Ride Along
August 22nd, 2008Dear Friends,
It’s been an eventful month since I last wrote. First, we had our biggest event of the year, our 3rd Annual Basketball Tournament and Community Fair at Fairground Park, attended by 2,000+ people and over 70 non-profit organizations. Second, after seven all-night police ride-alongs, I began to see crime in the City through new eyes. The two are related, even if I didn’t realize it at first.
Because of the stagnant economy, a lack of job opportunities, a stubbornly high dropout rate that leaves many unprepared for the jobs that do exist and lacking the social networks to find them, the widespread availability of handguns, and the nihilism of some who have seen far too much violence in their short lives and don’t expect to live past 30, the crime rate in some neighborhoods has risen sharply this summer. My law-abiding constituents have suffered a great deal; the ten neighborhoods home to the most murders this year all lie in my Senate district.
After marching with 50,000 other men on June 1st in a show of unity against this violence, I felt compelled to seek a better of understanding of crime in the City: how and why it happens, what we’re doing to address it, and how we can improve our efforts. So one night at a community meeting, I asked an officer if I could join him on his beat, and he accepted. We began in a relatively safe area, the 2nd Police District, covering the City’s southwest corner. It was quiet for a few hours, and I asked if we could check out a higher-crime area. We did, and soon stumbled upon a minor incident. By the end of the shift, I wanted to see what a whole night of action was like.
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