Make crime the priority now

The new year was barely two weeks old in East Baton Rouge Parish and already there had been three murders and three other young, innocent people shot and wounded by stray bullets. This unfathomable start to 2012 once again has the community angry and fearful.

We live in a parish in which many of us are paralyzed by the fear of crime. This is a shameful indictment of a place that likes to bill itself as “America’s next great city.” Especially shocking is that while our crime rates continue to escalate, those in large cities like New York are on the decline. How can this be?

On Jan. 7, when someone in a rowdy crowd outside the Mall of Louisiana fired off gunshots, striking two innocent teenage bystanders outside BJ’s Brewhouse, it was a shocking reminder that violent crime continues to be a cancer in our community. Three days later, another innocent victim was hit by a stray bullet—this time a teenage girl working at a computer in her North Baton Rouge home. Fortunately, all three victims are expected to survive.

Our recent history has seen Mayor Kip Holden and law enforcement officials vow a war on crime whenever residents become particularly horrified by a specific crime committed in our parish. The time for vows and press conferences has passed. It’s now time for action—and solutions. This is an election year for the mayor and the Metro Council and we, the people of this parish, must unite and demand something more than powerful soundbites on the 6 o’clock news. This is not a white issue or a black issue. It is not a North Baton Rouge issue or a South Baton Rouge issue. This is an East Baton Rouge Parish issue.

The question to Mayor Holden, members of the Metro Council, Sheriff Sid Gautreaux and Baton Rouge Police Chief Dewayne White is a simple one: Crime is out of control in this parish, and what are each of you going to do about it?

Our elected leaders and law enforcement agents must make fighting crime an urgent priority. Instead of arguing over who controls federal grant dollars and engaging in petty political feuds, we need the mayor and sheriff to work together. Instead of spending money on crime-fighting wants, we need to dedicate precious dollars to crime-fighting needs. Instead of over-the-top, headline-generating investigations into off-campus bar fights, the city police should focus resources on the blood that is staining far too many of our streets.

Some will use this situation as an attempt to sell a broad-crime fighting tax package. What we need are strong measures to deter crime in this parish. What we need are harsh punishments for those who engage in crime, and if it takes new laws to hold parents accountable for the criminal actions of their children, then change the laws. What we demand is a strong police presence in areas where these officials know that crime is regularly committed.

Locking up criminals—or their parents—is not the ultimate solution to the root problem. Yet when respect for human life gets so low that people are exchanging gunfire to resolve simple arguments—and wounding innocent victims in the process—it is time for the Baton Rouge community to unite and demand immediate action.