Recruits & Gangs

[ScriptOhio]

Interesting SI story of a guy from Compton CA:

Kitam Hamm is using football to get out of gang-infested Compton

Football and a strong, strict family have helped Kitam Hamm steer his way clear of the many gangs in his neighborhood.

The iPhone beside Kitam Hamm's bed vibrates at 6:15 on a recent morning, stirring him awake. A car alarm pulses in the alley and police sirens scream past, noises so familiar that they go unnoticed. Squinting, Hamm flips on the light. Letters from college football recruiters -- all neatly taped to the wall next to his bed -- come into focus: Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, UCLA, Columbia and seven more. They are the first thing the 18-year-old Hamm sees every morning, a daily reminder that he's one step closer to making it out of Compton, Calif.
In a neighborhood with at least three rival gangs, Hamm's every move is orchestrated, right down to what he wears and which route he takes to school. Hamm's 12-unit apartment complex is surrounded by a black iron fence and has a single secured entrance. It sits in a neighborhood where the streets are lined with billboards, walls with graffiti and small businesses secured by bars and gates. For Hamm, dropping his guard can be the difference between life and death.
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Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/magazine/12/01/gangs.main/index.html#ixzz1fK4zyJ4p

 

[Bleed S & G]

Great read.

 

[BengalsAndBucks]

Love the story, but I can't help but be concerned about the potential repercussions of the article drawing attention to this young man in this manner, especially when they have already mentioned how talented Compton area athletes have been targeted...

 

[y0yoyoin]

Love the story, but I can't help but be concerned about the potential repercussions of the article drawing attention to this young man in this manner, especially when they have already mentioned how talented Compton area athletes have been targeted...

this is what i was thinking when i read it...it not like he is straight up "snitching" on any gang, but you would think someone who is trying to avoid trouble wouldnt want this attention...who knows...maybe the bloods, crips, and Sureno's don't read SI

 

[TheStoicPaisano]

Surprised his dad went on record.

The majority of the De'Anthony Thomas whispers are true, he got caught up with the wrong crew and was/is a marked man in Crenshaw/L.A. Good thing Cliff Harris won't be around to 'mentor' him in Eugene.

Spent some time with Maurice Simmons, who should've been at USC starting in 2008. Then he decided to rob and steal three months before getting out of Dominguez (three months after getting out of a wheelchair, that's how serious his senior season leg injury was)...he's locked up now. Fortunately his brother Marquis is making the best of things under Kiffin.

 

[ScriptOhio]

Re: The current Compton High was once a community college, and the 55-acre campus is now surrounded by a 10-foot-high security fence. Inside the gates is an environment that is safe.


I wonder how many college coaches are brave enough to make a home visit. My guess is that most of his personal contacts (i.e. in home visits) are made at his school....during daylight hours.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLkSxv5ZgdQ"]Kitam Hamm #23 compton football - YouTube[/ame]

 

[osugrad21]

The 'gang issue' is no longer just a South Central LA, New York, (insert big city) issue...this has spread nationwide. This is an issue in every corner of the nation with which high schools are dealing.

 

[Hodgepodge]

The 'gang issue' is no longer just a South Central LA, New York, (insert big city) issue...this has spread nationwide. This is an issue in every corner of the nation with which high schools are dealing.

Quite true. I know out here in the Northwest, the biggest gang problems aren't in cities like Portland and Seattle, but rather small towns, especially in rural areas.

 

[Bleed S & G]

Edwin Johns Jr, Jefferson High Football Star, Killed in South L.A. Drive-By

The 18-year-old victim of a South L.A. drive-by yesterday afternoon has been identified as Edwin Ray Johns Jr., a recent graduate of Jefferson High School. He reportedly died after being shot multiple times in the upper torso.

An 11-year-old girl and 57-year-old man were hit by the same rain of bullets -- fired in broad daylight near 52nd Place and McKinley Avenue -- but are currently in stable condition at local hospitals.

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/...r_jefferson_high_football_killed_drive-by.php

Pretty sad story.. his facebook status from New Years is about gun fire going off around him.. puts things into perspective real quick and how blessed I am to have been born and raised in NW Columbus, Ohio.

 

[kn1f3party]

Awful. I find it hard to believe poverty in south central is any better than poverty in [insert city]. If parents want to help give their kids a future they need to get them out of there until it gets so bad even the gangs don't want to live there.

 

[pnuts34]

Awful. I find it hard to believe poverty in south central is any better than poverty in [insert city]. If parents want to help give their kids a future they need to get them out of there until it gets so bad even the gangs don't want to live there.

I hope you know that that's far easier said then done. I don't think any of these families want to live in these neighborhoods, but for kanyes it'd what they can afford. It sounds very easy to just say, why don't they move. I'm sure they've thought of this, but if you go deeper into the families' stories, you will see many of them are in poverty themselves or are barely making itas middle class citizens. And also a lit of times, the families have lived in those neighborhoods their entire lives so to many that's the only world they know and moving may feel like selling out.

 

[kn1f3party]

I hope you know that that's far easier said then done. I don't think any of these families want to live in these neighborhoods, but for kanyes it'd what they can afford. It sounds very easy to just say, why don't they move. I'm sure they've thought of this, but if you go deeper into the families' stories, you will see many of them are in poverty themselves or are barely making itas middle class citizens. And also a lit of times, the families have lived in those neighborhoods their entire lives so to many that's the only world they know and moving may feel like selling out.

I know that. And maybe it sounds like I'm oversimplifying it. But it isn't impossible and as a parent that had grown up in poverty and turned things around for himself I have learned two maxims have been true in my life: (A) fortune favors the bold and (B) nothing worth doing is easy. Sometimes you have to be courageous to do something with high risk and a lot of uncertainty to change you and your familily's lives. Even if that means moving across the country to somewhere unfamiliar and digging in to start a new life. I think a lot of these people would get out if they knew how, but programs want to concentrate on fixing something that is so broken I am skeptical it ever will rather than helping those that don't belong find a way out.

Either way, I really feel for kids that work their way out of there. Even more so for the many that lose their lives like Dannie Farber that simply don't know the right language and way to react to such a simplistic question like "where you from?"

 

[ShowMeBuck]

What a joke. People got on a ship many times alone and traveled across the Atlantic ocean to come here and start a life in America to a place where they didn't know the culture, didn't know the language and had no idea how they would survive. They not only survived but flourished and you are telling me that a family in 2012 that truly wants a fresh start for their family can't scrape up enough gas money and groceries to leave the hood? Give me a break. This is laughable.

 

[pnuts34]

What a joke. People got on a ship many times alone and traveled across the Atlantic ocean to come here and start a life in America to a place where they didn't know the culture, didn't know the language and had no idea how they would survive. They not only survived but flourished and you are telling me that a family in 2012 that truly wants a fresh start for their family can't scrape up enough gas money and groceries to leave the hood? Give me a break. This is laughable.

No, your comment sounds a like a joke. The immigrants that you speak of were encouraged by their families and friends to leave for prosperity. Poor families in America aren't, and are at times even ostracized when trying to come back. I grew up in a poor area in NYC and only left because my parents moved back to where my mother was from, that place being Ohio. If she hadn't been from there I probably would've never left, and thankfully I had parents that could put me in good middle and high schools. But a lot of these kids don't have parents or sometimes responsible adults in their lives to help them along the way. And the ones that do, still are torn between turning their back on the neighborhoods that raised. This is a bigger issue than gas money buddy. This is a socio economic issue that has plagued America for years, but the only reason its being brought to the forefront now is because the kids in question now can make a difference for a school in sports. There are thousands of more kids across the country living in impoverished areas but will never be heard of because they don't excel in sports. This discussion reminds me a little of the quote that jalen rose had on the Fab five movie's he saw the black players at Duke were uncle Tom's. Kids from poorer areas never want to be seen as sell outs from their own neighborhoods. I truly wish these kids could get out of these areas, but many times the parents either choose not to leave or can't afford to leave.
Btw, I love the quote that fortune favors the bold. That is such a true statement. And some can make those bold moves to favor their children, but many don't/cannot.

 

[BigWoof31]

But a lot of these kids don't have parents or sometimes responsible adults in their lives to help them along the way. And the ones that do, still are torn between turning their back on the neighborhoods that raised.

I think this is the most critical sentence.
Without arguing the merits/problems with non-traditional familes, I think its safe to conclude that a large percentage of urban athletes come from single parent homes or were raised by grandparents/uncles - etc.

It is unreasonable to suggest that these individuals have the means or knowledge on how to get their familes out of the impovershied areas as opposed to the will power.

Better education on busing programs would be advantageous.