Trenton and the Wild West – Should Cops Care?

Do you feel it pays for the cops to find the killers of gang bangers?

The way this came about was an email that was sent to me by a frequent contributor to the show that said, in effect…why should cops even bother going after the killers of gang bangers…since they chose the life they led and aren’t really victims. He put that in a letter to Trentonian columnist LA Parker

Here’s the letter my friend wrote to LA Parker.

"Being a former Trenton resident I too feel sadness when I see the city in such dire straights. I was curious as to your feeling in this matter.

I’m not saying any out of the 24 victims who where murders or the hundred shot & injured that anybody deserved it, but how many of these victims are truly just that …"victims".

A person who got up everyday & went to work. A person who you or I would hang around with, a person who got their education, worked hard at whatever job they had, a family person, just a person you would like as a neighbor. A true "victim".

Also let's be honest. How hard to you think an overworked & stressed out police office is gonna work to try & find the killer of another killer?

I’m guessing that when a drug dealing gangster guns down another drug dealing gangster the police (under their breath or maybe even out loud) say "good riddance""

The column LA Parker wrote was in response to the tally of 24 murders in 2011 for the City of Trenton.

Here’s what he said once he’d gotten my friend’s email…

"...my intentions were to not respond until a coworker offered similar comments Tuesday after another Trenton resident headed toward a morgue, funeral home and finally graveyard.

I flashed back to Sammy Davis, Jr. singing “Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow” for an ABC show called Baretta.

Lyrics included “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime, no, no, don’t do it.”

In other words, criminals who engage in nefarious behavior should expect to get whatever up the highway.

In other words, they get exactly what they deserve.

Even if the premise is true, you won’t find me dancing around singing songs about the demise of young men, most of them Latino and African American, caught up in urban America’s high stakes meat grinder drug world.

We have different reactions for other criminal activity, such as, DWI. When some poor suburban teenager crashes and burns while drunk, we don’t say anything close to “Serves her right. She should never have been behind the wheel of that vehicle. Let her go home to meet her maker. One less risky person on the street.”

In fact, organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) were moved enough to acknowledge a serious U.S. problem and set about changing laws, dispensing information, and moving the discussion forward because they understood that we were losing valuable people.

Politicians at New Jersey’s Statehouse display minimum concern about a serious uptick in urban murder while inner-city dwellers appear disengaged about violence right outside their windows.

Government men and women talk a lot but they allow cutbacks in law enforcement then watch as blood glazes urban streets.

They should microwave popcorn, grab a soft drink, then watch from their West State Street office windows as a parade of hearses moves toward local cemeteries.

A disturbing sentiment in black Trenton is that residents can expect change and movement on violence issues only when an innocent Caucasian person gets shot and killed by black urban terrorists.

Let’s hope not.

Any MADD member will confirm that all lives are worth saving.

I would concur...however could we expect our legislative leaders to impart the sense that "all lives are valuable", when the mindset of your average "gang banger" is anything but?

Just saying'

Feel free to share your thought!