Byline: BRENDAN LYONS Staff writer -
Albany On the 11th of every month, Darlene Morton packs a picnic lunch and drives across the city to visit her oldest son and one of his good friends.
On a sloping grass hill in the back of Graceland Cemetery, not far from a small willow tree, Morton's son, 18-year-old Javonn, is buried next to his childhood buddy, 21-year-old Antoinne Jeffers. Both were gunned down, apparently by other young men, a month apart earlier this year -- one on a darkened West Hill street, the other in a sun-baked park in the South End.
``Sometimes I sit and think it was determined that my son was going to get shot,'' Darlene Morton said.
FBI statistics show that young men between the ages of 17 and 24, especially black males, are more likely to be murdered by their peers than any other segment of society.
``I lost a lot of bright kids to the street that way,'' said the Rev. John U. Miller, a South End pastor. ``One of the real big issues is the incredible peer pressure on our young people in the 'hood, which is not to go to school and not to do that which is white or to get involved outside of your own clique or gang.''
Indeed, residents and pastors in Albany's inner-city neighborhoods say many boys are growing up fatherless and angry and view prison as a rite of passage rather than a threat.
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