Lucinda F. Boyd's Blog (484)

Cuicide Builds Suicide Awareness.



Compton, CA –

Struggling to survive and overcome violence and poverty is a common image seen in movies and music about those who live in Compton. For West Coast rapper Cuicide, it’s all just a part of his life.

He’s dealt with hardships from the moment he was born, from having been abandoned…

Louisiana is the world's prison capital

Published: Sunday, May 13, 2012, 5:00 AM Updated: Tuesday, May 29, 2012, 11:23 AM

By Cindy Chang, The Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune

Louisiana is the world's prison capital. The state imprisons more of its people, per head, than any of its U.S. counterparts. First among Americans means first in the world. Louisiana's…

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What people are saying:

"Documentaries have the power to inform, incite and inspire an audience all in one sitting. Judging from the two-minute long standing ovation he received [at Sundance] after the screening of his film Slavery by Another Name, director Samuel…

Chilling message posted hours before S.F. homicide

By: Mike Aldax | 03/30/12 5:25 PM

SF Examiner Staff Writer | Follow on Twitter @SFExMikeAldax

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Courtesy photo

Diondre Young, 21, was shot dead Friday morning near the Bay Bridge in San Francisco.At 5:44 p.m. on Thursday, 21-year-old Diondre Young posted a rhyme on Facebook that mentioned friends who had died and asked whether his “time could be next.”

Young’s “time,” it turned out, was just hours away, as he was…

Gang dispute fueling violence in San Francisco

By: Mike Aldax | 08/01/12 5:57 PM

SF Examiner Staff Writer | Follow on Twitter @SFExMikeAldax

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Mike Koozmin/The S.F. Examiner

The site of the shooting was the 3000 block of San Bruno Avenue, not far from a Visitation Valley neighborhood plagued with multiple killings in the recent weeks. Four shooting deaths since Sunday have been the result of a raging dispute between members of one vicious gang, police said…

Clarence Aaron is serving three life terms for a small-time college cocaine deal, another victim of heinous mandatory drug sentencing laws.



This is a simple truth: the United States is the only country in the first world that imposes life sentences to teenagers for small-time, non-violent drug offenses. In fact,…

Drug lord's son speaks out against violence

Sebastian Marroquin speaks in Calgary about the crimes of his father, Pablo Escobar, a drug lord killed in 1993.

Sebastian Marroquin, son of columbian drug dealer Pablo Escobar

CALGARY — In 2007, Sebastian Marroquin set off on a journey of atonement. He sat down and wrote letters to two young men whose fathers were brutally murdered.

"It took me three months to write the letters," says the soft-spoken 35-year-old, as we sit together at…

Sebastian Marroquin, son of Columbian drug head Pablo Escobar poses for a photo on April 25, 2012, in downtown Calgary, Alberta. (STUART DRYDEN/QMI AGENCY)

CALGARY -- His fear growing with every passing second, Sebastian Marroquin tried to get his father to hang up the phone.

But Pablo Escobar wouldn't listen. The world's most notorious drug lord was on the run following a prison break, and apparently…

More than 110,000 active-duty Army troops last year took antidepressants, sedatives and other prescription medications. Some see a link to aberrant behavior.

While there was some early, ad hoc use of psychotropic drugs in the Vietnam War, the modern Army…

Fear of repeat offenses keeps bail higher for drug charges

by Brian Anderson

banderson@annistonstar.com Anniston Star

Mar 23, 2012

Bail bond agent Jason Chandler says 34 of the 41 people he has bonded out of jail in the last three weeks have been accused of drug offenses.  Jason Chandler said in his line of work, it doesn’t pay to be judgmental.

As a bail bond agent with A Bad Boy Bonds on 11th Street in Anniston,…

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Prosecutors have charged nine people in connection with an alleged gang rape in St. Paul last November.

A criminal complaint issued Friday says the defendants, five adults and four juveniles, are reported members of the "True Blood 22" street gang.

"They are a documented criminal street gang that operates in the Twin Cities," said Ramsey County Attorney John Choi.  "The facts outlined in this complaint are horrible."

Prosecutors say the 14-year-old…

Pounding the podium with emotion, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Friday he’s outraged by the bloodbath of violence that claimed the life of a 6-year-old playing on her porch in front of her parents and nearly killed a Chicago Police officer.

“What happened is unacceptable. Our streets are for our children…

March 15, 2012

Parents upset about gang label

Peggy King Cordele Dispatch…

As state governments wrestle with massive budget shortfalls, a…

Private Prison Company to Demand 90% Occupancy

Thursday, February 16, 2012