500
On June 26, 2016, a 15 year old young man was shot in the arm in the area of 27th and Moore Sts in Wilmington. He was taken to the hospital and I presume he is recovering. You would be forgiven if you read that and thought that this is the normal flow of criminal activity in Wilmington. This young man was the 500th victim of a shooting in Wilmington since Mayor Dennis Williams took office.
500.
You can look at it as .7% of Wilmington’s population (I used 70,000) being directly victimized by gun violence. I couldn’t begin to guess at how many others are indirectly victimized — parents, siblings, children, neighbors who are directly traumatized by this violence. We already know that we don’t have enough resources to help these people through this trauma, so the effects of this violence go in Wilmington’s Violence Bank so that some of these folks experiencing this trauma — the sheer normalcy of this trauma — will certainly resort to this same violence when given the opportunity in a few years.
It’s completely heartbreaking. Because the thing Wilmingtonians know, is that while this Mayor came into office on a wave of belligerent assurance that everything will be different soon, this Mayor is now utterly overwhelmed by this problem. Overwhelmed enough to where he won’t appear in a public debate to account for his record. Overwhelmed enough to not accept money from the AGs office to help fund foot patrols because he doesn’t want to account for how the WPD is actually deployed. Overwhelmed enough essentially eliminate the Community Policing unit at the WPD, now demanding that neighborhood leaders who want to discuss their crime issues present themselves at meetings at the new Data Center where you won’t be able to establish a relationship with your local officers. Overwhelmed enough to just give lip service to the recommendations of the Wilmington Public Safety Commission in hopes that no one will know that management at WPD hasn’t changed. Overwhelmed enough to ignore the fact that the Cease Violence program is virtually invisible and mainly ineffective across the city. Overwhelmed enough to be MIA in asking landlords to stop being slumlords. Overwhelmed enough to ignore the Wilmington residents and businesses who are desperate for leadership and a solution for this crisis. Overwhelmed enough to create videos with Pastor D to ask kids to stop shooting — a decidedly pathetic effort which assumes that any of these kids think Mayor Williams has any credibility here, much less that anyone will see that video. (Wish I could link to this.)
When Williams was inaugurated, he told the crowd that if he couldn’t solve the City’s crime problem he “didn’t need this seat”. I’ve included the video again in this post. You don’t have believe me — the man says it directly.
Time to take Mayor Williams at his word and make sure he does not get another 4 years as the most ineffective Mayor in recent memory. We can’t afford another 500 shootings and we can’t afford a Mayor who doesn’t have the backbone or the energy to help his own community. We can’t afford another Mayor who is going to be stuck in the usual limited solutions that characterize what passes for leadership in Wilmington — eternally mired in what and who we know rather than doing the work to learn something about best practices and getting them implemented, no matter what your cronies think. Time to break up the status quo that is suffocating us — which is why I am going to vote for Eugene Young.
Tags: City of Wilmington, Featured, Mayor Dennis Williams, Wilmington Mayoral Election 2016
I’ve come to expect great essays from you, Cassandra, but this might be your best ever. Excellent piece of writing. Makes me wish I still lived in the city so I could vote for Young.
I was highly skeptical, but I have been won over by Eugene’s enthusiasm and the fact that he’s the only person in the race with new ideas.
FWIW, I know someone who says he’s seen the polling, and the top 2 are Purzycki and Young, with Williams not far behind. I find that hard to believe — I would have though Kelley would be higher and Purzycki lower — but if it’s true I think Young’s chances are very good.
Excellent blogging, Cassandra – and so true. Williams is an absolute disgrace.
Go Eugene!
I also wished I still lived in the city so I could vote against Velda.
“Seen the polling,” mentioned above. What polling? Whose polling? Has any credible polling been done on this race?
It was an internal poll by one of the candidates, I believe; I did not see it myself. I’m not going to say whose because I don’t want to expose my source.
Yes, I wished I lived in the city so I too could vote against Velda.
Polling.
This race could use some solid and credible polling that might convince some candidates to drop out. I mean, who doesn’t think that Bobby Marshall and Norm Griffiths aren’t wasting their time and money here? Or Maria Cabrera and Theo Gregory for that matter.
Then there is Darius v Velda. Not much of a choice, really, which adds something to the Mayor’s race — the Mayor will need to bring on pretty sharp financial people since the Treasurer’s office looks like it will be a minefield.
Yeah, I have to say a hearsay rumour about a secret poll from a commenter literally called anonymous isn’t compelling.
I agree with Cassandra. And I’ll go one point further. Some trustworthy numbers (reputable, independent firm commissioned & methodology used must be sound) would help some undecided people coalesce around a candidate who can demonstrate broader support. Get the minnows out & identify the top candidates.
Williams OUT! Vote Eugene Young for mayor.
Wilmington needs a fresh new leader with no history or blemished views. Eugene Young is the individual who not only cares about the city and its residents, but understands the value of being present and working as a team. With Young in the commander’s seat, Wilmington can expect the most transformational years which could lead to historic success. Vote Young. You will not want to miss this one.
Wilmington’s killings won’t stop with a new mayor especially if some guy with zero experience with a few good ideas gets elected.
Move the hell out of the city if you can!
Great piece Cassandra. Agreed that the vision and energy of Eugene Young and his team will infuse this City with what is sorely needed–actual, actionable plans–to unite its citizens to create a Wilmington we can be proud of. Proud to vote Young and stand tall for Wilmo.
Polling is expensive. In the not-so-distant past media outlets might commission polls, but otherwise polling is mostly done for campaigns, who pay for it and own the results. If a campaign thinks a poll’s results are advantageous enough it might release the results to the public, but that rarely happens in Delaware.
I passed along the information I got — along with caveats about its trustworthiness — for the simple reason that I thought some might find it interesting. Sorry if you didn’t.
Here is the link to the Pastor D/Mayor Williams video you referenced (I think):
https://www.facebook.com/kenbriscoe/videos/10157068225020596/
Anyone know whom the Mayor is directing his message to? It seems like it could be a fairly small group and that he knows them (e.g. when he says things like there was a basketball game “with you and a few other folks” and “we even hired some of you” it sounds like he’s addressing a fairly specific group of people).
Incredible piece, Cassandra. As always, sobering, informative and thought provoking.
I’m undecided between Purzycki and Young, leaning Young. (I don’t live in the city so my opinion is really moot). But since the City is a huge economic driver for the entire state I feel very invested in the election.
I feel like we all need to get down on our knees and BEG many of the other candidates to drop out. Maybe as we get closer a poll will become public showing who the “also rans” will be and that could convince some of them…but if even 1-2 of them dropped it would go a huge distance to ensuring Dennis Williams won’t continue to royally f*ck up the City of Wilmington for another four years.
just got invoked on Senate floor on 6.30.16 debate
If anyone had a poll showing that they were ahead, they would make it public. So for me, that means Mike isn’t leading because I am certain he’s run a poll already.
Having received several phone calls from polltakers (some of which were clearly meant to puff a candidate while posing as a poll) I would say Purzycki has a distinct disadvantage in telephone polls because absolutely 100 percent of the time his name gets mangled by the caller, and usually pretty badly. Sometimes they’ll stutter the first syllable and not even finish the name. Sometimes it comes close, like “pricki” but often the caller says something that doesn’t sound anything like the actual name. I got at least two calls where the pronunciation was so far off, it seemed hard to believe, I mean there are only so many possible ways to pronounce that combination and letters, and these weren’t even close. I can’t remember how they said it, but clearly the name is hard to read for some reason.