01 Jul The Cure to Inner-City Violence Must Come from the Inner City

Words of Wisdom from Community Elder, Khalid Elahi

Every time there is a shooting in the inner city, there are activists who come along and preach about stopping the violence. The problem is, they have never studied its root causes.

In order to have any impact in the war on violence in the inner city, you must first understand the inner city. You must see firsthand the causes of death and incarceration of young people.

If you squeezed triggers for years, then you might know something about what is going on inside of a young shooter’s mind. You can begin to have answers for what inquiring minds that want to know. Why he would even squeeze the trigger in the first place? Who possibly gave him a gun? What drugs is he on?

I have been holding seminars on the ‘hood virus since 2002. And I think it’s an insult to people who have lost their family members to violence when activists serve us with regurgitated information about violence.

I listen to a lot of information about how to overcome the street mentality and keep from digging up my violent past, and the information that I survive off of must be real.

I have lived in a negative environment, and reset my mind from death to life. This is how lives can be saved.