On Tuesday, December 19th, Zeb, Caleb, and I met with Daryl Kahn. Daryl is a journalist with a very admirable desire for knowledge. He currently works at an online newspaper called the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange. Daryl writes articles on gang related issues, and he recently wrote one on a gang raid in upper Manhattan. Daryl teaches a class at the CUNY school of journalism. We talked to him about why he got involved in journalism. Daryl said his first encounter with murder was when he was only 16 and at a school dance. Someone had given birth and she left the child to die. Daryl has worked for the New York Times and covered many articles relating to our issue. We asked Daryl what he thought the police should have done instead of arresting everyone. He thought that it was outrageous what the police were doing to kids who were only 10 years old. He believes that there is a much better way to handle gang violence and locking up and ruining children’s lives is not the way. The police are arresting kids and bringing them into an even worse environment where they will learn to fight and kill, instead of stopping the gang violence at the source.

I was really surprised when Daryl told us about the class he teaches. He told us that they didn’t want to go into the field and ask questions and find real answers. Daryl believes that if you want to be a journalist you have to be prepared to go outside and do real research. Daryl Kahn does excellent work and I will never forget about how hard it is to be a child in a violent environment. One moment your with a group of friends, one of them brings a gun, you go to jail for being affiliated with a gang.