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Crime in KC

Kansas City harbors diverse criminal activity, with no physical division between safe and dangerous areas | by TAYLOR BROWN

3017 Bales Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri. Living at this address is a 35-year-old African-American man named Mr. Rob Lacello, his wife and their 10-month-old son. A cashier at Ben’s Super Market, Lacello is a high school and college graduate. He lives in fear of danger and suffering every day of his life. In his neighborhood, he, his wife and son each have a one in seven chance of becoming a victim of violent crime (homicide, robbery or assault), according to neighborhoodscout.com. The FBI considers the area around 30th and Bales ‘” just a 13 minute drive from STA ‘” to be the sixth most dangerous neighborhood in the US.

Lacello became one of these statistics five years ago when he was one of eight people involved in an eruption of violence.

‘How do I feel about crime in my neighborhood?’ Lacello asked. ‘We were raised with this killing and crime. If you were raised in a bubble, how you gonna know it’s a bubble? If we was raised around danger, how we gonna know it’s dangerous?’


Dividing Lines


Although Kansas City is safer than only 2 percent of all cities in the nation, according to neighborhoodscout.com, Lacello believes most Kansas City citizens do not have the same ‘dangerous’ experiences  that he does.

‘I was with eight of my guys the day I got shot,’ Lacello said. ‘I wasn’t the only one injured. Another time, I saw my dude die right in front of my face. Most people [in Kansas City] don’t have things like that in their life. They don’t know what it’s like in [our neighborhood].’

Nothing physically separates so called ‘dangerous neighborhoods’ from other areas of Kansas City. However, according to Lacello, there is a noticeable transition from ‘hood-to-hood.’

‘We got fences around our yards,’ Lacello said. ‘You got gardens. We don’t have all the Thriftways and malls that you got. We don’t got all the soccer fields and swimming pools that you see in other neighborhoods.’

Country Clubs, fountains and parks appear in safer areas of Kansas City, such as Ward Parkway Road, and create a different atmosphere than that of Lacello’s neighborhood. Most people in these areas feel safe enough to walk their dogs on the streets and play kickball in their front yards. According to neighborhoodscout.com, the area of STA and Brookside Boulevard is one of the top 10 safest neighborhoods in Kansas City.  Most people in the community feel their exposure to crime reflects this statistic.

‘I think some of us [in the STA community] are less exposed than others,’ principal for student affairs Mary Anne Hoecker said. ‘A certain amount of us are sheltered. We’re lucky and we’re sheltered.’

Those who live near STA are just 13 minutes from dangerous areas of Kansas City, yet they rarely come in contact with crime. According to detective for the Kansas City Police Department Kevin Boehm, this is probably due to socioeconomic issues that do not affect areas around STA but are heavily present in dangerous areas.

‘[Issues affecting crime include] higher unemployment and concentration of probationers and parolees, lack of education, and lack of jobs in those areas of the city,’ Boehm said. ‘It’s much more than just a crime issue.’


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Stopping crime

‘Crime watch’ signs mark the corners of Lacello’s neighborhood; yet, they do not defer enough criminals he said.

As the coordinator for the Kansas City Metropolitan Crime Commission, Boehm tries to do what these signs cannot. This agency implements many organizations that work toward the safety of the Kansas City community. Some of these include the Crime Stoppers Tips Hotline, Metropolitan Community Service Program, Second Chance Program for individuals released from prison and SAFE (Surviving Spouses and Family Endowment Fund).

However, Hoecker, who considers herself less exposed to crime, believes it takes personal responsibility from individuals to truly stop crime.

‘If a person has had a lot of violence in their life ‘” if they have been abused physically, emotionally, verbally ‘” they have to find a way to deal with that violence,’ Hoecker said. ‘Somewhere along the line they should say, ‘ËœThat should not have happened to me. I did not deserve that.’ If you don’t deal with the violence that has come at you in your life, one possibility is that you carry that violence on. Violence begets more violence. It’s a cycle of crime.’

Many people struggle with this cycle of crime, so Boehm understands that some look solely to police to deal with it; but, he believes the police department is not the only facet of the community responsible.

“Just because the title of a particular newspaper article says something about crime, you can’t just say, ‘ËœWell that’s the duty of the police department,” Boehm said. ‘It has to be a community wide effort. I am a detective, I live in the [Kansas City] community, I have a responsibility as my chosen career to keep the citizens safe. By the same token, the citizens that live within the city also have a responsibility as a citizen in the society to curb crime and get involved.’

Different experiences

The crime statistics of Kansas City present the city, certain neighborhoods especially, as dangerous. However, Boehm believes this information is somewhat superficial.

‘What you have to understand from that information is what statistics they are measuring,’ Boehm said. ‘It looks to me like they are measuring calls for service from a given area from the police database. My personal opinion is that the label ‘Ëœmost dangerous neighborhoods’ is kind of misleading. I am not going to dispute that certain areas of Kansas City are more dangerous than others or there are more crimes that occur, but you have to look a little deeper than that.’

Misleading or not, Boehm has experienced crime through his law enforcement work in a way many Kansas City citizens will never have to encounter.

‘I am sure there are a lot of people that aren’t familiar with things that a police officer sees everyday,’ Boehm said. ‘That’s a good thing; they shouldn’t be.’

And in spite of the negativity surrounding issues of crime, Lacello remains optimistic about the future.

‘The thing is, it can change,’ Lacello said. ‘Crime can change. We’ve just got to stick together and stop hating on each other. There can be a sunny side to it all.’

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