European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 16, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Holding on the Bensons of Boston by Fred Bayles associated press thursday evenings Are family time at the Home of Antonio and Carolyn Benson a time reserved to discuss schoolwork or chores. But one thursday Benson gathered his boys aged 5, 8 and 11, in the living room and reviewed what to do when they hear gunshots. I told them that no matter where they were at Home or in a car they should get Down on the ground that they be looking around or curious about what s happening Quot said Benson in the even tone of a Parent telling a child to look both ways before crossing the Street. The sound of gunfire Isnit yet that common on the quiet Street in Bostons Dorchester Section where Benson grew up and now tries to rear his boys to manhood. But there Are other troubling sounds sounds of a Distant storm. Like the talk about the two teen agers shot up on Greenwood Avenue last Winter and closer to Home talk about the Bullet that went through a neighbor s window Down the Street. There Are whispers about the Greenwood gang a group of teens believed to be dealing drugs a few streets Over and the Junior Greenwood a gang of boys younger than 11-year-old Victor Benson in a Rush to mimic the hard ways of their older Brothers. Quot they do bad things like robbing ladies Quot Victor explains with a nervous smile. It is boys like Victor and his Brothers Giovanni and Stefan who Are key to which Side will win the inner City wars. Tony and Carolyn Benson envision their sons As Quot aware Young Black men Quot future professionals who can save their Community from chaos. Quot me and my dad want me to be a lawyer Quot says Victor who then lists other goals More common for a boy his age an artist a football player a track Star. Quot when i grow up i want to be a police officer Quot Giovanni pipes in. His father winces when the 7-year-old assumes a combat shooting stance and makes gun noises. It is a reminder for Benson a 28-year-old schoolteacher that these Days his boys Are at risk As potential fodder for the drugs the gangs and the associated dangers of the Street. I Don t have a lot of fear for myself but i am afraid that something could happen to one of my boys a says Benson. A i m afraid we re going to lose a lot of our kids in this the Bensons do their Best to keep their sons from temptation. Victor and Giovanni Are in a program that sends them to school in the affluent Boston suburb of Weston. After school and on weekends they Are kept Busy with activities like Junior track basketball and family outings. Quot we be got to have alternatives for them we try to keep them in programs Quot says Carolyn who works in the state department of social services. A i try to be with my kids know where they Are and who their friends Victor turns quiet when asked about going out alone. For the most part his time is structured but sometimes in the summer he rides his bicycle around the neighbourhood. Quot i get a Little nervous about going outside a he says. His eyes go wide when asked what he d do if he were recruited by a gang. Quot id run a he explains patiently. Quot if you join a gang you have to do something bad. And sometimes when you join a gang and you want to get out they shoot each Day at school where he teaches English social studies and Reading to 11 and 12-year-Olds, Benson is reminded of the dangers of the City. Quot we have kids who come from Homes with drug addiction or alcoholism and they grow up too Quick Quot he says. Quot i see Young men out there who Are searching for Strong male role models. When they done to see that at Home they look to somebody who is Strong somebody who s making it and that a the drug despite the stray bullets the gangs the drugs and the crime the Bensons want to stay in the neighbourhood where they both grew up. Tony has tried to make their neighbourhood safer. He persuaded some drug dealers hanging out on his Street to take their business elsewhere. He also tried setting up a Crim watch program to combat a rash of burglaries. But after a few meetings Quot folks got Quot people Are Busy trying to maintain their own life and their own families Quot he says. Quot they just done to have time for anybody Quot if it becomes unbearable i d like to move to a place that s quiet with a Yard and homeowners on the Street Quot says Carolyn. Quot but i done to want to live in a suburb. In be lived my whole life killing rate soars by Anthony Shadid associated press a High school dropout s dream of putting to use his new College diploma was shattered by a random gang attack. A girl s ninth birthday ended with a stray Bullet As she Lay on her mothers bed. From new York to Chicago to Milwaukee big cities Are seeking emergency gun control measures As they Battle a dramatic Rise in violent crimes Many involving random killings of innocent victims. Quot it does no to matter where you Are or what you re doing the lives of people in the inner City. Are at stake Quot said anti crime activist Ruth Varnado whose reclaiming the streets movement has won Praise from president Bush. Milwaukee a City of 600,000, has seen its murder rate jump by More than half to 18.7 per 100,000 residents Between 1988 and 1989. That translated into a record 116 homicides in 1989. Already this year 115 killings have been recorded. A decade ago there were fewer than 100 homicides in All of Wisconsin. Of even greater concern is the randomness of three killings in Milwaukee in september. Nine year old Shemeker Wilkins whose family recently fled a Chicago housing project was lying on her Mother s bed after celebrating her birthday when a stray Bullet pierced the bedroom Wall and struck her in the head. She died 10 hours later. Her Mother afford the funeral. Quot i wanted to get away from the drug dealers gangs shootings the projects and make a new Start for my kids Quot said Ruby Wilkins. Quot i thought i had moved Antonio and Carolyn Benson pose at their Home in by Quot aware Young Black men Quot future professionals who to somewhere where i would be a week earlier a 17-year-old was accused of randomly selecting and executing Charles Davis 19, to prove in a Street gang initiation rite that he knew How to kill. Davis a High school dropout had recently earned a degree from Milwaukee area technical College and gotten a Job at a Lawn Mower factory. In the same neighbourhood Tammy Reilly 17, was killed by an errant blast from a sawed off Shotgun As she listened to music in a relative s apartment. Quot its going to take a Long time for this Community to Ever heal. There Are just too Many scars Quot said Queen Hyler founder of Stop the violence a Milwaukee citizen group. Quot i m not going to sit Here and watch them Bury another 9-year-old without shaking this City Hyler in t alone in her efforts. City and county officials tuesday of not stones Dorchester Section with their sons save their Community from chaos. A s drawing up emergency measures to enforce gun registration in Chicago 628 slayings have been recorded so far s year 111 More than All of last year. The City Council s begun emergency hearings to seek new ways to Netrol drugs and gangs. In new York City 16 children have been shot since july and six have died police said. Mayor David Dinkins s also issued Calls for tighter gun controls. Community activists blame the rising crime rate on a Uble digit unemployment and inadequate funding for tools drug rehabilitation and counselling for gang embers. Quot we said in 1989 if you Don t help us on the front Side then you la have to pay for it on the Back Side Quot Varnado Slid. Quot the Back Side is that our babies Are Justice in Chicago tart tongued judge has heard it All by Sharon Cohen associate press it s late morning in judge Earl Strayhorn s Chambers in Chicago and today a topic is wasted lives. One Young Man is dead in a shooting Over drugs. Another a 19-year-old gang member will pay for the crime. Now its bargaining time. The 19-year-old s lawyer pleads for mercy. The prosecutor talks of murder. Then the judge makes his offer 20 years take it or leave it. Minutes water the Boyish cocaine dealer jaw jutting head cocked Back defiantly pleads guilty to murder. His Mother straining to hear in the courts front Row cups her tearful face in her hands. As she leaves she s comforted by a youth whose to shirt has a Moniker on the Back so goes another Day in the Cook county courts another Day where dreams die where mothers cry where the strangest and Saddest stories Are told where a few words from the honorable Earl Strayhorn can mean life or death. Quot yes this is Justice Quot the judge says of the five minute bargaining session he estimates saved seven trial Days. Quot he s not walking away with a slap on the wrist. Twenty years Ain t chopped liver. The Penitentiary is not a country for almost 20 years Strayhorn has judged the crimes and misdemeanours of Urban America. This tart tongued Veteran of the nations largest court system says he a a pragmatist not a dreamy eyed crusader out to right every wrong. Quot i am not society s avenging Angel Quot he declares. Quot i am not sitting in order to act As the conscience of society and to impose the horrible Wrath of the lord on people who commit horrible and he has heard his share the teen who threw her baby Down a garbage Chute into a compacted the Guy who axed his grandmother to death the Man who hacked off his lovers head and toes and mailed them. Quot life in this Day and age is cheaper than a piece of meat in the meat Market Quot Strayhorn says. But this Man who has climbed the Steps of the depression Era criminal courts building for 42 of his 72 years As a prosecutor defense attorney and now judge decided Long ago not to allow the cruelty to eat him up. Quot i put a shield on. I Don t let it get behind that shield Quot he says sitting in his Chambers lined with awards Memorabilia and photos of his wife lawyer son doctor daughter and grandchild. Strayhorn disposes of 500 to 550 cases a year about 60 percent in pleas or Bench trials. In 1989,28,647 felony cases were filed in the county a criminal division More than triple the number of a decade earlier officials say. An estimated 75 percent were tied to drugs. Strayhorn says being a Black raised in Chicago a he now lives a 15-minute drive from work a better prepared him to be a judge he understands the environment and experiences of Many who become court statistics. But when the White haired bespectacled judge takes the Bench in his cavernous Marble and Wood courtroom he a no soft touch. Quot Why Are you wearing that junk Quot he snaps at a bearded drug offender whose earring he takes As a sign of gang membership. Quot when you come into court you better take it out. You re caught with them their dirt is going to spill Over on you and i m going to Send you to the Penitentiary. Do you understand Quot a suspected burglar fares no better. His lawyer wants his Bond reduced arguing that he supports four children. Strayhorn asks How much he gives the Mother each week and questions his claim that a Job s waiting. The Man mumbles a confused answer. Strayhorn interrupts snarling at the lawyer Quot Don t make him lie. Tell him to shut up. That s Why he s Here. He s a liar Quot after a generation on the Bench Strayhorn says punishment remains the toughest part of the Job. He has imposed the death penalty twice though he morally opposes it and once sentenced a gang rapist to 125 years prompting the Man to retort Quot i Hope you croak in bed but he also acknowledges he probably gives More probation than other judges a in about 85 percent of his cases. Quot not a Day goes by that i done to remember that i am Black and being a judge really has t changed it becomes a theme when he Speaks to groups of Young people. Quot when does a Black person become a Nigger in our society Quot he says he asks such groups. Quot and their eyes Widen and then somebody says i done to know when a i say when you leave the Quot Quot the moral of the Story. I know i m Good but in a still Black. That Means i m not going to receive the Benefit of being Good merely because i have been Good. In a going to have to be something sober 16,1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 15
