Monday's Times editorial tells us that we are on our own to stop the violence; don't expect any help from the city.
The editorial starts out on a sympathetic note: "Violent crime, especially murder, plagues St. Petersburg's black community ... During the last three months alone, four men have been shot to death in St. Petersburg's black community ...The ill effects of such crime are evident everywhere, both tangibly and intangibly. Leaders in these neighborhoods struggle to attract businesses that can provide jobs for the chronically unemployed..."
Then the last sentence places all of the responsibility for cleaning up this city on the victims of violence: "Until residents begin to assist the police in preventing violent crime and catching killers, the city's black neighborhoods will remain depressed."
So it seems that our progress in bringing peace to Bartlett Park has gone unnoticed and the Times expects that Southside killings will continue unabated. And they don't seem to have a problem with this.
Killings stopped in this neighborhood over a year ago as our reorganized crime watch started to mobilize residents. The city assigned a Community Police Officer to us in early '06 with quick results. One of his first moves was to help us get crime watch up and running. Gunfire is no longer a common sound here.
Other South side neighborhoods have carved out peaceful zones by getting involved. But the violence has only moved to other parts of the neighborhood where people are still willing to look the other way.
The reorganization of community policing has helped in the short run but the department continues a downward spiral as officers leave and moral sinks.
One of the murder victims was killed just a block from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg College of Business building. Even when the killing encroached on the downtown waterfront civic leaders didn't notice anything wrong.
It is very sad, even tragic, that the paper won't hold any of our political and civic leaders accountable for their inaction. The current city counsel term coincides with about a hundred brutal murders on the South side but the paper recently went on to endorse more of the same. If this level of violence is not acceptable then there is a disconnect between their concern for us and their endorsements.
This July, Bill Maxwell's column, Apathy feeds black-on-black violence, made a similar point. I agree, but many factors, including fear and terror, prevent people from coming forward. How about giving us a bit of help along with the criticism.
Update: Sunday's report on Murder in 2007 showed that once again violent killings are concentrated in the southside drug holes.
Monday, September 10, 2007
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6 comments:
I think you make a great point about holding leaders accountable. Certainly murders and even the open drug use in our communities should not be tolerated by leadership anymore than it should be tolerated by citizens.
However I disagree that this editorial places responsibility on the victims. My understanding of of what I read is that it refers to the unwillingness of residents who may have information about crime to come forward and help the police. Who is better equiped to know what's happening and who is out of place on a given street? The resident or the officer? I think this is just the reality of the situation.
The term "snitching" was new to me after I moved here. The bad attitude towards the police is distinct to these neighborhoods and it's no coincidence that crime flourishes. My interpretation of the editorial was that it expresses outrage at the apathy of residents who may have information on some of these crimes. Certainly this is not true of all residents (especially those involved in crime watch), but we hae a significant group of residents that are desensitized to crime and adversarial towards the police. Changing that attitude should go a long way towards mitigating crime.
Well said.
Comments from the Times web site.
By Resident: "I moved to Bartlett Park with my family a few months ago, am I crazy? No. Maybe the St. Pete times should invest more time into their stories. There is amazing changes happening and this community is potentially one of the hottest areas in St. Pete."
by edward: "Remember that police officers take their orders directly from the Mayor and CC. Their priorities are different from most citizens. If you want better police work you need to oust the mayor, council and the crooks running the police department."
Here is another comment from the Times site:
by Truth 09/13/07 02:41 PM
"Edward is totally correct. Rick Baker and his corrupt administration are too busy bowing to the Uhurus. And the Uhurus want no police intervention in their world. Unfortunately it spills over and ruins the rest of the city too."
Too many people assume that the South side is "their world", referring to the Uhurus. From my observation they are a largely white organization based downtown. The Mayor and Congressman have provided them with tax money to organize a revolution down here but the residents have shown little interest.
Any time a police officer faces an angry crowd they have the potential to incite a brawl that could grow into another riot. That seems to be their reason for being, along with providing comfortable jobs for their true believers.
Quality of life is eroding in some areas of South Saint Petersburg, but not because of crime. It would be silly to think that you can live in any city without crime, the things that corrode the quality of life are the methods that are used by profit oriented groups and individuals. It seems to me that creating a generic enviroment makes it easier to market newly aquired property to residents with higher income
but in doing this the vibrant closenit community disapears and become a steril northside community where people don't sit on there porches or interact with there neighbors on a family level.
As far as cooperating with law enforcment is concerned you would have to entertain the fact that african americans and law enforcement historicaly have bad perceptions of one another as a result police don't realy serve or protect the african american community and the african american community is not willing to help an organization that cares little or none at all for them.
INDEX BY SPANDEX
The Quality of Life index
Is measured by my wife´s spandex--
Alas, it doesn´t make me happy,
In fact I´m feeling rather crappy.
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