs briefly mentioned won't go out and try to get a bit of fame by shooting a place or a person up. While the gang problem in the metro should not be ignored; we should not be putting these people on a pedastal, so to speak.

• Yes in a perfect world mom's would have only babies that they can financially and emotionally raise but there is a problem with being raised by one poor parent or maybe two that do not promote education or understand it... No this is not the complete story at all but poverty has a large part in the problems and we need to address that and early childhood education. I know I am a bleeding heart but I also lived in a poor neighborhood as far as renters go and I saw some very, very sad situations. Yes they could have been avoided by not having children but when you are not taught or shown anything different that is how we behave as teenagers and hopefully it ends there but not always.

• Why do the Star Tribune and now the City pages continue to recognize these gangs by name, thus giving them a higher importance? Even though these gang members have a brain a tad larger than a brontosaurus, I believe they have the capability to read and clip articles, and proudly say "yo man dat us!" Hey moms - could you please start having as many babies as you can financially and emotionally raise? Thanks!

• Giving front page press to St. Paul gangs -- particularly naming the gangs -- is probably not the best plan in a public awareness campaign. You just gave these young people free press and bragging rights.

• Is that scheisse vid on YouTube?

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