Sean Taylor Is Dead.

[ttogreh]

Sean Taylor has died a day after being shot in his home.

The Washington Redskins football player has a checkered past, and he is just the latest in a sad string of prominent NFL athletes to die a violent death. He also happened to be a black man under the age of 25. Sadly, that demographic is a dangerous place to be in this country...

According to WISQARS, in 2004, the latest year with data available, 2,847 of 3,533,308 black males between the ages of 15 to 25 died due to homicide. That gives a rate of 80.58 homicide deaths per 100,000.

Comparitively, for white males between the ages of 15 and 25, of a population of 18,530,487 individuals, only 1,925 were killed by homicide in 2004. That gives a rate of 10.39 per 100,000.

There is an epidemic of homicide in the black community. The only question is what can be done to combat it. What can be done on a national and personal level, to insure that homicide is no longer the leading cause of death, not only for young black males, but for everyone?

[Destroit]

I saw that this morning...how sad : Apparantly he was a real good guy.

[Hellion]

It seems that this country has the highest rate of violent crime of all the industrialized nations.and its getting much worse

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

the USA is #24, not #1 when it comes to per capita murder rates and #6 for shear number of. And before the gun nuts go off... The USA is #4 for over all murder by gun and #8 per capita.

[Hellion]

the USA is #24, not #1 when it comes to murder rates.

thanx for the info,I'll take your word over the news anytime.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

all you avhe to do is look it up bro. It took like under a minute.

[Brenda Starrr]

It doesn't matter why it happened. The fact that it happened is just so incredibly sad. This was a young, talented, much-loved MAN. Who cares what color he was. He was engaged to a beautiful lady, loved by his family, fans, and peers. I watched the Baltimore Ravens game on Monday night. Depsite their loss to the Patriots, the game was dedicated to his memory by Ray Lewis and other former teammates who loved him deeply.

Just so incredibly sad.....

[ttogreh]

Yes, Sean Taylor was first and foremost, a man. However, to discount his ethnicity and age is to discount a large part of what made him who he was. I think it is an injustice to not use this tragedy to remind everyone of the silent killer that is violence in the young black community.

We mustn't turn away, or say that his color does not matter. A good man is dead. We should remember him for who he was, and use this tragedy to effect positive change.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

True, we need to find a way to get young black men to stop killing each other over stupid shit.