A rise in crime and violence, what once seemed limited only to urban neighborhoods, is now spreading like a virus and taking place in suburban and rural communities too. And despite repeated pleas of desperation, elected officials at every level continue to do little or nothing to disrupt this wave of madness.
If society realistically expects to thwart these social forms of cancer, then we are going to have to demand far more from those who have been chosen to represent our best interests. Doing so means being creative, applying common sense, and implementing bold strategies that produce life-improving outcomes.
Such plans of action should begin with voters pushing to add term limits to the ballots of every level of government in order to prevent complacency, arrogance, and corruption by elected officials. If a president, state legislators, and various other officials who have been elected to office can be held to term limits, then why are mayors, city and county managers, city council members, county commissioners, and even district attorneys not held to the same standard?
Wisely, the inclusion of term limits was approved in Miami-Dade County, Florida, in 2012 after voters grew tired of the lethargic practices and self-absorbed mindsets of elected officials and pushed to modify the county charter to implement term limits of two consecutive four-year terms.
We should also change city and county law enforcement union contracts. City and county leaders should not support any new collective bargaining agreement with their police union unless it fully implements and agrees to desirable accountability measures, which include fixing their disciplinary review system. While many police officers strive to do good work and serve communities well, they operate within a tainted, dysfunctional system that screams for unprecedented and systemic change.
Impose legislation that removes prosecutorial immunity from prosecutors proven to display misconduct and abuse of their positions — allowing for citizens who have been wrongfully or maliciously persecuted to have the constitutional right to seek legal redress against them. If judges, attorneys, and police officers can be prosecuted for acts proven to be criminal in nature, then why exclude prosecutors from adhering to the same level of expectations?
Most importantly, to become homeless often takes only one bad situation or mistake because we live in a society where a person’s career could end overnight due to lies, rumors, and gossip spread through social media platforms. Next thing you know, someone is out of a job, unable to pay his or her bills and maintain a roof over their head.
Sadly, most elected officials who operate under the guise of being concerned city, county, or state leaders of today have a chronic “invisible people problem.” Meaning, for more than 50 years now, society’s response to homeless people, ex-offenders, and senior citizens has been to neglect their plight as if they are invisible — despite the fact many of these people have been ambitious, responsible, dream-possessing individuals whose lives and hopes were turned upside down for one reason or another.
We need to allocate the necessary funding within urban and rural communities to empower them and equip their residents with the means to live, work, and play in a community they can be proud to call home. One promising example is the brilliant model that was launched a few years ago by the partnership between ProMedica and the Ebeid Institute in Toledo, Ohio, known as the Market on the Green. This mixed-use four-story building consists of a full-service grocery store (located in a downtown area designated a food desert) that offers fresh and affordable food for local residents, a teaching kitchen to assist people in learning to prepare health-conscious meals, and a classroom space where financial and computer literacy, job training, GED classes, STNA classes, tax filing assistance, and a debt recovery-credit restoration business are available.
Taking a page from the blueprint of the ProMedica-Ebeid Institute makes more sense than continuing to pour gasoline on volatile situations that have only proven to keep marginalized people distressed, oppressed, and alienated.
Poverty and hopelessness are the mother and father of criminal activity. To disrupt this cycle, two proven variables to reduce such issues are affordable housing and economic empowerment through the creation of decent-paying job opportunities for even the most unskilled or ignored citizens of every community. Anything short of those basic necessities is just rhetoric.
Santura Pegram (santura.pegram@yahoo.com) is a freelance writer and business consultant.
