Andrew Young blames poverty for much of crime in America

Jet, March 3, 1997

Former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young recently told people attending the Greater Miami Urban Peace Conference that poverty was to blame for much of the crime in the nation's urban centers.

Young said Americans should work together to ensure the nation's wealth is more equitably distributed, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

"I want us to look at the problem of crime as a function of an economy that has not yet reached all of our citizens," the civil rights activist and former Atlanta mayor said to the more than 300 people attending the conference.

He said that if the gap between the rich and the poor is reduced, cities crippled by crime and violence will become much better places to live.