June 20, 2007

Golden Gate's gun violence targets teens

Posted by Tomas Palermo at 12:01AM

• 2 Comments
• Email
• Print
• Reprints
• Share

19-year old Jamar Lake should be enjoying his summer with family, earning money at the local youth center or playing a game of football with his homies. But he isn't doing any of those things. Lake was murdered Thursday May 24 at 10:30 a.m. on a bright, sunny morning outside a corner convenience store, not far from his home at the Buena Plaza East housing projects. Nicknamed "Big Bear," Lake was a popular senior at Mission High School where he had recently earned enough credits to graduate.

As a student teacher at one of San Francisco's oldest public high schools, Mission High, I got to know a lot of the school's diverse young students. I worked in an 11th grade English classroom this year, and a 12th grade classroom in '05-06. My pupils came from Palestine, Ukraine, Mongolia, Taiwan, El Salvador and Puerto Rico. Some had fled Hurricane Katrina and were rebuilding their lives in San Francisco. Listening to their hopes and struggles, I'm certain I learned as much from the kids as they may have from my teaching. But there are some experiences that I wish weren't so common for them.

A shrine for Bear

I walked into Mission High on Wednesday May 30 and immediately saw a shrine in the foyer that included twinkling candles, flowers, photos and other remembrances to Big Bear. Down both sides of the first floor hallway students wrote shout-outs and comments to their friend and classmate, many ending with "Rise In Power" or "Relax In Paradise." Although I hadn't known Bear personally, I knew many of his friends, and no-one could miss the large, smiling Lake sauntering to class surrounded by a crew of admiring boys and girls. I also learned that Bear was also warmly embraced by the school's principal and other administrators.

Ms. L (the master teacher I volunteered with) and I would talk often about our student's lives and their neighborhood issues. Perched on her desk was a photo of Raymon Bass, a student from 2004 who had been shot to death outside of a bar in San Francisco's Lower Haight neighborhood. As a resident of the Western Additon, a person of conscience, and DJ at the bar over the past six years, Bass's shooting was also personal to me. Big Bear's death last month was a stinging reminder of how little San Francisco has done to concretely deal with the causes of youth violence. A few measures -- beefed up police patrols or neighborhood rallies -- come and go in the wake of these tragedies. Then business goes on as usual.

Slow motion massacre

Since Bear's death there have been a rash of shootings and murders involving teens in Lake's hood and elsewhere. I keep wondering when the City is going to wake up and address the problem for what it is: a youth violence epidemic, a failure of public safety and a preventable massacre. There have been 43 murders in San Francisco to date in 2007, one more than this time last year.The violence in San Francisco, Oakland, LA and nationally is not a cluster; it's a trend. I'm not writing about this reactively because its something that "just came up." Rather, I can't sit and watch a slow-motion genocide of the young while our nation wastes billions on war.

(Western Addition peace wall)

The editors at WireTap have chosen to urgently address issues of youth violence for the remainder of the year. Do you have a story to share about the state of youth violence and what our community can do about it? Write us; pitch a solution-based story; inspire us with tales of youth like United Playaz making a difference. We can't wait for Bus, Democrats, the Govenator or any other powerbroker. This one's on us.

A timeline of youth violence in San Francisco in the past month:

May 22: 17-year old boy shot, dies in Tenderloin.

The Tenderloin is a low-income neighborhood in downtown San Francisco.

Friday May 25: 19-year old Jamar Lake is killed.

Jamar Lake lived in the Western Addition, home to the historic Fillmore jazz district, a neighborhood dealing with the legacy of "urban renewal." Gaulingly residents in WA have a clear view of City Hall's gold dome.

Friday June 15: Seven injured as feud rages in the Western Addition.

In my opinion, this is less a "feud" and more the result of a lack of jobs, outreach and opportunity for young people in this working class district.

Saturday June 16: "All year, kids have been getting shot, but the police didn't do anything about it until that white man got shot."

These shootings have taken place in an area where no less than five high and elementary school buildings sit, many of which have been put on "lock down" after shootings broke out.

Monday June 18: Teen, 15, shot dead by gunman in stolen car.

This youth died on the shopping corridor of 24th Street. Seems you can't be young and strand in front of a fruit stand or tacqueria in San Francisco without the fear of guns.

Thursday June 21: S.F. imposes new gang injunctions.