On November 2, 2008, a young man lost his life. This young man is Tai Lam, he was just 14 years old when he was senselessly shot to death on a Metro bus as he was coming home from a night out with his friends. He died in his brothers arms.

Many of my friends knew Tai, he touched a lot of people in his short life. I never got the pleasure of meeting Tai, but everything I heard about him was nothing short of great. He was and still is love by everyone. Everyone, except, for the man who shot Tai, and the other two who held the doors of the bus open so he could do so. 

Tai did not know these men, yes, they were just on the same bus he was on, doing nothing but causing trouble with kids 5 years or more younger then them. 

These men's actions on the bus were very questionable. The question of why these men would shoot at and kill innocent kids, ran through the minds of everyone. It was eventually uncovered that the man shot Tai because he was being initiated into MS13. That, and only that is the reason Tai lost his life.

Tai's death affected almost everyone I know. everywhere you went you saw purple (his favorite color) and scarfs (he wore them a lot). He is deeply missed. And kids are still trying to come to terms with it. 

So a group of kids in the D.C/Metro area formed a Stop The Violence Concert in Tai's honor. It was held in Silver Spring, where my friends and I hang out, as did Tai. 

My friend and I attended the concert, along with, what seemed like, millions of kids. It was a great concert and it was for a good cause.

However, when the go-go band started playing, the "Stop The Violence Concert" turned into just the "Violence Concert"

It started with one beating, which my friend and I unfortunately saw. That beating lead to another one, which lead to one within the main crowd in front of the stage, and pretty soon, Elsworth Dr. was crowded with kids fighting. 

My friend and I stayed off to the side and watched all of this nonsense fighting unfold. You could not see the road because it was crowded with kids all of which were punching and fighting each other. It got so bad that the police had to use their batons to break up fights. At the end of the night 16 were arrested.

Wouldn't having one of your friends shot dead for no reason make you want to stop the fighting and shooting? I just do not understand. The only thing I know is that it needs to stop and it needs to stop NOW.