A Shining Example Of Neighborhood Oriented Policing?
Hmm... I wonder if I can verge into the topic that follows without somehow being branded as something I'm not. I'm going to give it a try....
I can't help but wonder how the African-American community in Houston must feel at times, knowing their HUGE turnout in support of Lee Brown won him reelection this last time, and knowing a fellow African-American is police chief, and yet....
What do they have to show for it?
I've been through the third and fifth wards. I don't have any good answers how to solve the endemic poverty there. I do know that those neighborhoods are substandard in terms of city amenities and infrastructure, and that city leaders CAN do something about that. And I've heard much from Mayor Pothole about neighborhood oriented policing. And government.
And yet.... stories like the one I linked above. And the ongoing (fairly deplorable) condition of so many third and fifth ward neighborhoods.
Yeah, I know -- we don't necessarily know all of the above story, and Quanell X certainly isn't a person who's very credible with me (or very many other people). But it's plausible, don't you think? Because, really, we don't want to think very much about those neighborhoods. And the guys that police 'em? Well, we don't want to think very much about that either, I suppose. Pretend they're not there (unless you're in trouble in a mayoral election, and then send every rented white van in town there, and advertise that Orlando Sanchez may engage in James Byrd-style racial violence).
But at some point, you would think the folks who live in those neighborhoods and who vote monolithically might just look a little further, for someone who will pay a little more attention to their concerns. The closest thing we probably have in this city to that is Ada Edwards, and she's a rarity. That's a shame. The folks in those neighborhoods deserve better. And Dems who take them for granted should be scared as hell they're gonna figure that out one day.
[Posted at 21:15 CST on 06/02/03] [Link]
