Rap blamed for Asheville gang violence

Submitted by justevolvin on Sat, 03/22/2008 - 17:18

Here's the latest from ignorant police officer a.k.a. gang investigator, Louis Tomasetti of Asheville Police Department:

"Rap music icons and others who spread gang culture through television and media like YouTube hold blame for a growing gang problem in Asheville, a city police gang investigator said Wednesday." -- Citizen-Times.com

Are we no longer holding individuals accountable for their own actions? Is this small city in the South that I call home seriously going to point the finger at an entire music genre and art form? I would hope not, but will someone please take the microphone away from this man? Following his logic and thinking about the music I listen to, I should be having sex with countless women, drinking and consuming street drugs daily, and partying all night followed by sleeping all day.

It would seem that when Tomasetti speaks to our "journalists" here in Asheville with his fellow law enforcement officer, Mike Lamb, he takes a more reasonable and sensible tone. Here's a quote from a February 22nd article about their new "gang maps":

"Truly fighting gang activity will take people in the community helping police and addressing the root causes of poverty, drugs and a lack of family support many young people face, they said." -- Citizen-Times.com

So why the switch from such a reasoned approach to solving and deterring crime to such a backwards way of understanding the different and often interesting sub-cultures that make up our community? Did Tomasetti do some research and purchase a couple of rap albums to better understand his offenders? Did he hop on to YouTube and search for what videos came back when searching on such terms as gangs, rap, and Asheville? But that wouldn't be enough to prompt him to say such a thing at a luncheon held at the same University that I attend every day in pursuit of my own education and enlightenment.

No. Tomasetti must have come to the conclusion that Asheville youth are too stupid to think for themselves and that all his problems would disappear if our young men listened to Britney Spears, Norah Jones, and The Jonas Brothers. YouTube? This just illustrates the offensive lyrics of today's rap music. What more could influence our youth's impressionable minds than such vivid imagery? Not their parents, school teachers, or even a community that offers little alternative for its troubled youth?

Here's a great comment from the Citizen-Times.com article by DaddyO from Hendersonville, North Carolina:

"We are all ultimately responsible for the choices we make in life. Don't lay that at a rap artist's feet. Unfortunately, some kids do not have good judgment because their parents did not take the time, effort, or interest to teach their children about the consequences in life brought on by bad choices. We have a tendency in our society to place the blame on others instead of taking personal responsibility for the bad choices we make in life. It's like saying "the devil made me do it" when you were the one that made the conscious decision and effort to join a gang because your parents failed to raise you properly to begin with. What a vicious cycle. It all starts at home."

Here, here! So there are some reasonable people here in the community.

Let me wrap this up with a post from Louis Tomasetti himself from DARNonline.org from October of last year:

"I would like to begin by introducing myself to you. My name is Louis Tomasetti and I am the new Community Resource Officer for the South Central District. I have been in law enforcement for two years. My previous assignment was to the South Central District as a patrol officer."

Folks, we have on our hands a patrol officer turned gang expert who thinks rap is at the root of our city's gang problem. I'd be concerned if I really thought Asheville had a gang problem. But hey, everyone needs a job, right?

Thank you for your blog.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 04/09/2008 - 18:26.
I have been searching information about Tomasetti, to better understand his actions. Your blog was the only thing that didn't paint him in such a great light. I am facing Tomasetti in court next week. He is 23 years old. He has been on the force for 2 years. He falsely charged me with "resiting arrest" while I was sitting in my front yard. He lied on multiple occasions to multiple individuals, including: My witnesses, the Magistrate, and the Judge. I would go into more detail, about how bizarre this is, but I have to wait until after the superior court decision to explain the whole story. How did I get here? I have an ex-partner with a diagnosed mental illness, who would "become manic", and then call the police. This happened time, and time again, so eventually, it would appear by the police log of phone calls that "something must be going on here". One time for example, I called the police when my "Ex' broke into my house to confront me. then I was charged with "Assault on a female". although, no such occurrence took place, it seems that they were simply "tired of being called".$2,200 later, it was found that the officer was not even aware of a law called "domestic criminal trespass". When my attorney asked him on the stand if he was familiar with this law, he said "No sir, I am not familiar with that law. (!!! law enforcement doesn't know the law?? or even of a particular existence of a law???) while siting in jail, being amazed that I was there, I thought that this might be a great opportunity to help other innocent people with understanding the court system, and the law itself on a local level. So I have finally formed a blog a few days ago, and I will be trying to find ways to add good relevant content, and encourage others to help create this forum of understanding the Buncombe county / Asheville legal system. The blog is intended to be "solution oriented", not just a list of complaints about bad people in power. Understanding is the key to all of this. After dealing with Tomasetti in real life, the silly "blame of rap music" seems like a walk in the park. Maybe he will gain the power to start arresting peeps for playing rap music. There is not a whole lot of the constitution left, after all, including the first amendment.

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.