Talk of crime — and its potential solutions — dominated discussion at a forum for Columbus mayoral candidates at the Exchange Club’s weekly meeting Thursday, with independent Keith Gaskin saying Columbus Police Department needs to be brought “into the 21st Century” and independent Montrell Coburn cited violent music and a culture that tells young Black men they are God.
The two candidates are running against Democratic incumbent Robert Smith, who did not attend the event at Lion Hills Center despite being invited.
In answer to a question from one Exchange Club member, Gaskin said one way the city government can better deter crime is adequately funding and staffing the police department. He emphasized hiring detectives.
“I think that they do not have the funding that they need,” Gaskin said. “I think we’ve got to be aggressive in helping them get to that point. I think we need to have more investigators, I think we do need to have our police force up to the level where we have at least the number that we’re budgeted for right now.”
The police department has been understaffed for several years, with the number of officers getting as low as 44 by the end of 2016, according to previous reporting by The Dispatch. Currently, there are 58 officers, about five of them new hires who are training or about to train at the police academy. The department is budgeted for 64.
Gaskin said he has talked to police officers who tell him their equipment is outdated. With more funding, Gaskin said, the police department can bring its staff up and purchase new equipment.
He also acknowledged the community’s role in supporting the local school district and starting youth programs that help deter young people from a life of crime, a topic prevalent at a recent town hall meeting hosted by the community Crime Prevention Task Force, which Smith also did not attend.
“(The youth are) bored,” Gaskin said. “There’s not enough to do outside the schools.”
In answer to the same question, Coburn suggested that criminals would stop committing crimes if the city implemented what he called the “one-product technique,” in which one family would be in charge of selling one product that citizens need out of a community store for two months. He suggested the empty K-Mart building as a good building to run the store from and said if “all 20,000 people” in Columbus bought one $5 product in those two months, the family would make $100,000 by the end of their two months and a different family would rotate into ownership.
“By taking one item, fill that building up with that item and for instance we’ll let (one family) own the store for that two months,” he said. “… If all the citizens are of one accord and we use our strength in numbers, we need everybody to go do business with (that family) one time.
“… A man wants safety and a net for his family,” he continued. “That’s why they get out there and resort to (crime) to provide for their families.”
At other times in the meeting, Coburn said children are being indoctrinated by vulgar and violent music, which they hear “more often than their parents’ voices.”
“They have that ear (buds) in their head and they’re being indoctrinated and taught to kill, shoot, murder, stab, all day,” he said.
He said the children are being “influenced and possessed by these artists” and added that young Black men in particular are being told they are God, which is why they feel they can disobey police.
“Hitler … said he would rather control the music of a nation’s youth and (he) would run that nation,” he said. “If that’s what’s going on with our youth and our children here, and the music that they’re teaching, that they promote.”
Other topics
While Coburn’s speech focused entirely on crime, Gaskin pitched ideas for education and infrastructure, suggesting the Public Works department could be split into “beats” for each ward so that employees get to know their particular areas and can identify infrastructure issues more easily.
He also suggested funding better equipment and ensuring the department is properly staffed. The city would have to prioritize wards by the worst infrastructure damage in order to ensure the beat system doesn’t have the department competing with itself.
“I think that that’s not hard to determine,” he said. “You can go into certain wards and see what the damage is and what the priorities are, what are the high roads that are being used, and those type of things, so I think you just have to do it on an educated basis and have them working together as a team.”
As for education, which he said was his primary concern, Gaskin said the community has to become more involved with Columbus Municipal School District.
“As many of you know, the public schools in Columbus have not always had the best reputation,” Gaskin said. “I’ve visited with some students there recently and I promise you there’s some really good kids there that we can be really proud of.”
Then he referenced reports that CMSD students have fallen behind, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic caused the district to go to a virtual model, and said other districts in similar circumstances have hired full-time tutors to help bring students back to high academic achievement.
“As mayor, I want to be a champion for them and I want to try and get the community involved, because most all the problems that we face in Columbus, you can stem it back to education,” he said.
Though neither candidate took a shot directly at Smith, some Exchange members mentioned the mayor’s absence. Member Lee Burdine specifically brought it up when asking the candidates a question about how city government can decrease crime.
“We don’t have the current mayor who’s running for re-election here today,” Burdine said. “That would have been helpful on his part.”
Conflict disclosure: Managing Editor Zack Plair took part in editing this article. He is currently in legal proceedings that involve the city of Columbus. Details are available in previous reporting.
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