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Saturday, August 8, 2009

Here's a way to start

To recap last evening's breaking, local, Kansas City news:

"Someone in a car fired shots into a group of 40 people gathered in the front yard of a Kansas City residence Friday night, seriously wounding a toddler and injuring the man holding her."

"The shooting occurred about 8:20 p.m. in the 5400 block of Highland Avenue, police said. Witnesses said the shots came from a dark-colored vehicle that drove by."

"The older victim, a man in his 30s, did not want to prosecute, police said. He was holding the girl, who appeared to be 2 or 3 years old. The victims were near the sidewalk in the front yard."

"Both victims were taken to hospitals."

(Sorry for the repeat but I want to refer back to this for this entry).

As I wrote on Tony's KC blog--check this out, above.

A man in his 30's is holding a child, they both get shot in a drive-by shooting, the child is in serious condition and the result is that the man in his 30's doesn't want to prosecute.

Excuse me?

You have to be freaking kidding me.

A child is shot--forget about your sorry ass--and you don't want to prosecute?

And what about the 39 other people at this party? They aren't interested in having this knucklehead press any charges?

You have to be kidding me.

If I were a policeman and heard about a shooting in these people's neighborhood in the future, I wouldn't even want to show up to investigate if no one's going to prosecute.

What the hell, if they don't care who gets shot or when or how or by whom, it's for sure I wouldn't give a tinker's dam. Besides, I might get shot myself and I sure as hell care.

This, then, is exactly how we can begin, at least, to solve the problem of shootings, anywhere, but specifically on the side of town where these happen more frequently.

If someone gets shot or shot at and we know whom to prosecute, they have to be prosecuted.

There's some rocket science, huh?

We should at least start there.

If this doesn't change and people continue to not prosecute shooters, don't expect anyone on any other side of town to give a damn about your sorry situation.

And let's be clear on this--color has nothing to do with this conclusion.

It has everything to do with intelligence, logic, self-preservation and survival.

2 comments:

Sophia said...

If someone gets shot or shot at and we know whom to prosecute, they have to be prosecuted.

This is basically how it currently works. If the police get admissible evidence on the shooters, the prosecutor's office can file charges without the cooperation of the victim. The rub is in getting the evidence.

I see you've got comment moderation on, so I apologize in advance if this comment is redundant.

Mo Rage said...

no, thank you very much for your input