The Point | A lethal twist to teenage boys' reckless pride

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, February, 2007 | by Mark Bowden

For what its worth, Dante Jackson Freeman was the toughest kid in Philadelphia. Ever.

Four years ago, in a craps game in his North Philadelphia neighborhood up around 29th and Oxford Streets, he won what some apparently felt was too much. At least that's his mother's theory of how his trouble started. Stacey Jackson wasn't always sure what was going on with her teenage son in those streets. She was relaxing at a neighborhood club on a winter night when she was told her son was outside. She found Dante, furious, standing on the cold sidewalk in his socks.

"Can you believe this?" he asked her. He had been jumped by some boys he knew, and they had taken his jacket and his boots.

"He felt violated," Stacey said. "People he knew did it to him. After that, Dante...