In January, when asked about the increase in violent crime in the city, Columbus Police Chief Oscar Lewis suggested that end times prophecy was being fulfilled. As we noted then and still believe today, it is the sort of fatalism we cannot afford.
We refuse to accept that we are powerless to secure the safety of our neighborhoods, even as the wave of violent crime seems to have increased since Lewis’ startling admission. Every day, it seems there are shooting or reports of shots fired. When two men were shot in broad daylight at the O-Kay Food Store Tuesday, it sent a chilling message that the criminal element has become emboldened to the point no one is safe.
City officials are taking this seriously, as they should. Both the convenience store and the Princess Theater downtown, where a shooting incident occurred outside the nightclub early Sunday morning, have agreed to close early at the city’s request. There are plans to install surveillance cameras near the club and a promise of increased police presence where incidents re-occur.
That, of course, presents its own dilemma. Adding officers at one location takes them from another, forcing an understaffed department to increase safety at one location at the expense of another.
There are ongoing efforts to hire more police officers. Yet that takes time. It may be months, even longer, before the CPD is adequately staffed.
To this point, efforts to address this issue seem either piecemeal or a long-term approach to an immediate crisis.
It is right to call this a crisis because viewing it in that context may be the first step in a quick, effective response.
In crisis situations, there are no city limits, no jurisdictional constraints. When a community is threatened, law enforcement from all corners respond.
We believe the CPD and city officials should reach out to the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department for help, and we are confident the LCSO will respond affirmatively.
We have seen that kind of cooperation in emergency situations before. Both the CPD and the LCSO have come to each other’s aid when confronted with a crisis.
This is a crisis, not prophecy.
The city can stem violence that terrorizes our neighborhoods.
But it cannot do it without help.
We urge the CPD to make that call and for the LCSO to respond with all the help it can provide.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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