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Police survey the crime scene at Ashland and 19th. Photo courtesy Rob Bennett/RobShots
Yesterday’s brief discussion of crime in downtown Niagara Falls brought conservative platitudes about how we should blame the woke progressives who are ruining our cities with bail reform.
I take it a step further, at least in New York. It is the fault of drug laws.
Generational poverty and the school-to-prison pipeline set in when the chemical plants closed and have become worse since.
As Demetreus Nix points out to anyone who will listen, for poor people in Niagara Falls, City Hall is not on Main Street but on 10th Street because that’s where people go to get housing assistance, SNAP and other services from the State.
Public housing in the Falls only survives if there are new poor people to move in. Kids too often grow up without a father in a community where a young Black man returning from jail is admired. The people who should be valued are going to work every day, owning homes, paying their bills and belonging to a church or temple.
How the Niagara Falls Memorial Emergency Room has become Ground Zero for some battles is another matter. Someone told me a shooting victim there for treatment was attacked and beaten Thursday. Last week a security guard who told a man to put a shirt on got punched in the head.
Against this backdrop, however, it is like 3 or 4 bad actors breaking into cars in the hotel district. I don’t think bail reform has as much to do with it as crushing poverty and drug addiction.
As for violence and the degradation of cities, most political violence in this nation is rooted in the far right, like the folks who attempted insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. It has little to do with Antifa, drag queens or woke people.
There are a few things we can do to make a difference.
- Teach meaningful life skills in our public schools (This is happening at Niagara Falls High School).
- Embrace teaching kids a trade. College is often a waste of money. There are numerous ways at Niagara Falls High School to graduate into a union apprenticeship.
- Vote, so that the benefit of government jobs doesn’t stay with friends and family forever and the will of the majority matters again.
- Embrace meaningful programs that make a difference like 716 United Basketball, Cortez Bradberry’s Niagara Strikers as well as programs like Boy and Girl Scouts and Venturing.
