I'm from somewhere where violence is very much the norm. It is impossible to make it through your entire grade school without personally knowing someone who got shot, jumped, incarcerated, involved in the riots, etc - if not yourself.
That lifestyle is difficult for other people to understand. And understandably so, no one can relate if they haven't gone through anything similar.
I don't know Rayon, and I know how he was raised, but kids don't use guns without somehow being conditioned to. Growing up inner city, it can be a really hard life for some. And it sounds like he was going through it. And he was locked up? It hardens people.
Rayon may have been a different person entirely had he been somewhere less volatile. It isn't fair to say he shouldn't have been on patrol. These girls probably inspired a reaction out of him that he only knows. And none of us knows why he shot his classmate. I don't think we can pin him as a dysfunctional member of society, we don't know enough.
This isn't fair. How are we supposed to treat everyone with a troubled background. I know I didn't grow up in Disneyland, and I certainly do have a temper. So if I was on the news for punching my fist through someone's face after they spit on me on and thought I wasn't gonna do anything, what would you think about me?
I would certainly hate the media to broadcast my past, and half azzed at that. Every generalization in the book would be used against me.