Omaha's War on Crime: Fear anyone that is Brown

From Action 3 News KMTV.com:

Omaha's War on Crime: North & South Join Force

Omaha, NE - On the heels of bloodshed and bullets, dozens of community members try to get a handle on the danger.  That includes Grace United Methodist Church Pastor Alberto Silva,

"There's a lot of graffiti in South Omaha, there's a lot of gang activity, there's a lot of things that can be addressed if we're just willing to help one another," says Pastor Silva.

Silva and his church group "El Puente" are joining forces with Pastor John Voner and "Enough is Enough."  The coalitions train volunteers how to confront violence on the streets and fight it.  The pastors hope, with word that north and south join forces, the city will unify in the fight against crime.

Pastor Silva says, "Whatever they're doing in North Omaha that's working, we should do in South Omaha.  Whatever we're doing in South Omaha that's working, they should mirror in North Omaha."

Armed with prayer and programs, the coalitions take first steps to help each other and the community.  A prayer march is planned for this Saturday at South High School.  "El Puente" means "The Bridge" in Spanish.

Pastor Silva believes the march will help bridge a gap between communities.  "I think the unique quality of it all is the coalition of African Americans and Latinos and people from South Omaha and North Omaha, " says Pastor Silva.

*shakes head*  Idiots!  Lately violence has surged in North Omaha to the point that every night there is a shooting victim and more often than not there are multiple shootings with most of them lethal.  It has gotten so bad that the area where I used to live, up until January of this year, is now part of "places you dont want to find yourself at night" and that was a wealthy and predominantly safe neighborhood (72nd and Blondo).

I now live in South Omaha which is overwhelmingly populated by Latinos. There is no violence except for scattered reports of gas-station robberies that are usually committed by North Omaha residents venturing south. A white person -- hell, a white 8-yr old girl -- could walk around after dark and feel reasonably safe.  The contrast between these two communities is ridiculously noticeable... and yet the white community of Omaha that usually avoids both minority populated areas always proves to be oblivious to such stark differences between a latino and a black neighborhood. To ignorantly assume they are even remotely similar in safety is just so embarrassingly racist.

I attended the Cinco de Mayo festivities last year that transformed South Omaha into one gigantic carnival. The police presence was ridiculous. There were snipers positioned on rooftops and not only local police scattered throughout the crowd but also the most amount of federal agents (they wear bullet-proof vests with "Federal Agent" imprinted on them so we all are fully aware who they are) that I have ever seen outside of Washington D.C..

Why?    Nothing even remotely dangerous happened.

I remember living in Detroit and attended the mass Fourth of July fireworks show at Hart Plaza which usually draws close to a million or more people into that tiny park in the heart of Downtown Detroit.  Detroit is famously bad... its been the murder capital for so many years and only recently misses that top spot due to its vastly shrunken population in recent years. Everyone felt perfectly safe... though smartly prepared should anything bad actually happen.

It just seems odd and very troubling to me how bigoted and ignorant people in power still exist to be in America. It's ridiculous how flighty, paranoid, and wimpish white americans have become. It really is embarrassing.