Every time I think it's impossible for me to be more disappointed in Kansas City, this cowtown continues to sink to new lows.
The ousting of Wayne Cauthen was undoubtedly a good thing but it's incredibly disappointing to me that the political coup was met with more excitement, coverage and chatter than the fact that a woman and her unborn child were gunned down on the street and a shopkeeper was killed while doing his job.
WITH SO MUCH MURDER ON KANSAS CITY STREETS IT'S A SHAME THAT POLITICAL DISTRACTIONS ARE COVERED SO MUCH MORE THOUGHTFULLY THEN THE FACT THIS COWTOWN IS KILLING ITSELF!!!
So many vain, ego-drive and self-obsessed elected officials have blood on their hands for letting Kansas City murders get to a tipping point before the problem is even mentioned.
Over and over again the subject of murders on local streets has been cast aside and written off because the lives of people of color aren't valued by the gatekeepers who attempt to dictate the news and local political agendas.
THE RECENT SPATE OF MURDERS THIS WEEKEND CLEARLY DEMONSTRATES THAT VIOLENCE IN KANSAS CITY IS AT A CRISIS LEVEL!!!
If this kind of thing happened in the white community (JoCo) they would've called in the National Guard long ago. Unfortunately, local media watchers and our elected officials know that this is a problem that doesn't even get as much coverage as a winning Chiefs game . . . Especially this year when Chiefs wins are a rarity and murders on The Eastside are so frequent.
Nevertheless, there are people to blame beyond the usual suspects for Kansas City's Crisis Homicide Rate: The lack of political leadership from throughout this cowtown when it comes to this problem means that nothing will ever get done. It's also just a little bit gross that Hyde Park people are using local murders as a way to prop up their home values by creating vicious talking points against low income housing they don't want to live near. Additionally, we know that media only cares about sensational murders stories and not the day to day slaughter in the urban core that they write-off for reasons that have to do with SUPREMACY far more than ratings. Finally, media consumers are complicit in Kansas City's murder crisis because the rate of death hasn't inspired many people to get out and do something, anything to help stop the local bloodbath.
THE SHAMEFULNESS OF KANSAS CITY INDIFFERENCE TO OUR MURDER RATE CANNOT BE EXCUSED!!!
It's tragically hilarious that the holiday season is upon us and trite sentiments abound ("Peace on Earth - meh) while homicides mount and most of Kansas City's elected leaders continue to ignore the massacre while focusing on their measly political careers.
A baby dead on local streets with only minor, politically correct coverage and all of the other KC homicide hot mess have inspired tonight's playlist:
Thank you for reading this week and have a safe and fun weekend.
Great column.
ReplyDeleteWhy are the murders overlooked. Could it perhaps be an onslaught on every night news. Or could it be people are now desesneatized to that it no longer makes headlines. If you put the same amount of effort in your community tell brothers to quit fight, and shooting. As you do with promoting. your race bating ego. You just might help the community a bit. You are obviously a smart person use it to help and not segregate. Which if you see it or not you do with your constant. Hey your not paying attention to this killing in this neighborhood. Its to common Tony killings in the neighborhood in which you speak are a dime a dozen. Get in there and speak to them. Not here on this blog. Quit race baiting and help our community positively.
ReplyDeleteThat was a good comment from 12:05 and I'd add that maybe we'd understand if you spent as much time slicing and dicing the WHY of urban violence as you do offering space to the two cents of all these city hall bureocrats.
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't mean sitting in your basement tossing out the conventional wisdom about what causes urban violence. I think you'll find that the frequency of it has to do somehow LESS with 'poverty' as to with a unique lack of respect for life in the culture where these occur.
We Americans are very preoccupied with money so we end to black a shortage of it on all of our ills. When in fact lots of people on this planet live without money. I say LIVE, not MURDER.
IT actually IS racially/culturally motivated. And it won't be PC to analyze it, which, Tony, is why you and Alonzo are afraid to really look into it.
You won't like what you see when you look at what's wrong in the US communities of persons of color. Maybe they can't hold their liquor, like used to be said about American Indians. Maybe because they don't learn their multiplication tables. Maybe because some cultures don't see value in two parent families.
Whatever it is, the answer isn't with the Police Chief or Dept as you've suggested before. But the answer is right here in front of you.
The black ministers are too busy trying to ensure the drinking rights of all minorities in the P&L district. They don't have time for all of the other pressing issues in their community. To tackle that problem would require them to call out their own community on its poor morals, sky high birthrate among its teens and the overall absence of responsible parenting.
ReplyDeleteI missed radioman.
ReplyDeleteAnd you even wonder why Cordish don't want "those" people in the P&L??? Gang bangers and their wannabe's seem to enjoy the rest of KC every nite, so go trash Westport Tony, and leave the P&L forever!
ReplyDeleteYou can say what you want about the Hyde Park people, but at the end of the day, they're bringing light to a very real problem. And it isn't rich white people who are dying Tony....
ReplyDeleteswaggerjack
ReplyDeleteI could've taken this whole thing a lot more seriously if you had not included Styx.
ReplyDeleteBad show Tony.
Sounds like a very noble idea, Tony. So then why don't you practice what you preach and do more coverage of these crimes and murders yourself, other than terse, superficial linking to Star stories about them?
ReplyDeleteYou built the bones of this blog on coverage of politics and politics only. You treat these crimes like an afterthought, just like the media you condemn.
Dear Mr. Tony: Good column! Yes, our city should pay more attention to the crime problem. On the good news front in this regard: Much of the KCMO political class may have "overreached" themselves by their pathetically obvious efforts to minimize the death of the woman and her unborn child by calling the child a "fetus." This was due less, I feel, to political correctness and more to a concrete political concern: With the city's crime problems starting to get national attention (and hence us losing conventions) the local politicos are frantic to minimize news of crime and violence: Hence the quite obvious ploy of saying "it is not a child, it is a fetus." This ploy was "too clever by half"--and now these same poiticos are trying to cover up their obvious ploy by acting as if the only ones concerned about their use of the term "fetus" are the "pro-life fanatics." That is not the concern, and they know it: The concern is based on the fact that the much of the city's media/financial/political elites are ignoring the ongoing explosion of violence in the city, particularly in the city's black sections. Raising the "red herring" of the dreaded "pro-life fanatics" is not going to disguise what a lot of people in the city's "leadership" tried to do in this tragic case. Sincerely and Respectfully, Ernest Evans
ReplyDeleteTony, I think this is one of your better posts in a long time.
ReplyDeleteYa know, this isn't hard to figure out. Just watch one of the prison shows on MSNBC that run all weekend and watch what the killers say and how they carry themselves.
ReplyDeleteThey're dumb as rocks. Lower life forms. They reflect their culture, their culture reflects THEM!
And when you hear their parents, 'oh my baby this' and 'oh my baby that', well who can be surprised?
And when you hear about some three year old gettin shot at midnight in the front yard, and listen to their hysterical auntie goin off? well don't ya wonder what that kid's doin up at midnight to be a target?
Lots of people don't live that way, and not just in the suburbs. Small town people don't live that way and crime is very low... and many of them are poor as dirt farmers. They ARE dirt farmers! And their kids are't puttin caps in each others asses because they have chores to do at sunrise. And dad's who will use a belt on them if they aren't up and dressed and heading for the barn.
I bet Chinese kids and Japanese kids and South African kids have THEIR chores to do too. It'c culture all right. And Tony doesnt even come close but to wring his hands.
In fact, no reason to lament at KC "the CITY" for not being more concerned. The MEDIA is the voice of the city. That's YOU tony. Not somebody ELSE!
And the TV stations, instead of interviewing cops and sorrowful ministers, why doesn't the field reporter stick a mic in some mothers face and ask her what her kid was doing out to get himself SHOT?
Yeah, bad news about the dead babies and shit.
ReplyDeleteSo how's that dress code thing working out? This crime talk is distracting us from the real issues of the city.
How's the smoking ban working? I know the Mensa minds on the council know just how to give the public what it needs -- more smoking bans, more rules, and more dress codes. You know, the stuff that really matters.
Hello? Can I dedicate a song to my murderer brother serving time for a drive by shooting?
ReplyDelete1:36 am. No.
ReplyDeleteBooooring, Tony! Till you quit this blog and join the Guardian Angels, STFU.
ReplyDeleteTony, your detractors should take a course in basic English grammar before slamming you. I mean, gosh, I'd love to read what they say and digest it (it may be information worth knowing), but I simply cannot understand most of it due to each writer's obvious habit of falling asleep in English class (and yes, Radioman, this especially includes you - try proofreading once in a while, as your blather in whatever language you use lets everyone know just how seriously you should NOT be taken).
ReplyDelete