Deadly shooting revives concerns about USC's neighborhood

[ellisonz]

4. My family is mixed White/Jewish/Asian.

I think this could blow the top off of some pretty raw feelings. This year is the 20th anniversary of the 1992 riots, over the last decade or so there has been increasing racial tension at California colleges as affirmative action ended and Asian student numbers increased dramatically. There was the UCLA Library taser incident and then the UCLA anti-Asian youtube video, and so there is already somewhat of an atmosphere in which Asians are seen as less valuable and as not part of the mainstream.

I have big problems with all of this, but having seen these dynamics first hand I don't underestimate their potency. I agree that the problem is fundamentally failed gun control policies. In every one of these incidents, the universal factor is inappropriate access to guns. It is truly senseless that we do nothing about this.

Aloha Ecumenist.

Also, I think you'll find this article of interest:

Fatal shooting sends shudders through a reborn Inglewood
The killing of Fredrick Martin Jr., who died shielding his son from two gunmen, raises haunting questions in a city that has been recovering from a siege of gang violence, with crime at a 32-year low.
By Sam Allen, Los Angeles Times
April 10, 2012, 6:17 p.m.

The Inglewood where young Fredrick Martin Jr. grew up was plagued by crime, gangs and the fear that came with both.

But by the time he returned in 2006, after graduating from college in Texas, the city was slowly turning around. Crime was down. Graffiti had largely disappeared. The barred windows and gated front doors were still fixtures on the street where he lived with his wife and child and grandmother, but every day they seemed less relevant in this community under the flight path to LAX.

Until a week ago.

Martin, 28, was cleaning the garage on the evening of April 3 with his 8-year-old son and a friend when two gunmen approached on foot and began firing. Martin threw the boy to the ground and covered his body, shielding him from the bullets. He suffered two gunshot wounds and died later that night. His son escaped with a minor graze.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0411-inglewood-20120411,0,2228097.story

These two incidents coming on-top of the shooting in Pasadena are just showing how far we have to go.