1993_11 The Daily Collegian November 1993

              2—Op/Ed
-
®jje JBatlp Collegian
Monday, Nov. 29, 199
'plpmn
Eighty-nine
and counting
By David Mirhadi
"News Editor
Fresno passed a milestone re¬
cently, a milestone that most of us
should not be proud of.
We recently had our 89th mur¬
der, breaking the record that was
set in 1992. For a while, it looked
as if we were going to have to wait
a while for it to happen. This
record that, we have set makes me
wonder Where all the madness
comes from.
From one of the earliest mur¬
ders, that of Susan Kathleen Kurtz,
which was a mystery to much of
Fresno when, on January 4, she
was    reported   _.	
missing by her
husband after
being seen at the
couple's conj-
puter store, to the
senseless drive-
by^hootings that
happen almost
every week, to
the gangs that
crawl the streets
of Fresno, look¬
ing for the
chance to pull off
another murder-
one that prob¬
ably will never
get solved." ■ '
How the city has changed, and
with it, tlie morale of the police
force is probably one of the rea¬
sons why murders in this town
keep increasing. What happened
to Fresno?
I can think of a few things that
have increased the murder rate in
our once fair city,   \
The effectiveness of the police
force has seriously been
underminded by lack of funds
given by the city and the sheer lack
of officers themselves.
Fresno is a city with an identity
crisis. Here we are, a city of
375,000 people, and yet we need
tbe California Highway Patrol's
help in keeping our streets safe
.;om troublemakers. And the sad
fact is, despite Acting Police Chief
Ed Winchester' sclaim that the'mis-
sion was "a success," arrests did
not decrease for the majority of the
cityscrimes. Even withtheCHP's
help? Fresno is in serious trouble.
That's our problem. We think
we can cope with our problems by
standing pat and not do things like
put more cops on the street or pass
a simple bond measure for more
protection. Those two issues have
been brought up recently in Fresno
politics, the former being put in
front of the City Council, in Mayor
Jim Patterson's impassioned plea
for 100 more police officers. The
City Council refused to make con¬
cessions for this and only met
Patterson halfway. The voters, on
the other hand, apparently don't
careabouttheirsafetyeither. They
failed to pass Measure A, more
fearful of their pockejtbooks than
, _    their lives.    I
wonder if they
will rethink
when their
homes become
the target of a
drive-by shoot¬
ing... *. •
It seems that
the city govern-
ment and the
residents' of
Fresno are on
the same wave¬
length. Make
my home and
city as safe as
possible at the
•********************************™ lowest cost to
me. This is impossible, since citi¬
zen patrol has proven to be just as
ineffective. Neighborhood Watch
programs aside. You think that
that stupid picture of a thug with.
the caption "If I don't call the
police, my neighbor will" is going
to wash with the next Johnny Rob¬
ber? Idon't think so. If a thief
wants to come into a home and
steal something or blow someone's
brains out, they are going to find a
way to do it.
It is time for us as citizens to
take back our city. We can not
stand pat and let someone else take
are of the problems that affect all <
of us. We will be the real losers in
the war against crime if we choose
to ignore the crimes that happen
on a daily basis. ■
The articles that ran recently in
the Fresno Bee about crime in the
city are a prime example, they can
be taken either as fodder for the
We need to teach
about the dan¬
gers of owning
guns instead of
being so con¬
cerned bout
keeping our Sec¬
ond Amendment
freedoms intact.
,-:■
next gun-happy warrior to take a
cheap shot at someone or some¬
thing, or they can be seen as a step
in the right direction for Fresno.
We recognize the problems; now
it is up to us to find credible solu¬
tions to those problems.
First, we must aggressively
push for more police protection. It
does no good for us to complain
about the crime in Fresno and then
slam the door in the face of our
local lawmakers when they ask for
more funding to make our neigh¬
borhoods safer. We look like hypo¬
crites if we do this.
Second, we should teach* pre¬
vention programs in the schools
and make it mandatory for chil¬
dren to take courses designed in
self-defense. If we can identify
the programs early on, then chil¬
dren will have less propensity for
violence later on in life.
We should make stricter gun-
purchasing laws within the city.
Yes, NRA advocates will say that
"It's the people that kill, not the
gun." Yes, but if there is a crazed
maniac looking for a place to end
his frustrations, that person could
getagunrathereasily. Weneedto
teach about the dangers of owning
guns instead of being so concerned
bout keeping our Second Amend¬
ment freedoms intact. People use
that amendment so much that they
eventually abuse the message.
Finally, we need to be less fear
fulofourcity. You see, it could be
possible thlT if more people fre¬
quented more places like down¬
town, the propensity forcrime would
be much less. People don't want to
go downtown because they feel like
they are the only people there, in
isolation, in fear. This could be
alleviated if we build up that area
and other depressed area of this cit
■ We will almost certainly not b
come a safer city overnight. V>
, must be aware of ourlimitations ar
our options in solving this most in
portant of problems. J
 c^—
.etter
Owen's refreshing
DearEditor:
In defense of Jason Owen: Fi¬
nally a funny eye-catcher in The
Daily Collegian. I am proud of my
school that finally our paper of¬
fered something not stale. Nor¬
mally, I skim through the paper (I
won't even look at The Edge), and
toss it aside disappointed. Every
now and then, other commenta¬
tors attempt to be humorous, but it
always ends up too innocent and
not intellectually stimulating.
Fresno does not have to be
boring, really.
. Scott Lefkowitz
•f^JSS
&
V
K<--^^c
tEIje 5!atlp Collegian
Keats Campus Building. Miul Stop 42, CSU Fresno. Fresno. CA 93740-0042
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