Tackling Crime in the Inner Cities

In an ongoing discussion with another hubber here on HubPages, I am presenting my conservative solutions to reducing the high crime rates in some of our inner cities.

-Jun. 2016

Crime rate in our inner cities have always been higher than the rest of America. The reasons are many and most of them are interrelated. Recently, it was reported that crime rate in Chicago has risen 40% this year. This is indicative of a total breakdown of society. Drastic action needs to be taken if we are to reverse this trend. The solutions will take many components and some will be effective immediately but some will take years. I will present a list of Conservative ideas to lower crime rates in the inner cities. Some cities will require a variation of these ideas since not all cities are alike. The general principles apply to all cities.

First, let us identify some of the problem areas that contributes to higher crime rates.

• illegal drugs
• gangs
• illegal guns
• poor education system
• lack of family structure
• community apathy
• police antagonism
• fear of reprisal by residents
• lack of recreation areas

I will outline my proposals in two parts. An immediate actions that will have an effect now and some ideas that will take a longer period to implement and achieve results.

Immediate Actions:

The mayor and the chief of police needs to sit down and come up with a plan to deal with this. If needed, the Governor should be called and ask for our National Guards to assist on a temporary basis until some order is returned. In NYC, for example, we use to have a stop and frisk policy that worked well. Crime was down because this was a proactive policy implemented by the city to prevent petty crimes. It was mayor Guiliani who instituted the "broken glass theory" to deal with crime in NYC and it worked.

The rule of law must be preserved, without that, everything else is useless.

Long Term Actions:

• We need to create some local recreation facilities for those teens. Such as the YMCA or PAL or Church centers which help them learn some sports and combined with social interaction and self esteem building.
• We need to fix our broken public schools (to be addressed separately)
• We need to encourage local businesses to offer teens jobs, or internships where they can learn the basics of responsibility and customer service.
• We need to educate and encourage local residents to report crimes and be witness to crime and to help victims of crime.
• We need to encourage young families to stay together. A stable home with two parents is the best way to raise a child. They will have the stability and the role models they need at that stage of growth.
• War on Drugs continues...

I have outline some conservative ideas to address this issue. It is the responsibility of our government, at the local level, to keep our citizens safe. That is the tenet of a free society. We cannot live in fear in our own neighborhood and expect anything good to happen.

Some solutions are best done by private organizations and charities and churches. Not everything is on the shoulder of local government. They need to provide the safe environment and opportunity so that individuals can flourish with their God given talents.