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This weekend, 20/20 aired a Diane Sawyer special about Americans and guns. It was informative, but the best part was catching up with little Damon Weaver, whose election coverage for his local news station charmed the world last fall. Damon has been out of the political spotlight since the inauguration (though he’s interviewed sports figures at a Disney event recently). The focus of this segment was, of course, guns, so it was bound to be depressing, but it was surprising to learn that Damon lives in such a dangerous town where children witness gun violence all the time, and Damon himself has witnessed a shooting.
Oh, no! It is cute when he says he wants to be “a person who trains whales,” and ABC and his local station should be commended for giving Damon such a huge platform to send a message to the president about gun violence, and I know it affects millions of children, but Jesus Christ, get Damon and his brothers out of there!
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my heart hurts
Tears, for real.
Tears for real here too.
Damon Weaver is in my Top Five Americans list, I’m pretty sure.
That place looks like some Rio favela. Evacuate all the children.
Oh man, his friend…tears.
I don’t envy Obama having to answer this though.
That was upsetting. I can’t believe towns like that exist.
Unrelated: Why was the timer in an iphone at 0:20?
funny how the, I guess, supposed gang members will talk to Damon like an actual adult, but that police officer talks down to him hardcore.
D-Weaver is my hero, I hope to be the journalist he is when he grows up to be my age, even though I’ll then be dead, and he’ll still be rocking the hard questions.
to be fair, i think the cop was just very uncomfortable discussing a murder with a child in such blase terms.n otice, he tried to keep it humanistic, calling the man ‘your friend’s dad.’ it can’t be easy.
We need to start a fund to move his family out of there. That’s TERRIBLE!
damon’s dna needs to write a book: how to create awesomeness.
He’s so charasmatic and resillient. As a teacher, I love the Damon Weavers of the world. Thanks for writing about him!!
WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!?!?!?!?!?!?!
The really sick thing about this is that Belle Glade and Pahokee are in the same county as those giant Palm Beach mansions.
If you really want a lesson in capitalism, start out on the island and drive straight west to the end of the county. You can go from a place that has streets lined with $10,000 palm trees to the other side of the county where slavery still exists.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/hp/content/moderndayslavery/reports/peonageblurbs1207.html
If they gave Damon a TV show, I would watch it.
Vote Damon in 2040!
Sad stuff. The way I look at it is that Damon’s community, like some in my town, Savannah GA, need to rally together and stop letting the gangs run their world. You heard it right from the cop. THEY KNOW WHO KILLED THE KIDS DAD and yet there is no one human enough to stand up to the lowlife hoods who did it. I don’t understand how people let that go on.
That is certainly one way of looking at it, and probably how the cop sees it. But the people deciding not to testify against one specific killer are not necessarily making an irrational choice among their available options.
The vast majority of people in any community would hesitate to put their own and their families’ lives in danger for what can only be understood as a symbolic gesture unlikely to have any noticeable impact on safety day to day. You can call that “letting” gangs rule, but to most people I think that would seem to be an unfairly harsh standard of behavior.
This should not be happening in the world, let alone America.
Something needs to be done. This makes me so sad.
Holy shit, man. These kids have lived several lifetimes worth of suffering. The worst part is that there are kids just like Damon in every poor neighborhood in this country. Devastating.
like always networks exploit the “struggle” yet enduring “spirit” of black folks in the hood. then pack up in bounce. You’ve seen this sad story a million times and the network hopes u enjoy it again without asking the real question of: why in the hell is anyone allowing this?
Not to be flippant but its not surprising to me . there are still a lot of kids who live in the hood. and the hood is worse than ever. Murders have been rising the last few years and no ones discussing it.
But i think its great to show that the majority are like my main man damon not mythical rage filled ghetto war zone soldiers.
maybe america needs its own slumdog.
sad boom.
this is why we need to help out here first.
How can we save Damon Weaver? How can we save all the Damon Weavers?