“Not too long ago I covered crime in Oakland, Calif.,” tennessean.com crime beat journalist Natalie Neysa Alund reveals. “It wasn’t an anomaly to cover youths being killed in the city, where the streets are mean and poverty flourishes. When I took this job covering crime and breaking news in Nashville last year, I thought I’d get a break from seeing children die. I was wrong.” Like gun control advocates, Ms. Alund’s reference to “children” includes . . .
teenagers. Her opening salvo also omits the fact that the majority of these “children” killed by “gun violence” were involved with gangs (e.g.,the East Nashville Crips) who shoot rival gang bangers to protect lucrative drug territories. Here’s Ms. Alund’s solution to these Nashville’s “child” shootings . . .
My hope is that Nashville’s children are working to combat their issues by using words to solve problems instead of guns. And that parents, neighbors and religious and city leaders form a united front to help them. To teach them.
Does Ms. Alund, an alum of the “mean streets” of Oakland, really believe that Nashville’s firearms-related homicides are a Strother Martin problem (“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate”)? Can anyone — a reporter — possibly be that naive?
Yes. Yes she does and can. And here’s more proof that Ms. Alund’s perspective on “gun violence” is informed entirely by emotion.
It’s a sadness no one wants to imagine.
In my time covering the deaths of Nashville’s youths, some family of victims want to share their story in the hopes that another child doesn’t die. Others curse me, telling me to mind my own business.
There are nights I don’t sleep well.
There are days I call loved ones and cry. I feel the need to tell my mom that I love her in case something happens to me — her child.
But for the most part, I keep the gory details involving their deaths locked in a small place inside my head.
Someone might say something unkind about the amount of storage space in Ms. Alund’s head, but I couldn’t possibly comment. Suffice it to ask, who cares whether or not Ms. Alund cries at night?
This piece is labeled as “analysis” not “cry me a river.” Ms. Alund’s admission that she calls her mother in case she gets shot [hanging out with cops at crime scenes and talking to the parents of “wayward” children or their victims] makes me want to ask “What neighborhood do you live in?” Something tells me it’s not the Charlotte Pike/Oceola Ave neighborhood, for example.
Needless to say, Ms. Alund’s me-me-me perspective stems from both self-obssession and elitism. Like this:
In the end, no matter the scrutiny, the hate and the all-encompassing opinions, the death of our youth is news.
Reporters are here to let the world know about the epidemic of lethal violence involving our children.
If we don’t report the killings, the masses won’t know. And if the masses don’t know, nothing will change.
And right now change involving Nashville’s youth is crucial.
Yes, those great unwashed, otherwise ignorant masses yearning to be free from all those horrible guns that keep killing children. Alternatively, there are those who yearn to be safe from all those horrible “children” who keep killing each other and innocent bystanders when they use bullets instead of their words. Or something like that.
To paraphrase dear Natalie:
I cry for child Gun Violence victims, but if a kid dies of cancer or in a car crash, well, to heck with him.
Dude. She’s got 3 names, for Christ’s sake. She’s better than us.
You mean like John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald?
Or do you mean like John Wayne Bobbitt?
The fundamental cause of child gun deaths is negligent parenting. The parents and guardians of convicted shooters should be sent to prison for 25 years, no exceptions, no parole. The problem would resolve itself.
So, the children/criminals (chiminals?) which are largely drug-hustling gang-bangers, just need to use words, not guns? Poverty was and is the best indictator of crime. Solve the situation, solve the broken homes, solve the hopelessness. Until then, more laws for criminals to break will do nothing but disarm the law-abiding and draw imaginary circles of protection around some locations.
Government-funded War on Poverty! How’s that working out for them?
“…War on Poverty! How’s that working out for them?”
Rather well, actually.
Pay attention to what they *say*: They want to “spread the wealth around”.
Since that is impossible, they will do the only thing that is ‘fair’.
They will spread the poverty around equally…
Actually, it’s not. Ethnicity and IQ (which is tied to ethnicity due to generations of negative selection for intelligence amongst certain ethnic groups) is a far better indicator of violent crime than poverty. Funny how in poor, majority white areas you don’t see these sorts of shenanigans.
Give it time. The average IQ of White Americans has fallen 5 points since the immigration act of 1965.
Proof that 60 million bad apples will indeed spoil the bunch.
The poverty causes crime myth, thoroughly debunked, along with a great deal of interesting data:
https://youtu.be/8hyQDQPEsrs
She should get a job covering North Korea. The children are all safe there, tucked in their beds by their beloved Kim Jong Un himself.
Jamal: I catch you on dis’ street again, I gonna cap yo’ ass. Dis street be mine!
Leshawn: Bring it, yo! My homies kill all you. Dis our territory now!
*Suddenly. Capt. Liberal appears!*
Capt. Liberal: Golly, you two! No need for threats. There’s another way to work this out. Here! *hands them both copies of Robert’s Rules of Order* Everything you need to know is in here!
*two months later*
Jamal: Dis meeting of the regional inter-gang council be hereby called to order. First item on de agenda: “Ownership of turf in two disputed streets on da south side.” Montel be speaking first, on behalf of da Crips….
*Leshawn and Capt. Liberal look on*
Leshawn: Gee, Capt. Liberal! All we really needed was an orderly way to work out our differences! Thanks a bunch! Drug sales for all gangs are up 200%!
Capt. Liberal: Anytime, Leshawn. Anytime!
Lol look up there in the sky; it’s a cis…. no, it’s a trans…. no wait, it’s an other gendered… let’s see are those freckles… a gravity priveleged other gendered ginger!
Hey watch it with the Ginger, freckled comments! Those hurt my feelings.
Curious to know her political and religious positioning. Not her specific faith, if any, and which I have no reason to doubt.
I’m just interested to know more about those who blame religion for intolerance and opposing abortion/gay marriage/what-have-you, but invoke religious leaders and an essential part of getting kids to use words instead of guns while absolving community leaders (organizers?) of their responsibility to engage at the neighborhood level.
Violence among youth is generally heat of the moment, crime of passion, type behavior. We use Aggression Replacement Training in a group setting where we attempt to alter behavior by teaching the youth to pause and cognitively alter the outcome of the conflict. This works with youth who are low to medium risk, and are just being introduced to the Juvenile Justice system…more experienced gang bangers…not so much.
Hey doofus, could you spare some tears for children accidentally killed in swimming pools? In the US that is 50-100% more likely than an accidental shooting.
If you count truly accidental shootings of children (under 18) as reported bu the CDC, accidental drowning is far more likely. The last year I remember seeing (I believe was 2014) and it was 117 deaths vs over 2,000.
She didn’t seem to blame guns or propose anti-gun legislation in the piece, or did I miss that part?
Tough as this is to say, you’re right and I think we owe an apology. Im a little confused about why this is in the Crime section instead of A dedicated Commentary, but it looks like the Tennesseean tosses reporting and commentary together and expects the grown ups reading the paper to be able to sort them out.
While she decries the violence perpetrated using firearms, she has good reason to – citing that all three violent deaths this year involving teenagers and children were performed using firearms. However, she makes it clear that other threats exist, pointing out two infants were killed through abuse the year prior.
Her point is that alternative solutions need to exist to violence, generally. What she proposes are not criminal-ignored UBC or magazine bans, but social and community engagement. Finding alternatives to not just crime, but lifestyles that promulgate criminal behavior. And when there are disputes, those same lifestyles lead to mediation and other dispute resolutions.
She’s commenting on the need for the very things needed to break the social cycle that so many here are pinning the violence blame on.
“She’s commenting on the need for the very things needed to break the social cycle that so many here are pinning the violence blame on.”
Correct. Unfortunately, those very things needed start with the concept of personal responsibility.
That’s an unacceptable philosophy for Progressives…
Where in the article does she don the Hillary mask? I think the story, as presented in this post, isn’t fair. It takes too many liberties with observations from what might a moderate, assuming her to be McGovern incarnate.
On one hand, personal responsibility is essential to break the cycle; on the other, for many who grow up in that environ, the notion is unimaginable. For that group, you need to break the atmosphere of distrust and embodied helplessness – which is where she is suggesting community engagement needs to be available.
Some of us were fortunate to grow up in a home or environment where personal responsibility was a virtue and we were taught self reliance. For others, well, there is a reason the “welfare queen” stereotype exists. For her and her brood, you can’t expect behaviors that were never taught and never learned. And hoping they will eliminate each other does nothing to: a) prevent the next in line from taking their view; and b) protect the innocent who are caught in the crossfire.
That is true. However, her article was still silly; she cries tears over victims who are mostly criminals.
I also think you’re right, ActionPhysicalMan. After actually reading the original article, I think accusing Ms. Alund of holding the views which Mr. Farago is accusing her of holding is, at best, a stretch.
I haven’t read any of her other articles, so perhaps there is more evidence there, but that evidence was not present with this one.
With regards to Ms. Alund’s article, I don’t think it should be terribly controversial that teens being killed–even if those teens were involved in other crimes–is generally a bad thing. Not to say that the killing of anyone under 18 is never a direct result of their own actions, or that it is never under any circumstance justified; just that it is, in fact, sad.
With all of the actually ridiculous claims being made about gun rights by journalists, I find it somewhat perplexing that TTAG would choose to attack such an innocuous article.
I weep for child victims of the progressive dogma.
Seriously? I suppose I should call it a small blessing that there has only been one of these comments so far.
If these liberals running these high-crime cities just ran a dragnet every Thursday night, rounded up the known gangbangers and threw them in jail for the weekend, or better yet actually kept the scum in jail for crimes they’ve already committed, they would not have to cry so much.
When all those feral “children” kill each other off, the world will be a better place.
As a native Tennessean I would like to request that other states refrain from sending us their village idiots. We have more than enough that are homegrown.
And we know that each one of those East Nashville Crips is a card carrying NRA member with a custom AR-15, whose current consternation is getting that right trigger pull for their baby killins. They sit around on Sunday evenings and have caliber arguments about what’s “too snappy” for a drive-by.
Gangland warfare is propagated by “gun culture” in about the same way car theft is encouraged by NASCAR.
I used to cry for idiots for like this chick with too many names for their ignorance to 2A and guns/gun laws in general, but I realized I really don’t give a shit about them or their opinions.
There are nights I don’t sleep well
I’m throwing the BS card. Lay of the pot and wine girly.
Dear MTV Soros/Illuminati Zionist whatever – I cry for those little negro kids in f$%^$ed up ghetto prison like schools who have to deal with the atmosphere of poverty and evil idiocy your masters have created through the media with “gangsta rap” culture, communism and drug trafficking. And then you filth come in claiming inanimate objects, guns, somehow caused this all.
Little nappy haired jigaboo spearchucker ooga boogas who could be the next Marconi or Fermi, blasting Einstein out of the water, bringing talent and goodness to this country and humanity, trying to get educated and they have to deal with the idiots of their area chimping out and trying to emulate violent gangsta crap, committing violence screaming “WURLSTAR”.
Damned if you just don’t want to pick up the panicked, crying 16 year old negro girl who can’t finish her homework tonight because some primate classmate of hers HIT HER IN THE DAMN FACE FOR NO REASON or WORSE and just keep hugging her and encouraging her not to give up… Oh wait, you are at Starbucks sneering at the homeless guy on the laptop.
None of this would have happened without your masters, who now tell you you are cool for parroting the statements you preach trying to climb an imaginary social ladder.