TKC QUESTIONNAIRE: HENRY KLEIN SEYZ CRIME IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PROBLEM CONFRONTING KANSAS CITY 6TH DISTRICT!!!
We've been talking to some of Kansas City's top candidates and putting together a rather stellar election guide.
Here's a preview of our work since our sexy TKC trolls seem to be impatient about waiting for our AWESOME content.
To wit . . .
6th District Candidate Henry Klein recently talked to TKC about his upstart campaign and says that CRIME IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM CONFRONTING his district.
Henry Klein tells us: "Without question, when I talk to the people whom I plan to represent. Their biggest questions are about crime. From Brookside to Ruskin Heights it's the main thing that's on people's mind even if some currently elected leaders don't want to hear that . . . This concern is part of the reason I want to develop ways to encourage two-way communication with City Hall and voters. Not just push information out to them but get a real sense about the concerns facing our neighborhoods . . ."
We'll have more KICK-ASS TKC QUESTIONNAIRE quotes, notes and posts coming soon along with some more surprising election info.
STAY TUNED!!!
Please hurry Tony so these whiny fucks whll shut the hell up.
ReplyDeleteSorry that you think I'm a "whiny fuck". But thanks TKC for updating us and getting this together. I think it has the potential to be the single most important piece of election material available. It will all depend on how its executed.
ReplyDeleteHopefully all of the candidates respond so no matter who is elected we can have something to reference when they vote differently than how they campaigned.
Just finding out who responds and who doesn't will be nice.
They don't want to hear about it (crime) is exactly correct.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to CKMO
What can City Hall do about crime? Police Departments and Country Prosecutors handle crime and the City Council doesn't oversee the Police Department and felony crimes are handled by their Counties. Glad to know he cares about crime, but there isn't jack he can do about it.
ReplyDeleteKlein doesn't know what the east side of his district wants or needs. He's simply going on perception.
ReplyDeleteDid you know we do not have a Kansas City Police Dept? Did you know the Municipal court cannot legally hear a case brought by KCPD Look at the charter creating the court.
ReplyDeleteI owned a business on Longevity road and considered running against Chuck Eddy
Henry you are right. There are reasons I could not support you but many I can. Good Luck you are right in this assessment.
Charles Melton
cmltn42@yahoo.com
""It's interesting that after all these years that finally we are starting to see the city and the police department work on correcting the out of balance ratio of desk jobs to officers on the streets. And we are seeing some modest synergies brought to bear regarding things like fuel purchases. By doing more to combine the kinds of services the city and the police department both need and use, we could save even more and again, I'm proposing that those savings go directly into new police officer hires.""
ReplyDeleteFrom Kleins website. Alot of this is the hot air you hear from candidates, but since the City only controls the purse strings, directing where the money goes is a great power to exercies.
Actually, there's quite a lot the city can do to address crime.
ReplyDeleteFirst, make it an actual priority of city government, fund KCPD appropriately, and keep the issue before the public.
The public safety committee provides oversight (or not) of public safety initiatives.
The mayor sits on the Board of Police Commissioners.
The city actually got off its butt and initiated a collaborative effort with the feds and others (NoVa) to bring more coordinated resources to the issue.
The city can coordinate with COMBAT as to how that $15-20 million/year fund can be brought to bear.
Locals recommend appointments to the BOPC and can do a much better job finding people who actually bring something to that game.
Thinking that, because the city doesn't have direct reporting control of the KCPD, they have no influence over local anti-crime efforts is a convenient dodge and excuse which has been used far too long, but which simply is not the case.
If elected officials spent anywhere near the time, effort, and energy on issue like public safety that they do on subsidizing developers, we'd all be a whole lot better off.
9:54 That may all be true, but everything you listed are ancillary. They help support KCPD but do nothing to fundamentally change the way crime is "fought" in Kansas City. In fact its rather toothless. Without the ability to effectuate radical change, there is little the city government can actually do. They can advise and bargain but without the BOPC support KCPD can tell the city to screw off.
ReplyDeleteWell, duh!
ReplyDeleteKCPD is already a bottomless pit of city money. 25% of the general fund? For what? Crime *is* down. We have a mismatch between perception and reality. It's easy to say "fund the police" but just like the schools, pouring money into a department doesnt mean anything if you don't spend it correctly. KCPD needs to learn to live within its means. If you can't do the job with 25% of all the money in the city, you don't deserve any more until you can show a need.
ReplyDeleteAMEN 11:37! HALLELUJAH!
ReplyDeleteHail Satan
ReplyDeleteKCPD Too Big to Fail? or Too big to Jail? Crooks with the books.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the broken window syndrome? Maybe if the city would hire more inspectors, which they can't because of the hiring freeze since all the money is going to KCFD, we could get our neighborhoods cleaned up. While it's not the whole answer, it would be a beginning.
ReplyDelete@10:08am
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple important points that probably should be taken into account:
First, policing is much much more effective when residents and neighborhoods are engaged and cooperative. That's certainly an important part of the public safety equation that should be addressed by members of the city council.
Secondly, whenever an organization doesn't operate very well or is even totally dysfunctional, the natural tendency is to try to create some new organizational structure, as though moving the same names around an organizational chart is likely to make any difference in performance or outcomes. Look at the current councilmembers on the public safety committee.. Review the backgrounds and performance of the incumbents on the BOPC.
Maybe electing and appointing some serious individuals who have the guts to provide some oversight, direction, and priorities are at least part of the answer.
Filling a new organization with folks like you currently have is highly unlikely to succeed.
12:50 Great post! I'll have to look into the public safety committee like you suggested.
ReplyDeleteTo the point of "electing and appointing some serious individuals who have the guts to provide some oversight, direction, and priorities are at least part of the answer", how can we do this? Other than who we elect as Mayor, we as voters and residents have no control whatsoever, and KCPD is not accountable to Kansas City residents. Its a common understanding among KCPD officers. Council members can't do anything. So we have a BOPC that includes ex-cops, Police Pension Fund presidents, Former Prosecutors, etc.
And 1:15, now you understand why the police department is so adamant not to change the current system. They can stack the board with political cronies instead of having elected positions.
ReplyDeleteSo what good is it going to do when Kline hires all the new policemen?
ReplyDeleteWell I like his idea of getting people off desks and onto the street. Not sure we can afford to hire NEW officers for the street, with their mandatory retirement, pensions, health care, litigation, and they don't even work for us.
ReplyDeleteNo more desk jockeying until retirement.
Just like Mark Funkhowser used to say "Codes and Cops" are what the city needs. He was right.
ReplyDeleteWe don't need any more of either of those 2:17, if the cops we had did their job we'd be just fine.
ReplyDeleteCodes don't do any good if the city doesn't hire enough people to enforce them.
ReplyDeleteWhy do we need more codes? Shot if you want to grow a tomato there's a code for that. Name a code we need
ReplyDeleteHow about fixing fucking Blue River Road? As long as you have a city manager, director of public works, director of water, director of parks, director of aviation, etc ALL living north of the river, shit south of the river has ZERO priority. All these assholes care about is shit north of the river.
ReplyDeleteThere are kcpd gang units and detectives who can take major criminals off the streets, and KCPD works with NoVA to target criminal rings, but I believe the two largest factors for reducing crime are improving KCPS and Hickman Mills schools by partnering at risk youth with mentors, and also providing low skilled jobs and technical career training so that these kids have a job to go to after they finish school.
ReplyDeleteA lot of the burglary is committed by high schoolers skipping class or drop outs. A lot of the violent crime is committed by young, black men with few opportunities.