Some experts blame this latest spike in violence in the city of Buffalo and surrounding areas on the pandemic, others blame it on the lack of jobs and other programs for our youth to be a part of. Those reasons among many others may all be true, but the one thing that stands out to me, as a man that has lived here my entire life is that there is a big difference now, than it was back in the day. One of the major differences I see now is the age of the youth that is getting in trouble. I think that this is one of the issues because it is much easier to influence a group of young boys or girls ages 10 to 15 to commit a crime. I know it seems hard to believe, but those are the ages of some of the kids that are out here being misguided.

Back in July, gun violence was declared a disaster emergency, since then there have been several initiatives put in place to help combat the violence in our city streets. I recently spoke with some friends that have been in the city for a long time, some of them are with the anti-violence groups that are currently helping in the city. The one thing that was brought up about how things are now versus back then is, there was a level of respect in the streets among older and younger people. Now, there is no respect. Another thing that was brought up is, how easy it is to get a gun now, that wasn't always the case here in Buffalo.

Do you remember being younger? when there was a fight, that's all it was, two people fought or maybe it was a group of people, and when it was over, it was over. Back then people rarely got killed.

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