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“A coalition of government and law enforcement agencies, local nonprofits, and business and education groups, including the Miami-Dade public school district, has announced an innovative and potentially controversial new effort to stem the bloodshed: using data to identify and help at-risk children before they become statistics,” miamiherald.com reports.

The newly formedĀ “Together for Children” coalition identifiedĀ 20 zip codes with high rates ofĀ violent crimes — especially but not limited to incidents of “gun violence.” And then drilled down further . . .

Out of the children who attend school in these zip codes, the coalition has identified roughly 2,000 individual students at high risk of getting caught up in the cycle of violence.

That determination was based on six benchmarks the coalition analysis found were often associated with youth violence: poor school attendance, behavioral issues, low standardized test scores in math and reading as well as math and reading classroom skills that lag behind grade level.

The 2,000 students, whose identities the school district says will be kept strictly confidential, all have at least four of the risk factors. Under the coalition plan, which could be tweaked after a series of up-coming community workshops, those kids will be referred to extra support services, such as truancy prevention and therapy programs.

A smaller group of 127 students, whose family situations already are being monitored by the Florida Department of Children and Families in addition to meeting at least four of the six criteria, have been identified as the highest-risk group of all.

So the government is singling out kidsĀ for taxpayer-funded pre-crime prevention programs to prevent “gun violence.” What could possibly go wrong?

While the coalition has yet to collect community feedback, [ED: !] there are likely to be questions about privacy and potentially stigmatizing some students, schools or communities. Carvalho also acknowledged that some residents might be wary of the idea of a partnership between the school district and law enforcement agencies.

He stressed that the district will not share the list of at-risk youth or other sensitive data collected as part of the initiative with law enforcement agencies. ā€œIt is not lost to us that the issue of trust, which applies to all governmental institutions, must be addressed if we are to honestly and deliberately take on the issue of youth violence,ā€ he said.

Shirley Johnson, president of the NAACPā€™s Miami-Dade branch, said she is concerned that the children on the list might still be stigmatized. “Our children are very smart and they know when they are separated, they know when they are segregated, they are very, very knowledgeable, they know a lot of the things that we don’t know,ā€ she said.

Needless to say, theĀ article waves the bloody shirt to “explain” (i.e. promote) the Together for Children police/school system partnership. The Herald piece ends in the usual “do it for the children” fashion.

So far, 2016 has been a grim year for shooting deaths.

By early March, ten young people under the age of 20 had already been killed in Miami-Dade — the equivalent of one young life lost every week. Most of the victims were teenagers, but the shooting deaths of younger children have also taken a heartbreaking toll on local communities.

In the past decade, at least 19 childrenĀ under the age of 13Ā have been killed by guns in the county.

Last week, 8-year-old Jada Page was shot in the head shortly after beginning fourth grade and died at the hospital two days later. Two teenagers, Isaiah Solomon, 15, andĀ Antquinisha Flowers, 18, were also killed during the first two weeks of school, and another, 17-year-old Arthur Mann,Ā was wounded.

Missing from the report: any mention of gangs. Or gang prevention. Or criminal prosecution of gang members. Or gang intervention.Ā Just so you know,Ā Miami-Dade has one of the highest gang populations in America, the highest in the Southeast, and the second highest on the entire East Coast. In case you didn’t know, there’s your trouble.

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63 COMMENTS

  1. Pure Socialist, myopic denial. It’s the fault of the public for getting in the way. “Surrender your rights so that we can enforce the laws against those that will violate them, regardless of the law”. This will be of no use.

    • This “Alberto Carvalho” name looks suspiciously Brazilian. No wonder this taste for state-ism, then, which may come as a shock to you Americans, but very, very common in Brazil.

    • My crime control plan for Miami-Dade is simple and fool proof. (1) Close and bulldoze all of the government funded housing projects; (2) give the former residents a $100 and a one-way bus ticket to Chicago; (3) lock the bus doors from the outside; and (4) provide a police escort for the buses till they reach Chicago. As for the illegals, load them a freighter bound for China or India.

    • minority report is simply predictive statistics. Well, with tards in a kiddy pool. In reality Google could predict crime if we wanted them to.

      But bangers poping each other is third grade math.

  2. So what’s the issue here? MDC decides to put money and resources into identifying kids likely to end up involved in violence (and gangs by logical extension) and focus on getting them to be more successful in school and maybe avoiding that violent life. They do so without once talking about gun control legislation or restrictions on legal owners rights. Isn’t this the kind of thing that many POTG are clamoring for? Address the people problem, not the hardware they’re using?

    • I see your point: they are not engaging in “pre-crime” which is incarcerating with assumption of guilt, they are trying to turn at-risk kids around academically. I think it is a laudable focus on people instead of guns frankly. They are doing what David Clarke, the Pro-RKBA Milwaukee Sheriff,says: “Fix the ghetto” instead of passing laws against law-biding gun owners.

      • What I read, they spent a huge amount of time and money for info they refuse to actually use for anything, like most government programs. WTF was this supposed to do? Clearly, in a year or two, pressure will be applied to lock up all those “at-risk” kids, or give them lots of free money, or whatever. This plan is unconstitutional bullshit.

    • By individuals and private organizations, not by the government (especially not in this creepy we know who you are and we are following you sort of way)

    • I’m inclined to agree.

      “Pre-crime” is a phrase originally coined, if memory serves, by an author named Phil/Phillip Dick. His usage was specifically about the criminal justice system focusing on crimes that haven’t actually been committed yet; passing laws or punishing people because they think something “might” happen.

      I don’t think that that’s what’s happening here. Statistics can be a very useful tool in many ways, and this can be one. If a certain group of people is statistically more likely to regress in to the “gang culture,” I see no problem with directing additional resources to help prevent that.

      I don’t see anywhere that they indicate these students are being punished for anything, or losing any rights or abilities. Taken at face value, they’re simply receiving more attention from those who can provide them with help that they may well not be getting at home. Whether that help is with school work, finding extra-curricular activities that interest them, or therapy sessions if they’re warranted, that’s great.

      Now, if this organization’s intentions really are so innocent, and their actions really on the up-and-up, only time will tell.

      • What the intentions are does not matter for anything as we all have heard countless times: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” The issue here is that a governement system has been created that has a high potential for abuse. All of these systems start with good intentions and goals that are supported by the majority of people. All that has to happen is a tweaking of the markers that make someone subject to increased surveilance and scrutiny. The problem is that almost nobody objects to civil liberty violations until it apllies to them. ā€œFirst they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.ā€ We must oppose all vioations of civil liberties and the constitution vigorously.

      • “I donā€™t think that thatā€™s whatā€™s happening here.”

        How nice. But, if all goes well, and the “studies” end up with positive results, what was it all about if we are *THEN* not going to begin punishing people for what they “might” do? We do not need expensive studies to know where 95% of “at-risk” youth are or will be in the future, after we deal with that we can worry about the other 5%.

    • Thank you for being a reasonable one in these comments. This blog harps constantly on gangs, well THIS IS SOMETHING THAT CAN BE PART OF THE SOLUTION. Helping kids that may be sucked into gangs because of underachievement and the need for a positive mother-father family atmosphere is a great preventive measure to incarceration later on. RF, I think you need to re-think your stance on this.

      • “Helping” them exactly how? When you cannot identify them, helping them how? Statement is silly, we all *know* they will be identified, and persecuted for the rest of their lives, and soon thereafter we’ll find other important criteria, like membership in a political party, or a bank account within certain parameters, there is no *REASON* for this initiative given the parameters stated, you are being duped, and it takes a real sucker to believe this blather at this stage. Unless you are taking for granted that this whole article was lies, and you somehow know what they really mean.

        • Reading the article, it says the “at risk” kids have been identified to the school district and support organization so that resources can be directed at them; they are NOT being PUBLICLY identified, nor are their identities being shared back to law enforcement. That’s not to say this can’t change or be abused down the road, but that’s not the intent or the goal of the program.

          Look at this as a cost efficiency/small government thing. It’s more cost efficient to pay to keep kids in school and give them the tools to at least marginally succeed than it is to pay to keep them in jail. It’s more cost efficient to put extra resources into a few problem kids than it is to pay out for medical care for victims of stray gangbanger bullets. It’s more cost efficient to spend a little money up front on special educational efforts than it is to spend it on cops, drug interdiction, social services and welfare, medical bills, riot control, and aid to victims of crimes.

          I understand that it’s really easy to duck behind the tin-foil shield in fear of a surveillance state, but I’m really at a loss to see whose civil rights are getting violated by a program aimed at getting obviously at-risk kids more educational resources to try and keep them from ending up dropouts and bangers. The Department of Education is really not where I think our Orwellian concerns are most likely hiding out.

        • “Itā€™s more cost efficient to spend a little money up front on special educational efforts than it is to spend it on cops, drug interdiction, social services and welfare, medical bills, riot control, and aid to victims of crimes.”

          That is a completely unwarranted *assumption*, the study has not even been funded, and you are already telling us about these supposed “benefits”, which will undoubtedly appear as soon as the data are “adjusted” to reflect something or other. First, it would be a *lot* of money, it is never a little, and I’d bet my own money that all those other costs you mention will continue to grow without pause, since they are also government programs funded with free money.

  3. RF’s right about addressing the gang issue, otherwise this is just what has always been done to identify and help floundering students. It’s also how gifted works, more or less. It just took some rocket sturgeon to call it something catchy and present it as if it were new. Oh, and now there’s another database that can’t be kept secret!

  4. those kids will be referred to extra support services, such as truancy prevention and therapy programs.
    For some reason, I am betting that with the extra scrutiny of the bureaucrats, these kids will wind up being separated from their families and put in in some sort of separation or penal detention institution.
    Gee, these kids will probably be abnormal per our government program, so the more we can prove they are abnormal, the more we can say that our program works!
    See, it does take a village to raise a child! High fives all around!

    • Yeah, let’s just let ’em join gang, deal drugs, and end up on the wrong end of a gun or kill some innocents in a crossfire. It not like black have a 50% graduation rate or anything…oh wait.

      • Yeah, my wife and the neighbor next door has worked for government Family Services and its success rate has just been totally underwhelming. The Outsource contractors and high end bureaucrats do find it very lucrative however.

  5. “… most of the victims were teenagers…”

    So bangers killing other bangers with occasional actual kids hit in the crossfire.

  6. I’m sure that this government program will be just as successful as all the other government programs.

    All the money will disappear down a rat-hole, along with the lives of the “children” that the program is supposed to help.

    Because, really, nobody does incompetence as well as government does, and nobody does it more expensively or with higher levels of corruption.

    • “Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the Government take care of him had better take a look at the American Indian.” Henry Ford

      • Kind of funny! My 73 year old dad was just saying the same thing recently. Especially mentioning the 2 wounded knee incidents. Just ask all the Indians who were asked—“Under force of arms by the Union army.” To surrender their arms…And then we’re executed…Hmmm, one wonders if anyones Local Police department will be doing something like this in the future with “rebels, know-it-all-cop watcher civil libertarians, NRA types, etc…It would make sense of all the sudden paramilitarization in the recent years. Hell, when I was 18 yrs old. You could at least engage in mild sportsman gun talk…Without being thrown up against the wall..And suddenly shakendown, and frisked#! Nope , not like today…..

  7. Well, it could work but it does sound a bit raysis… Maybe they could move these troubled yoots out of their dysfunctional homes and send them to live with their rich uncles in Bel-Air.

    • Actually, I think there is room for a high-rise HUD development at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, right there in Washington, close to areas they could learn about our great nation! And there, they could be mentored by Democratic legislators, what could be better?

  8. I listened to this on the radio yesterday and it can be summed up simply:

    At-Risk Youths are at risk and need monitoring and mentoring. We need more tax dollars to do the monitoring and more volunteers for mentoring. My cousin here happens to run a monitoring business and he knows lots of people that can take care of the mentoring. Please make the checks payable to…..

  9. “In the past decade, at least 19 children under the age of 13 have been killed by guns in the county.”
    So, if I understand correctly, guns are running around on their own killing kids, right?

  10. Give it a try. Keep kids from becoming part of a gang when they grow up. Why not try it? It’s the best thing I’ve heard and better then just complaining and not doing anything. I live in South Florida and would rather spend my tax on this than paying to keep them locked. Either way we pay either with money, lives or freedom.

    • Great plan! I mean, we have to do *something*, right? How bout you write me a check for 100 billion dollars and I’ll get right on it!? NOBODY can be that stupid.

      To find out the problem, try following the MONEY!

  11. George Orwell was obviously a polyanna, optimist

    I kept reading to see what kind of identification markings they using. Tattoos or just a yellow star.

    Hitler and Stalin would be proud to see this crap.

  12. Clinton would be thrilled with this plan. She’ll appointment judges that will nod in agreement. All they need to do is tweak it for conservative God fearing home schoolers and it’s perfect.

  13. Hey, Trayvon Martin’s old high school, Krop, is next to one of those zip codes. Think he would be a statistic in this effort?

    I’m sure, absolutely sure I tell you, a program like this would have turned his sad, short life around. And if others make a bunch of money off the tax dollars spent, that’s just an added benefit, amirite?

  14. They seem to like putting other people on lists.

    To treat differently.

    Because of stuff they haven’t done.

    For the good of the rest of “us”, doncha know.

    Without asking “them” about it. (I thought you had to ask first. “Yes means yes.”)

    Even if it’s a legit idea, I’m not sure I want to bet on these particular list-makers. I don’t recall. Was The Known Wolf of Miami on a list, and that didn’t help, or not on a list?

  15. How about the 6 Ps? Proper Policing Prevents Piss Poor Performance. All those kids live in ghetto neighborhoods, controlled by drug gangs. They have tons of money, enough to pay for any child amelioration program. Have the National Guard swoop into the area, scoop up all the gangbangers, take all their money, and keep the drugs out. Declare Marshall Law until the emergency is over (2 or 3 generations). Get the ghetto out of the ghetto, otherwise it will just grab the kids back. Put some factories into the area providing useful work (wouldn’t cost any more than this proposed program), to keep people busy and useful. Get some civic pride back into each suburb. After a while, problem solved.

    • Yeah, because people never get angry about their rights or get incarcerated without good cause when you use the military to replace the police…

    • Yeah, ah little to Fascist for my taste. I’m sure we wouldn’t want to violate the rights of someones grandma that was passing through! Or were you thinking about asking the TSA 1st …..Cause they love harassing grandma’s in possession of “assault knitting needles!” Maybe a “stop and frisk ” for a tactical nail clippers….

  16. Well , if it’s not a “Big Brother: 1984” operated organization that plans on civil liberties infringements. Then , that’s great! Help kids in abusive households, under gang presure, get them into decent youth at risk programs–so they have a great future! But, they should have chosen a better name for their organization. And maybe they should have clarified the school’s, businesses, and the relationship with the city police. ..With a less “George Orwellian ” name other than “Pre-crime “.

  17. ” ***Beep! Beep! Buzz*** Department of Pre-crime : A Red ball has dropped! Year: 2016. Name: Hillary “AOL” Clinton , Clinton Foundation, and the DNC! Multiple Felons! The Oracles have spoken! Round them up, and let justice be served !

    Sorry! Just had to say it ! Lol !

  18. When they reduce the size of both schools and classrooms, I’ll be on board: those two factors are biggies in keeping lids in school.

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