Focus on reducing black homicides
It is not news in Kansas City that the murder rate is scandalously high and most of the victims are black.
But research by the Violence Policy Center brings the problem into sharper focus.
Using FBI crime data, the center has determined that Missouri’s rate of black homicides is the nation’s highest. With 81 black victims in 2009, Kansas City is obviously contributing to the problem.
The data is two years old, and all cities don’t report crime consistently, even homicides.
But the fact that Missouri’s rate of 34.72 homicides per 100,000 black residents was almost double the national average is a call to action.
The Violence Policy Center focuses on gun control and correctly notes that “successful efforts to reduce America’s black homicide toll…must put a focus on reducing access and exposure to firearms.”
But much more is needed.
Recently, the Kansas City Police Department and Jackson County prosecutor’s office have put a new focus on building relationships with people and businesses inside high-crime areas.
Those are positive steps and may be paying off in the form of crime-solving tips.
The city at large and the urban core in particular must find ways to teach citizenship and responsibility to young people and to provide meaningful opportunities to young adults.
That means better schools, job training, housing and transportation.
Kansas City should regard this latest study as a renewed challenge.
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As a registered Democrat I would love to see greater efforts to improve job opportunities, housing and schools in the black neighbhorhoods of KCMO. But issues like these are not why we have been having a homicide surge in these neighborhoods since the spring of 2008. This homicide surge is due to the fact that the Sofia Salva case was adjudicated with an almost complete lack of due process and fair media coverage, and that in response, out of sheer self-survival, the men and women of the KCPD stopped doing their jobs fighting black-on-black crime. If the city wants to stop this homicide surge it must immediately tell the cops on the beat that there will be no repeat of the Salva case—that next time officers accused of racism will get due process and fair media coverage. If the city does not want to do that, the chances are that the violence will continue—as of today, we are on track to make the first twelve months of Sly James administration the second or third deadliest twelve month period in the history of the city. Sincerely and Respectfully, Dr. Ernest Evans