ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Davon Wade was only 22 years old. Tall, tan and cute as a button, he was minding his own business in his own neighborhood on Friday night, when he was gunned down. Two friends of his were shot, too.
They survived. Davon did not.
I know his family well. His mom and I served as volunteers on the Langdon Park and Recreation panel, when Davon’s older brother and my youngest daughter were growing up. Until this day, my daughter calls them “my brothers” and they refer to her as “my sister.”
It’s that sense of family, community, neighborliness — The Village — that is being lost.
The shooting of Davon and his friends, who also grew up and attended neighborhood schools, is among the steady stream of senseless bloodletting that has the streets of America’s urban areas bleeding red.
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What makes me wanna holler and throw up both my hands is that while inner cities bleed red, Democrats remain true blue to policies that neither stem the bloodletting nor dent the violence.
And the Democratic programs and policies of the last 50 years have made things worse by creating a culture of dependence and victimization. Marvin Gaye spun his insight in 1971: “Crime is increasing, Trigger happy policing, Panic is spreading, God know where we’re heading.”
People are fighting to stay alive and killing themselves and others in the process. In the eyes of far too many folks, community policing has become “trigger happy policing.” People are either in panic mode, even raising hell in a Baptist church, or they mistakenly think government has their back by focusing on gun control.
Panic is spreading because people are taking matters into their own hands.
Now I don’t think it is necessary to run off the litany of excuses that Democrats sleep with each and every night so they can recite them come election time. You would think that in this century the list would have changed, but it has not — the list has grown longer and remains out of touch with reality.
Take the universal pre-K program, for example. Prince George’s County, one of Democratic Maryland’s strongholds, started the school year last week with news of toddlers being “lost” or forgotten along school bus routes. (Years ago, long before universal pre-K programs were written in stone, I warned that public school systems would fall short.)
SEE ALSO: 3 suspects arrested in fatal shooting of Virginia teen
Meanwhile, mayors try to explain to ordinary men and women what they are doing to solve their problems so that they can put their hands down. But folks aren’t buying in.
Chicago’s Democratic mayor, Rahm Emanuel, saw the blue light go out when, at a recent budget forum, he was heckled off a stage. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and a group critics got into of verbal tug-of-war over crime issues.
And on Tuesday, Ms. Bowser and D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier are holding a media romp on gun control. The event is scheduled to be held in police headquarters, where the chief will likely play offense with a not-in-my-house post up.
As things stand now, D.C. is making a two-fisted play: Snitch and buy-back. Snitch and tell us who and where the guns are, and the city will pay cash.
“This summer, the Bowser Administration increased rewards for tips leading to the seizure of illegal guns,” read a press release sent out Monday. “A reward of up to $2,500 is offered for a tip leading to an arrest and a seizure of an illegal gun (from $1,000) and up to $10,000 for a tip leading to an arrest and conviction in a shooting (from $1,000).
For sure, there will be idiots who sign on the dotted line for the cash not realizing the guns will be tested for fingerprints and to see if the they have been used in any crimes. But that does not solve the Democratic problem.
Indeed, Democrats focus so long and so hard on the here and now, they can’t even see the needs of next generation. They can’t envision the needs of the children not yet born. And voters, especially voters singing the blues in our urban areas, get to the polls and act as if blue is the only color in the box.
We’ve mistakenly bought into the notion that Libertarians, Republicans and conservatives haven’t a clue. We go to the polls are vote Democrat over and over and over again.
I hope that people aren’t raising Cain for the sake of raising hell.
Yes, folks are challenging their local leaders, especially mayors — and that is precisely as it should be, regardless of political affiliation.
But when you look at what “inner cities” have gotten in return under Democratic rule, the ballot box, one of our most precious democratic pillars, hasn’t delivered as expected.
In fact, it’s the same ol’ crap on a different Election Day, as an elected D.C. Democrat proved the other day when she said: “Every citizen should feel safe in their community.”
Can you believe a politician said that? Don’t we know that feeling safe and being safe are two different things?
But that’s a Democrat, for you.
Let’s pray that people don’t throw up their hands. We’ve got countless ways to flip the script.
• Deborah Simmons can be reached at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.
• Deborah Simmons can be reached at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.
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