“The murders now are much more vicious,” said a New York City sociologist. “It’s not enough to kill. You degrade the body. He’s dead already with two bullets, so you shoot him with six. You decapitate him, or something else.” “There are a million kids out there who have no skills other than fighting,” said one veteran law officer. “They are not afraid of the police or jail or of dying,” nor are they concerned with the safety and lives of innocent bystanders caught in the cross fire of shoot-outs. Time magazine reports that of the 387 gang-related homicides in Los Angeles County in one year, half were innocent bystanders.

Unfortunately, the results have often been fatal. It is not uncommon to read or hear of young crack addicts killing their parents or guardian grandparents because they refused to give them money to purchase crack or because these addicts were caught smoking it.