It really does seem as though there is at least one random shooting per day in town.
Here's today's nugget:
A woman in a house was wounded tonight in a drive-by shooting
"Someone fired several shots into a house in the 3700 block of Bales Avenue in Kansas City about 9:30 p.m. The victim is being treated at a hospital, and police did not immediately know how serious her injuries were. Officers were still talking to witnesses about an hour later."
I don't write about the shootings that happen at 2 am or some other "middle of the night" instance. Our Dad always said there was no one out in the middle of the night but "muggers, whores and thieves" (thanks, Dad!) and that anyone that was out at that time of night should get some sense. (And this was St. Joseph, for pity's sake).
What gets me are these senseless shootings in the rather normal, waking hours. If you're paying attention, they happen too frequently. And sure, it's summertime but that doesn't mean this makes sense or that it's somehow okay, by any means.
Can you imagine clunking around your house in seeming safety and then all of a sudden you're shot? Can you imagine the terror?
Can you imagine being in a party at a house with 40 other people when suddenly a car drives by and sprays the group with bullets, like happened the other day, and 2 people are shot? I have to say, I can't.
I'm not being alarmist here, either. It's not like this is the first summer ever, here in town, that we've had shootings. Far from it. And we're up a bit in murders in town but it's not "off the chart", so to speak.
It's just that the daytime shootings seem much more frequent and commonplace, almost.
I'd like to think we aren't at the point where we aren't cavalier about shootings, the frequency of shootings and some wild availability and use of guns.
Here's hoping.
Links to stories:
http://blogs.kansascity.com/crime_scene/2009/08/1-woman-shot-injured-near-37th-and-bales.html
http://www.nbcactionnews.com/news/local/story/2-Injured-in-Shootings-in-East-KC/Snm5Pm6Ff0SM-9pf33lmsg.cspx?rss=764
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4 comments:
Dear Mr. Kevin: Thanks for your posting about shootings in the city. Given that we have now had a toddler shot and seriously wounded in a drive-by shooting, it is past time to stop worrying about the Politically Correct Thought Police and to face the truth. KCMO is caught up in an explosion of violence caused by what is called in crime studies "de-policing"--a situation where local police forces abandon serious police work in black neighborhoods out of fears of being accused of racism--and then being summarily fired (at best) or sent to prison on federal civil rights charges (at worst). Such "de-policing" took place in Cincinnati after the 2001 race riots and in NYC in the aftermath of the 1987-1989 Tawana Brawley controversy--in both cities the local cops abandoned the black neighborhoods to the gangs and criminal elements out of fear of charges of racism and, in consequence, crime in those neighborhoods exploded. This is what has been happening in KCMO in the past year and a half since the city's elites mishandled the Salva tragedy. There is only one way to end this "de-policing": The city's leaders have to tell the officers of the KCPD that there will be no repeat of the Salva incident--next time cops accused of misconduct get due process and some chance to tell their story to the media. Now, I know perfectly well that what I am proposing is controversial--and I know I will be accused of racism--and "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." If the only way to stop toddlers from being shot is for some people to defy the "Racism Police", then sign me up right away. Sincerely and Respectfully, Ernest Evans (KCKCC Professor)
a) Thank you, Dr. Evans, for your comments and
b) For clarification, Dr. Evans and I are not related in any way.
More than anything, I started this blog as a way to address what I saw as the outrages, frankly, of the George W. Bush administration. Now that he's no longer President, I still want to occasionally address national issues but feel it's better and more important to address local and regional ones.
I can't think of anything more important right now than this one of the random, senseless, deadly violence in the city, regardless of its more isolated (East Side, mostly) presence. Those three things--the randomness, senselessness and deadliness of it stuns me and I think we should both be above it and able to solve it, somehow.
But we have to come--and work--together.
Dr. Evans,
So you know, too, I intend to revisit this subject, likely, as the situation arises.
About "de-policing", I don't think that description seems to apply to the situation where the child and 30-year old man got shot at the party in the front yard as the police did show, as I read the news story. The victim wouldn't press charges, I understood.
Thanks again.
Dear Mr. Kevin: Thank you for your thoughtful comments on my email. As far as the law enforcement concept of "de-policing", this process goes through several stages. In the first stage, the police abandon serious policing in minority neighborhoods out of fear of being accused of racism. Since
nature abhors a vacume, the gangs, drug dealers and criminal elements assert control in these neighborhoods as the police stop doing their duties--and in consequence citizens stop reporting crimes and cooperating with the cops because the gangs are so powerful. This appears to be what has happened in the black neighborhoods of KCMO in the past 15 months since the April 11, 2008 Police Board hearing on the Salva tragedy--in these fifteen months homicides in these neighborhoods have exploded while other crime reports "fell" as people stopped reporting crimes out of fear of retaliation by the now dominant criminal elements. With respect to the toddler's family refusing to press charges, this is a typical incident in advanced cases of "de-policing"--local citizens are so afraid of gangs that even violence against their own family members goes unreported and/or unprosecuted. Sincerely, Respectfully and In Christ, Ernest Evans
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