[Omaha Rocks]

Originally Posted by star_gazer

Legalize drugs... tax them... heavily penalize those who harm others while under the influence.

I've heard that expressed often. And while I can't say I necessarily disagree, I'm not sure I can fathom how that would play out in practical terms.

Wouldn't placing a heavy tax on drugs kind of force them into the underground, black market? And how is that different than what's going on today?

[Senrab+Omaha=MissingChica]

Originally Posted by Omaha Rocks

I've heard that expressed often. And while I can't say I necessarily disagree, I'm not sure I can fathom how that would play out in practical terms.

Wouldn't placing a heavy tax on drugs kind of force them into the underground, black market? And how is that different than what's going on today?

I agree. If you tax them too heavily, and legalize the "hard" drugs (meaning drugs that have a high addiction rate, which would mean everything except mushrooms and marijuana) then you would still have a black market to provide them @ a lower cost.

I do think that pot should be decriminalized or @ LEAST decriminalized to the point of no fear of prison. We are the only industrialized nation that does not even grow industrial hemp! (which is nothing like recreationally used pot)

Back on point. Being newer to the area, there has always been more concentrated violence and crime in the North area. Has their been any attempts to bring decent paying jobs, or any "skill" programs to help people gain job/work skills for them to succeed in today's job market?

Also out of curiosity, does KC have as high a relative black crime rate? Is their city as segregated as ours is?

[ChrisDae]

Its intresting about the things you learn everyday
i am a born and raised african american resident of
omaha nebraska yes the north side it puzzles me that
these theories of what everyone could
be suffering from or what is making the
crime rate so high?unless your here
youll never know i think there was someone
on here with a very good point it is segregation
its been segregated i have witnessed
gun violence first hand when a idiotic
victim to the stereotypes of this...
Our society decides to take my best friends life
she was a high school gradutate and at the age of 20
she was gone....still wonder why they let him go and
my eyes wouldnt lie...............answer me this why
is it that the schools system takes the intiative
to say that the children
can only go to a school in their zip code
(racist) why are the only jobs north of 72
are resturant jobs? (racist) packing jobs on the
south side where the mexican americans live
(racist) why because they can pay them less
they bunch us all into an area that is affordable
for **the wages that are dish out to us** and tell
us to survive no its not the cities fault that we are
killing each other off but they are definately making
sure that nothing changes i can count atleast 15 people deceased
from gun violence out of my 6th grade class picture
ridiculous were a small city can take the law into their
own hands and the killings keep going....because they can
get away with it where are the statistics on the solved murders??
Umph theres silence when that question arises the crime rate is
out of control i literally take my son places outside
of north omaha so that he may enjoy the out doors
enough is enough i pray for the families that mourn
everday theres nothing any outsider can do to change this cycle
we omahans have to find a way to stop this vicious cycle

[Indentured Servant]

http://www.vpc.org/studies/blackhomicide09.pdf

CensusScope -- Segregation: Dissimilarity Indices


I don’t think that one can look at a particular city in a vacuum. The homicide rate for urban blacks is high all over the country. The lowest homicide rates for blacks are in rural and suburban areas. Rural areas are areas were most of the people know each other and low population density. Suburban areas tend to be more affluent and blacks in suburban areas have much lower homicide rates. Urban blacks in the US have the highest homicide rates. The problem in Omaha has NOTHING to do with the particulars of Omaha. This is a National issue and the reasons behind it cannot be explained with “snap shot” reasoning. Time lapsed photography much better explains than does trying to puzzles the causes of a ‘moment in time”, minus the history that lead up to it.

There is one thing to consider for places like Omaha and other tertiary cities and towns. There has been a large out-migration of people from places like Chicago, Detroit, Gary, Flint ect. A small minority of these migrants see criminal opportunities to be had in these new places that the competition does not allow for back where they come from. So people send back word that you can sell crack, heroin, weed or whatever at a much higher price in these places than you can in Detroit. I know this for a fact because when I moved from Detroit to Minneapolis, there was a large wave of Detroiters moving to the Twin Cities too….to take over the drug game. They escalated the level of violence to gain control of the trade and the murder rate rose so much that they termed Minneapolis “Murderapolis”. It was not “Just” Detroiter drug dealers, but also Chicago and Gary gang bangers. Together, they doubled the amount of “normal” homicides in the Twin Cities.

Omaha has one the lowest unemployment rates in the nation. A city with statistics like that will attract a lot of people from places like Detroit, Flint, Gary, Cleveland, Chicago…..where the unemployment rate is much higher. Criminals organizations also seek to expand out from big cities to smaller ones. There was once a time where sophisticated drug organizations and street gangs were big city phenomenon. That is true no more. The same thing goes on in smaller markets now because big city dealers and gangs have expanded to these smaller markets.

I agree with the person who said that legalizing drugs would destroy the foundation of much of this violence. However, this will never happen because the violence from drugs does not impact mainstream America. Mainstream America is impacted primarily by drug use and the problems that causes for families. Legalizing drugs would therefore make it even more convenient, seemingly, for mainstream America to get drugs which would elevate the usage problem in the main stream. Hence, the mainstream will NEVER make matters worse for itself to make matters better for the primary victims of drug related violence. Only if the violence was infected the mainstream would the benefit cost analysis change their opinion.

[pheaton]

Originally Posted by Indentured Servant

I agree with the person who said that legalizing drugs would destroy the foundation of much of this violence. However, this will never happen because the violence from drugs does not impact mainstream America. Mainstream America is impacted primarily by drug use and the problems that causes for families. Legalizing drugs would therefore make it even more convenient, seemingly, for mainstream America to get drugs which would elevate the usage problem in the main stream. Hence, the mainstream will NEVER make matters worse for itself to make matters better for the primary victims of drug related violence. Only if the violence was infected the mainstream would the benefit cost analysis change their opinion.

I think this is a good point...

[love_one_another]

I wish everyone could just love each other.
I love you, brothers and sisters. God bless all of you.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by love_one_another

I wish everyone could just love each other.
I love you, brothers and sisters. God bless all of you.

Thank you!!

[harshbarj]

Originally Posted by Senrab+Omaha=MissingChica

This is due to Omaha's "super" segregation. This goes back to how the city was planned to move minorities both pre and prior civil rights.

Also Omaha's recent crime rate, for the size of city is alarming.

I am afraid I have to take issue with this statement. Omaha has a relatively low crime rate for it's size. Also unlike almost all cities in omaha's class, our crime rate is dropping!
As for homicides, Omaha is one of the safest in the nation (ranked 46th of 72) for cities 250k or more.

[BFholmes]

If the kids had something to do in Omaha they wouldnt have time to be negative. Stop taking all the money that is for the northside of Omaha, like the 30million for that bridge downtown, and open the swimming pools back up on the northside. Open the BoysClub back up on 20th. The blacks in Omaha have limited things to do and then when they do find something to do the police are there stiring up things as if that isnt bad enough. Not trying to make excuses for the problem just pointing out what is never talked about.

[iamjacobm]

Originally Posted by BFholmes

If the kids had something to do in Omaha they wouldnt have time to be negative. Stop taking all the money that is for the northside of Omaha, like the 30million for that bridge downtown, and open the swimming pools back up on the northside. Open the BoysClub back up on 20th. The blacks in Omaha have limited things to do and then when they do find something to do the police are there stiring up things as if that isnt bad enough. Not trying to make excuses for the problem just pointing out what is never talked about.

For accuracy sake the $23 million pedestrian bridge was not taken from funds for North Omaha. It was federal funds that never would have seen the city in any form other than the bridge.

There are plans in place if you are interested. It is a massive report, but you will find info about huge park renovations, new cultural attractions and better housing among numerous other things. http://www.cityofomaha.org/planning/..._PROTECTED.pdf