Jersey Mike

According to the 2000 U.S. Census data available, the City of Harrisburg’s roughly forty nine thousand residents are divided into two majorities- fifty four percent (or approximately twenty seven thousand people) are African American/Black and just about thirty two percent (or just under sixteen thousand) are Caucasian/White.

In an age of increasing racial tensions and seemingly decreasing personal patience and acceptance of our common man, it’s no surprise that racially motivated innuendo is creeping it’s way into discussions, conversations and debates about why crime in our city is as high as it is.

Although Mayor Reed’s office has failed and refused to release official crime statistics and data to the public- even when urged by his own City Council- rudimentary data are available from Websites like CityRating.com and AreaConnect. Statistics from those sites indicate Harrisburg crime is noticeably higher than the national average- coming in nearly quadruple the national average in robberies, one and a half times the national average in murder, almost twice the national average in aggravated assault and the overall violent crime is touted at over twice the national average.

Surprisingly, the only area which Harrisburg scored less than the national average is in car thefts.

Sure, The Mayor can tout all of the national statistics he’d like- in his annual “State of The City” address, Reed oftentimes goes on tangents spouting off numbers like a broken fire hydrant in a bane attempt to trivialize Harrisburg’s crime problem.

But something I learned early on as a youth can translate to the Mayor’s passing-of-the-buck to national trends: just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t make it okay.

The City of Hartford is the Capital of Connecticut. And while the population is nearly twice that of our fine little city, the crime data doesn’t make us look very good. A capital city with over 100,000 residents, Hartford manages to keep their robbery, assault and burglary rates noticeably below ours.

Same with Albany, New York and even Trenton, New Jersey, although edging us out in murders and assaults, still appears to be a safer place to walk the streets at night. And please note that the three cities cited are all Capital cities- just like Harrisburg.

So what gives? What is it about Harrisburg that makes us so incapable of keeping crime at bay?

For starters, lets acknowledge the fact that “shit rolls downhill”. It starts at the top. If other cities of similar stature and size are able to keep crime at reasonable levels, then there is no justifiable reason that Harrisburg cannot do the same.

Our Mayor has been in office for twenty five years. Which, in my opinion, is just about seventeen years too many.

So lets remember this come election time next year (oh, you did notice all of those shiny new police cars, right? Do you think it’s a coincidence that our police force FINALLY got some reliable and modern equipment a mere sixteen months prior to the next mayoral election?)

But certainly there is more to blame than the Mayor. Family values and the importance of a solid education are in the shitter nationwide.

Kids today are bludgeoned with images on television of dysfunctional pop and hip hop stars crashing cars and hanging at the bars. And they think that’s the way to live.

I’d hypothesize that a big part of the problem in Harrisburg is not a black/white issue- I’d think that the notion of parents being responsible for the actions of their children is not even a consideration when a woman gets pregnant for the second, third, fourth or fifth time by just as many fathers.

I’d hypothesize that a large part of the problem in Harrisburg is our school district is simply not able to handle these children of absentee parent households and, instead of the education system adjusting it’s methods, it tries to simply grind graduations out and lower standards of acceptable behavior.

Surely, Reed cannot be held responsible for the lack of parenting skills being displayed in the urban settings of Harrisburg neighborhoods- but what about the school district?

Look, here’s what it comes down to- as a white, middle class male living and working within the city of Harrisburg, I do not feel comfortable or safe walking down the streets alone after dark.