Checking in on Houston's world-class crime problems
Johnnie McFarland, the president of the Houston Police Patrolmen's Union, has responded to that Chronicle editorial blasting his union's billboard ads:
IN response to the Houston Chronicle's Sept. 13 editorial ["Crime scene"] that the Houston Police Patrolmen's Union used scare tactics by misstating facts, I will admit that it must have been scary for Houstonians to discover:
•The violent crime rate is rising.
•There is a shortage of police officers.
•Some calls to the Houston Emergency Center might not get answered.
•The police might not chase lawbreakers who start out as traffic violators but could possibly end up as serious felons.As for the rise in violent crime, I'm sure most Houstonians would prefer to see a rise in hubcap thefts versus murders, assaults and robberies. It gives me no comfort to know that Houstonians possibly too poor to move to safer neighborhoods and apartment complexes from the "few" violent geographic hot spots are considered "acceptable" casualties. A murder in Acres Homes should be considered just as important as one in River Oaks.
It is not an officer's or a union's job to provide residents with a false sense of security. We are sworn to our duty to protect as well as obliged to serve. The Houston Police Patrolmen's Union will continue to tell the truth.
In related news today, try as he might, Chronicle reporter Matt Stiles still can't get Mayor White to commit to a firm position on his soft-on-crime police chief's no-chase policy:
Mayor Bill White suggested Wednesday that he has doubts about whether a controversial plan to limit Houston police vehicle chases should become department policy.
"I'd need to be convinced why we would need to limit some of the options or discretion of officers if people deliberately try to get away," he said. "I would have to be sold."
[snip]
White, who hasn't staked a firm position on the plan, said he would meet with Hurtt soon to discuss the issue, which has sparked complaints from some City Council members and the officers' largest union.
Soon? He's kidding, right?
Let me provide the political translation: The mayor hopes that people stop raising hell over crime and will forget about the no-chase policy, which the mayor's soft-on-crime police chief still plans on implementing after the buzz dies down.
At this point, though, it seems unlikely that the buzz is going to die down or that people can miss the spike in violent crime. In fact, that very subject just made the latest Economist:
BILL WHITE, the mayor of Houston, Texas, won high praise for opening his city to the bedraggled evacuees from New Orleans last year. But the welcome from Houstonians has worn painfully thin. At a community meeting in late August, Mr White and the police chief got an earful from 1,700 West Houston residents fed up with rising crime. “It just doesn't feel real good to be out here right now,” said Jeannie Bollinger of West Houston's chamber of commerce, who was at the meeting. Others who were there railed against subsidies from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and urged Mr White to send the evacuees home.
[snip]
Tensions have come to a head over crime. In fast-growing West Houston, as Ms Bollinger acknowledges, the problems predate Katrina. When cow pastures gave way to strip malls and suburban subdivisions, undesirable behaviour increased too. There were “lots of things West Houstonians had never seen before”, such as begging and prostitution. But Katrina evacuees have brought more violent crime, says Ms Bollinger. Houston's murder rate had been falling in recent decades, but now it is rising again. Some 58 of 261 murders up to August 24th this year have been linked to Katrina people. If the rate continues, murders for the year would exceed 400; last year there were 334. (Murder numbers jumped nearly 5% nationwide in 2005 after a long decline, according to FBI figures released this week.)
A global publication is estimating Houston could have 400 murders by the end of 2006? Will that finally make us world class?
Two quick points about the article. First, it is true that some of the problems indeed predate Katrina. For two years now, we've been pounding on the city's inadequate response to HPD's manpower shortage, and KTRH-740's Chris Baker has been pounding that subject much longer.
Second point -- A number of people say that estimate of 1,700 residents showing up to the West Houston meeting with the Mayor and his police chief is low; they inform that the capacity of the building is 1,700, but it was standing-room only and overflowing, and probably had closer to 2,000 people total. I wasn't there, but that's what I hear. And apparently people downtown were buzzing about the turnout, at least for a few days.
BLOGVERSATION: Houblog (briefly interrupting his hiatus).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/14/06 10:28 PM | Print |
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