Over the last two years, the city of Baltimore has total be turned into a war zone. This made the governor of Maryland to declare a state of emergency as the civil unrest constantly continued (Elfenbein, Hollowak, and Nix 09). The funeral of one, Freddie Gray, had unleashed all the rioting, none of which was doing anyone any good. To my dismay, there were some leaders in the African American community that were strongly supporting the protests. By throwing stones at police, smashing cars, and looting stores, you will only make your city or town worse than it already is. Not long ago before the civil unrest in Baltimore, Ferguson was also on fire. The eruptions of civil unrest tend to be the norms of many cities in case they want to be heard by their governments. This social decay that has been eating away our societies for many generations is now deeply manifesting in some very ugly ways.
There is a huge gap between the unattainable dreams of the youths that cause civil unrest and the hopelessness that they have that causes these behaviors. Sincerely, it is not their fault that they are living without hope. It is the fault of the negligence by the society. These individuals require therapy to solve their hopelessness. This therapy can be provided by giving adequate and proper education such that they may come out of the ghettos. Education, especially to the youth will drastically reduce the cases of civil unrest because the individuals involved will be educated enough to know the proper methods and the appropriate channels to use in case they have a critical issue rather than going to the streets and causing civil unrest.
Economic and social contexts are the main factors to look at. The rates of youth unemployment in many of these cities that face such civil unrest are very high. Latest official figures of Boston Employment Commission one in every five young individual that is aged between 16 to 25 years is unemployed. Moreover, within that group, 7% of individuals aged 16 to 18 years are not in any form of education or training. The funding for youths and local authorities spending on children’s activities has also been cut hugely. We cannot ignore that fact that the cities that experienced some of the worst civil unrest in England in 2011, such as Birmingham and Harlingen, are subject to cuts of up to 18% (Elliott 11).
Not only are the local authorities cutting support funds, they are also cutting the funds for services for youth crime prevention. The local authorities should see to it that they invest on the youth appropriately. The youth will grow productively and contribute hugely in the well being of their societies through entrepreneurship and through businesses. An adequately resourced spaced and safety for our youth is not for luxury but a necessity. In addition this, we should also lift the youth out of poverty. The incapacitating impact of poverty cannot merely be imagined by those who have never tasted it, especially not the politicians or social leaders who may induce the civil unrest. By seeing your parents in poverty and unemployed all their lives and living from hand to mouth is a very sad as well as angering experience. Our country has a huge gap between the poor and rich and it is becoming wider year after year. By fairly distributing wealth and income and effectively ending poverty are closely related.
All in all, the power to reduce and completely eradicate poverty lies in our hands. We should not neglect the marginalized groups in our community because by rioting and causing havoc is the only way they will be heard.
Works Cited
Elfenbein, Jessica I, Thomas L. Hollowak, and Elizabeth M. Nix. Baltimore: Riots and Rebirth in an American City. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2015. Print.
Elliott, Chris. Civil Unrest: Rioting in Our Cities. London: Guardian Books, 2011. Print.
