Since the early 90’s black politicians have been in control of city politics
with mayors Cleaver, James and now Lucas and throughout that time
more black politicians have become city council people and have rose
to heads of many city departments and yet the black community has
not risen with these leaders.
I found this to be relevant to this article:
Kansas City, Missouri is in the midst of a major surge of violence, a
surge of violence that has fallen massively disproportionately on the
city’s black residents. The all-time record for homicides in KCMO was in
1993 when there were 153 homicides. Right now, the city stands at 73
homicides as of June 4, 2020–compared to 54 at this point in 2019 and
51 in 2018. Of the 73 homicides so far in 2020, 54 are black people. In
the heavily black East Patrol District of the KCPD there have been 30
homicides in 2020–compared to 20 in 2019 and 19 in 2018.
As we know 2023 was the worst year for homicides in Kansas City all
time with 182 being recorded and 2/3 of those victims are black.
What has the Mayor and City Council done about it? Not much. Instead
of focusing on a new downtown stadium or photo ops with federal
officials and trips to mayor conferences he should be spending every
waking hour working on the crime and murder problem in the black
and KC community. As I said while campaigning for City Council SAFETY
is the primary responsibility of city government and in this respect he
gets and F.
Now this is not just the Mayor’s responsibility it’s the responsibility of
all black leaders in the KC area along with the other black politicians.
I see many black people in top shelf jobs in city hall and other city
entities like the EDC and many black people with nonprofits funded by
the city of Kansas City who are driving expensive cars and living large
while the bulk of their community lives in poverty in crime ridden areas.
Black people need to stop complaining about others and police their
own. We all know who the criminals are who commit these crimes
especially in certain areas on the city and those folks should be
reported to black officers and police supervisors.
As a young man growing up in the 60’s-70’s our family business
employed many black men and women who were outstanding people,
whom I learned a lot from and who I became closer to than some in my
own family and they kept a close eye on their kids. Those kids are now
adults and most have maintained a great family structure.
The community looks to city officials, businesspeople and sports and
entertainment figures for guidance and when they fail the black
community seems to fail.
Leaders have a responsibility to protect and safeguard the community
and at this time it doesn’t seem to be working.
