John Hammer has a good article in the Rhino Times. He reveals that Greensboro’s previous record for murders in one year occurred three years ago. We had 62 homicides during 2020.
He reports we have already had 58 homicides this year through October 8. We are therefore likely to break the 2020 record this year.
In spite of these horrific numbers, Greensboro’s political culture does not care. Certainly, our city council and our mayor do not give a flip. Our mayor is a political opportunist who enjoys holding political office but aggressively avoids doing the right thing.
Our system of corrupt machine politics intertwined with race-based identity politics assures that the police are regarded as the enemy. We are short numerous police officers, and those who remain employed with the city cannot feel free to do their jobs properly. The police chief cannot aggressively pursue and prevent crime.
The new civil services board forced by the state legislature might help the situation at least somewhat. We shall see.
But in the meantime, all those young black lives lost– mostly male– do not matter even one lick in the collective eyes of our political class in the city of Greensboro. These lost young lives are mere collateral damage associated with the brand of politics perpetually espoused here.
From what I observe the insouciance displayed by Greensboro’s leaders regarding homicides
is disgraceful .
Crime Trends in U.S. Cities: Mid-Year 2023
Update July 2023 . A study
” The overall results suggest that some offenses in the sample cities are returning to pre-pandemic levels and others are not. Homicide is receding from its peak in 2021, but even if it were to fall back to pre-pandemic levels, the 2019 homicide rate (5.1 per 100,000 U.S. residents) was still 15% higher than the 2014 rate (4.4 per 100,000), which is the lowest level since World War II. While a 5.1 per 100,000 homicide rate is roughly half the modern peak of 9.8 recorded in 1991, the United States should not accept a homicide rate that claims thousands of lives each year—lives that can be saved by implementing effective violence-reduction strategies. “
Greensboro would be doing great to only have 9.8 per 100,000, Fred. That is how bad it has gotten.
“…lives that can be saved by implementing effective violence-reduction strategies. “”
Really?
If an effective violence reduction technique existed we would have discovered it by now.
“Experts” do the same thing they were doing 50-60-70 years ago to no better effect based on the time-proven government theory that if you do something–anything–even if it doesn’t work, the voters can never blame you for doing nothing.
Governments frequently implement programs of little value and then manipulate statistics later to “prove” the success of the program.
Any credible evidence that Yvonne Johnson’s “Cure Violence” program has cured anything?
Jaycee, when I think of violence reduction strategies, I think of proactive policing and “broken windows”. As you suggest, that might not have been what the authors of that passage intended.
The personal interactions resulting in most violent crimes are seldom affected by the number of police cars on the street.
They are most affected by a culture which accepts, normalizes, and sometimes even glorifies aberrant behavior.
A society will get more of the behavior it tolerates and less of the behavior it refuses to tolerate.
I agree, Jaycee, that culture is critical, and I overall agree with your comments. However, I think Giuliani’s leadership in NYC and experiences in other jurisdictions have proved that excellent policing can influence behavior and prevent crime. There is ample data out there. We can do better than what we have right now. And in fact, we DID have better after Bill Knight became mayor and during the period immediately following that time period.