As St. Louis celebrates the holiday season, it does so while wearing the unenviable crown of America’s most dangerous city.
While the cries of “bogus study” and “it’s safe in my neighborhood” were heard from City Hall, this week’s FBI statistics confirm what much of the black community could never overlook or forget – that many St. Louis streets are far from safe. In fact, they are indeed quite dangerous.
During the first half of 2006, violent crime in the city was up 10.3 percent, compared to the same period of 2006. St. Louis earned its “most dangerous” status based on 2005 crime statistics. It looks as though Detroit will not have to fear moving to No. 1 from its No. 2 perch next year.
Aldermen Charles Quincy Troupe of the city’s 1st Ward and others are calling for more police protection in neighborhoods that are designated as high-crime rate areas. This makes sense. The notion that crime will spread to safe neighborhoods if it is cleaned out of unsafe ones is false and mostly race-based.
Until the mayor’s office and the Metropolitan Police Department of St. Louis decide to address crime in African-American neighborhoods more effectively, St. Louis will remain at or near the top of any “most dangerous city” list.
But we also agree with Troupe that the residents, business owners and churches in black neighborhoods also must be held accountable. It is not only the police who must combat crime in the city. If the community fails to cooperate with the police force, it can not expect the best results from that department.
Troupe writes, “The real truth is that we the leaders and property owners have allowed drug dealers and predators to place us on the bull’s eye. We can have a better life in the black community. We should not have to live among public nuisance and gun play.” If we are to create that better life, the response to the terror in high-crime areas must be vigorous, collaborative and comprehensive.
Those words should ring out louder than any police siren as we celebrate the holidays and a New Year.