Five homicides in seven days in Kansas City.Just about every kind of not relating well to others. Family and friend fights. Disturbances at stores. Unknown stories--just finding victims lying in the street.
Not to mention metro mayhem in Independence, Belton, and KCK.
Two homicides here in the southland, both in stores. One involved a store clerk and a man with a history of panhandling and hanging around the area of the store. The second involved a man in a convo with people in a car. The car leaves and he's dead.
You know, if you have a conflict with someone, you do not need to hurt them. You could actually walk away, or talk it out, or take it to a mediator.
Just saying.
Logo pinched from The Pitch
4 comments:
Life is cheap out on the streets. Many cities are experiencing increased levels of violence this year.
Whether due to the hotter than usual summer, the economy or the continued "thuggification" of society, it's taking a toll in the suburbs as well as the cities.
It's a ship that has to be turned around, throwing money into programs doesn't seem to be working.
Be safe!
T.O.:
The age of civility seems to be long gone...
People used to settle differences in so many better methods than outright homicide.
I'm w/ Capt. Schmoe here...too much "thuggification" out there, and not enough preventive measure to keep it from happening.
And way too much "tolerance" in that mix.
We DEFINITELY need to change this...and ASAP, before it becomes too big a problem to handle (as it often appears in some cities already).
Stay safe out there.
Hey guys!
Yes,yes to everything you all said. There are a lot of factors to account for in the lost of reverence for life these days--and the lost of personal discipline and skills at dealing with conflict. Violent media, family dysfunction (therefore no modeling), entitlement, loss of the God connection...lots of reasons. I am not sure what the answer is. We may need a societal and spiritual revival...
Thanks for reading and commenting.
the Observer
Having been working on the issue of KCMO violence and meeting with many of the elected and appointed officials involved, let me make a couple suggestions:
1. Jackson County needs to expand and more fully fund the Community Action Network Centers through the COMBAT program. Having a local presence, including a full-time staff and a police operation is critical to help the solid citizens in a neighborhood take back their communities from a handful of thugs. Instead, financial support for these centers has been cut. An opportunity for Mike Sanders and the Legislature.
2. The Police Board needs to insist that community policing be made a high priority in the KCPD. KCK has an entire 38-person department dedicated to a very rigorous and multi-faceted community policing operation and their homicide rate is down and community relations way up. That decision needs to be made before any public safety sales tax is considered by the voters.
3. The KCMO city administration must have a much greater involvement in public safety and use the leverage they have from considering the KCPD budget to get much better results from the money that is being spent. A good start would be a regular series of joint meetings with the police board. As a point of reference, the last such joint meeting was over a year ago.
This isn't about more officers, new buildings, or more money. It's about officials being sufficiently serious about this appalling situation to actually work together on some robust, creative, and innovative efforts, and to involve the neighborhood associations and block leaders in standing up for themselves.
I encourage Observer readers to challenge all of the mayoral candidates as to how high on their list of priorities public safety is, and what SPECIFICALLY they intend to do about what's happening now in KCMO.
The status quo in the school district has been challenged; now it's time for all of the residents in KCMO to be a part of the challenges the city faces.
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