Posted on Saturday, June 25, 2005

CONTRA COSTA TIMES
GUEST COMMENTARY by GAYLE McLAUGHLIN

Roots of Richmond Violence Run Deep

IN THE GUEST commentary of June 11th, Richmond Mayor Irma Anderson reflected on the June 4th Black on Black Crime Summit held in Richmond. This event was organized by African-American, Christian, and Muslim ministers, to readdress the endemic problem of violent crime that has decimated Richmond for at least 25 years and cost hundreds of young lives. In her commentary, the mayor pledged to support youth programs, citing an upcoming initiative funded by private contributions that will give 200 young people part-time jobs for the summer.

More recently, other members of the council have called for a “state of emergency,” insisting that only a larger police presence will solve the ongoing violence problem.

I respectfully disagree with my fellow city councilpersons. We are not currently going through a violence “crisis” in Richmond, but continuing to suffer from chronic violence, several decades in the making. Richmond’s chronic street violence is largely drug- and/or gang- related. The availability of drugs to be traded and the use of guns to secure turfs are key causal factors.

Even deeper roots lie in our decimated educational system and lack of jobs, which create a giant surplus of desperate and angry unemployed young men. When young men in the drug trade are confronted, countless times they tell us: “You want my gun? Give me a job!”

I profoundly believe that most of our troubled young men would chose a better life if given the right opportunities and the appropriate guidance. How do we make significant and long-lasting opportunities exist for alienated and underserved young people? Not through greater police repression.

Mayor Anderson’s summer job program is certainly well-intentioned, but it is insufficient, and the impact of such a small program on Richmond’s street violence will be, I believe, minuscule. Mayor Anderson and many of my colleagues on the Richmond City Council would love to have the money to invest in youth employment and education-strengthening programs.

Let us be clear: the money is within reach, but most of my city council colleagues are unwilling to pay the political price to access those funds. I refer to closing the corporate loopholes that allow multibillion corporations like Chevron to get away without paying millions of dollars of taxes to the city every year. Repealing the utility users’ tax cap granted to Chevron more than ten years ago would generate millions of dollars of revenue to support Richmond youth programs.

The cycle of violence in Richmond also has another difficult mechanism: the fewer resources we utilize to prevent violence with employment and education, the more dangerous is the job of repressing the local violence, and police and firefighters officers expect more compensation for the work they perform. The public safety unions swallow the bulk of the city’s budget, and take the lion’s share of any new initiative that the citizenry may vote into effect, such as Measure Q.

Chevron and the public safety unions directly influence the decisions of the Richmond City Council. Chevron spent approximately $150,000 in the last elections to support its candidates. The “Keep Richmond Safe” PAC of the Richmond Police Officers Association and the Richmond Firefighters Association spent close to $120,000. It is very hard for Richmond elected officials to ignore the weight these powerhouses exert on their political futures.

The special interests will attack anyone who questions their priorities and calls for a fairer distribution of resources. And so, youth programs are chronically under funded, and the cycle of violence continues.

The city of Richmond needs to remove the utility users’ tax cap and collect the millions in additional dollars due to our city. The city of Richmond needs to allocate millions of dollars every year to a year-long youth part-time employment program that hires, trains and educates several thousand young residents.

The life of one Richmond child is certainly more valuable than the profits of Chevron stockholders, and infinitely more valuable than the political careers of any city council member.
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McLaughlin is the first Green ever elected to the Richmond City Council.