Tuesday, July 9, 2013

I Wish This Happened In Las Vegas

From the Baltimore Sun: An unusual thing happened as a series of shootings rocked Baltimore: People took notice, got organized and hit the streets to show their outrage.
In a city where the toll of violence is seldom met with palpable anger, a recent stretch that saw more than 40 shot and 16 killed touched off a series of anti-violence demonstrations that continued into Monday. Those behind the events included ministers and politicians, but also young professionals, fraternity members, a party promoter and longtime residents who are simply fed up.
"This tremendous stretch of crime has captured everyone's minds and has been an igniter to wake people up," said Lt. Col. Melvin Russell, a 34-year veteran who oversees the Police Department's community partnership division. "You get a huge swelling of people coming to the table. It will fall off, but you will have a stronger nucleus than it was before."
There are scores of community groups and activists who are regularly working to improve Baltimore, and many of those involved in the recent efforts say it is not their first time speaking out. But the recent violence has propelled activism to a level that has surprised even the most active advocates, who now wonder how the community can channel and maintain the energy.
On Monday, a group of ministers promised to take on a bigger role in violence prevention and activists held a peace rally and barbecue in East Baltimore. Recent days have seen a citywide prayer tour and calls for a 24-hour Baltimore "cease fire."
The most visible example of the increased passion came Friday night, when organizers said 600 men walked the length of North Avenue and back — about 10 miles — to protest violence. Among those who attended was 66-year-old Cornell Rigby of Northwest Baltimore, who said he came to the event after hearing about it on the radio.
"If we don't demonstrate, it's like saying [the gun violence] is OK, that society is accepting of it," said Rigby, who led call-and-response chants during the march. "We're redeeming ourselves, because we've been quiet too long."
Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bs-md-ci-crime-response-20130708,0,4960036.story#ixzz2YXZNx8n8
In Las Vegas, our elected officials, especially the minorities, the ministers and priests, community organizers and the professionals don't do crap.
Minority politicians like Lawrence Weekly, Ricki Barlow, William Horne, Jason Frierson, Olivia Diaz, Lucy Flores, Harvey Munford, Aaron  Ford, Kelvin Atkinson and Ruben Kihuen are strangely quiet about the violence in Clark County and the violence that is inflicted on their constituents.  Why are these ignorant politicians so quiet?  Are they in bed with the gangs?  Are they afraid of them?  Are they afraid of hurting people's feelings?  Do they even care about the violence?  Do they think by speaking out against crime they are afraid of losing votes from people in their districts?  Or will they look "to white" to the people in their districts?
Or maybe it's this:  If they say too much about crime in Las Vegas and Clark County, they be afraid of keeping tourists away, which is a chicken shit Harry Reid type  argument.
Maybe if these useful idiots read this article, maybe they follow their counterparts in Baltimore and try and take back the streets of Las Vegas and Clark County.

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