#StoptheViolence

Yesterday another ruthless shooting left one 16 year old girl dead and 4 others wounded. But not only that it has left a community devastated and a country in fear of "the next one."
Her name was Tysha Jones, she was 16 years old and like the other 100s of people at Brighton Beach yesterday, she was just enjoying a fund day in the sun with friends. I don't know Tysha, but I am getting sick and tired of seeing so many people gunned down too early, and not only that I am tired of seeing so many of our youth getting gunned down. When will this stop? What was the gain in killing an innocent girl? What was the purpose in shooting 4 other people?
This all in the wake of the impending release of Johannes Mehserle, the BART Police Officer convicted of shooting and killing Oscar Grant in 2009. I am anoyed with the slow pace that our government is taking with stricter hand gun policies. I am angered with the rate at which young black men are either being killed or imprisoned. I am angered with the deaths of young people like Tysha Jones and the countless others.
Today, Twitter blew up with @UncleRUSH (Russell Simmons) asking his followers to tweet the names of victims who have lost their lives to gun violence, with the hash tag #Stoptheviolence. I will be happy for a day when we don't have to have hashtags like this anymore. If it could fit in 140 characters this would be my tweet:- Victim: Our inalienable rights to, LIFE, LIBERTY and the PURSUIT of Happiness When: Every time someone dies from a gunshot #Stoptheviolence

--That's all she wrote