As I sat on my front porch, around 10 PM this evening, a group of about a dozen teenage boys could be seen and heard approaching from Euclid, shouting "where you from" for all to hear. One of the little g's from across the street (who recently broke into another neighbors' house) was walking toward them, but turned and ran back to his porch... until he recognized them, and he joined them.

"Where you from?", they asked. "I'm from Wadena", they replied.

Wadena is the street behind my house, which is even more distressed than my Roxbury... and kids from there seem to be raging on Roxbury. They have tagged the apartment building at the Euclid end, and have tagged the stop sign and street on our end.

As the teens walked past our house, they looked over but didn't show any friendship or good energy - no smiles and waves of "howdy, neighbor" - they were there to issue a threat. One carried a bat, like was used to smash two of our back windows, to break into our home, a few weeks ago... which was left on our bed as a threat, we now assume.

We've since installed a fence around the back of our property. And, we have a 120 pound Cane Corso on guard, at all times. And we are now always on guard, at all times.

Who don't seem on guard are the East Cleveland police, who will not even respond to calls in this neighborhood.

And, who don't seem on guard are the little gangsters, who know they will never be pursued or caught.

And, who don't seem on guard are the parents, foster parents and social workers responsible for these juvenile delinquents.

And, who don't seem on guard are 100s of complacent older-timer neighbors who just seem to try and ignore or shut all this out at their front doors, letting their neighborhood be ruined by a bunch of juvenile delinquents.

And, who don't seem on guard are our community leaders, at all levels, who do not come into the trenches and learn and address our core problems with intelligence and sincerity.

I've never been anywhere in the world with such hostile youths, and uncaring adults, and I've been to many of the most distressed, impoverished, hurt places on Earth. Living in the inner-city of NEO is a heart-shattering experience, especially as you realize how ignorant and uncaring the outside world is to the plights of the people in these communities.

I wonder how many of these teen gangsters were severely lead poisoned as babies, and throughout their lives. My expectation is 100%.