Northeast News
September 30, 2015
Last week’s column by Bunny the Newshound elicited a number of comments and questions following the tragic, gang related death of an innocent mother trying desperately to protect her family from gang violence. The most common question was: What can I do?
For the record, even after last week’s column, not one person from Aim4Peace or KC NoVA have returned our repeated calls or spoken with us personally about what is being done at the municipal level to address the spate of violence in our neighborhood. Let that sink in for a moment. People who are paid to disseminate information to the community at large didn’t give a tinker’s damn about questions posed by the community news provider that serves this area of the city. Not one.
What can we do as a community to address this violence? Plenty. First and foremost, get involved. Fear paralyzes. Fear is exactly what these violent, gang-banging thugs want you to feel. When you fear them, they own you. Don’t let that happen. Get out on your front porch, take those kids to the park. Be another set of eyes and ears for the police officers who bravely put their life on the line daily to protect our community. Cowering inside your house isn’t the answer. It’s completely up to us as community members to take back the community where we live.
Second, question authority. Start asking tough questions of our elected leaders. Hold their feet to the fire as to why the city council cut the police budget by $8 million this year, but fully funded the fire department. Ask the Mayor why he signed an agreement with the County that effectively cut bed-space in the jail by 350 beds when the Municipal Farm on Raytown Road was demolished, allowing violent criminals to roll back out on the street on a signature bond instead of being incarcerated where they belong. Ask why prisoners aren’t being held any more on the eighth floor of Police Headquarters and officers must transport arrests to one of three patrol divisions instead of downtown. Ask Prosecutors, both city and county, why charges against violent offenders are continually being plea bargained down, allowing these same violent criminals to roam our streets and prey on our community. Ask Chief Forte why and when his department went from law enforcement to crime management. Ask the County Executive why the county continues to use an outdated “matrix” at the jail instead of keeping violent offenders in jail, away from the general public. If the answer to that question is “bed space,” refer back to question two.
County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker has often said she answers to the citizenry of the county and that we, the community, are her true boss. Maybe instead of having press event faux-parades down Independence Avenue, you can start effectively prosecuting bad guys to make our community safer. There’s a reason surrounding counties don’t sport violent crime rates like Jackson County and the criminals and the general public know it. The prosecutorial paradigm in Jackson County is a joke. This dog ain’t laughin’ and neither is this community.
