Bay View Resident's Opinion

Since Eugene decided to bring the rash of robberies in Bay View into his most recent article, I felt compelled to respond seeing as Bay View happens to be my neighborhood.

Kane wrote:

So I wasn't surprised there were no insinuating racial phone calls this week from readers about a rash of robberies in Bay View. As it turns out, some witnesses described the prime suspect as white. He could be a light-skinned black person, but until that's determined, none of the usual suspects can treat this as another example of black crime gone mad.

I'd like to offer an alternative reason for the lack of insinuating racial phone calls about examples of black crime gone mad: This has nothing to do with the man's race and this isn't crime gone mad. The real reason all hell hasn't broke loose throughout the larger community of the city is because this criminal has yet (to our knowledge) to murder an innocent bystander in the course of his crimes.

In Bay View, you won't find a townie who will respond that people get "popped" here every day because, that, Gene, is madness. Just because it's normal in some parts of this city doesn't mean it's "normal" at all. It's just madness and that is the definition of crime gone mad.

Why is this important? Without so much as checking the newspaper for a link, here are some of the recent crimes I can think of in the inner city and surrounding areas, that I define as crime gone mad: (1) 50-something year old man murdered in broad daylight by a stray bullet. (2) 19 year old pregnant woman murdered in broad daylight in a gang shooting (3) Recent robbery at a gas station that left a clerk dead. (4) Woman hit by stray bullet at a northside bar. (5) 4 gunshot victims that left 2 dead (at my last reading). (6) An 18-year-old boy shot by a police officer because he was believed to be party to a gunfight and appeared to be reaching for a weapon.

Want me to keep going? I think we all (except Gene) get the point.

What really pisses me off is when Kane positions what is otherwise an exceptional situation in one part of the city (how 'bout that middle-of-the-day eastside rape, for example) and then uses it to suggest that all of the city is in as much trouble and as dangerous as the inner city.

What an idiot.

I suppose that's also why he's rejoicing that charges have been brought against a cop. Figures. I would guess that at worst, cops contribute to 1% of the crimes in this city. But yeah, let's go after the cops. They're the ones causing the real problems here. I'm sure he's right that as soon as black people can trust all the evil cops in the city, then all the problems will go away and people will just start snitchin'.

I'm gonna hold my breath for that.

Not really. But what I am going to do is keep my little house in Bay View and not worry about a stray bullet coming through my window. I'm going to rest assured that the business owners in this community are taking measures to get this guy caught and the police are helping them do it. I'm going to smile knowing that recently, a Bay Viewer passing by a storefront thought he was witnessing a robbery in progress, called the cops and then realized that it was just a yoga class.

When things like that start to happen in the inner city, then maybe Kane can have me believing that I'd be just as safe there as I am here. Oh wait, I got that backwards: Gene wants us to think that I'm in as much danger here as I would be there.

I wonder which one of us really has it backwards.