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DON'T SHOOT A radical approach to the problem of gang violence. From The New Yorker In April, 2006, two brutal street killings in the Over-the-Rhine section of Cincinnati spread fear through the city. A white suburban mother of three, who was trying to buy drugs at the corner of Fourteenth and Race, got into an argument with the dealer, and was shot and killed. A few days later, on the same block, four white kids, also from the suburbs—a boy at the wheel, three girls in the back—were buying drugs when a black man walked up to the car and shot the boy in the head. These incidents, coming within days of each other, contributed to the public's impression that violent crime in the streets was out of control. In fact, much of the violence was occurring between people who were closely connected. Young black men were shooting each other over drug deals gone bad; in the majority of the cases, the victims and the shooters knew each other. Nevertheless, although the average Cincinnatian had little chance of getting shot on the street, citizens perceived potential killers everywhere. And that presented Chief Thomas Streicher and his assistant chief, Lieutenant Colonel James Whalen, of the Cincinnati Police Department, with two problems: a crime spree and a public-relations problem. Click here to read the rest of Don't Shoot. (600kb pdf)
Copyright © John Seabrook 2009. All rights reserved
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