Brookside's Wild West Show

I was all set to write a smart ass post about the 75th street Waldo Frappuccino Crips shooting it out with the Ward Parkway Latte sipping Bloods. It would have been funny, to some, and it would have pissed off others. In the end, to offend or not to offend never figured in to the equation. The latest real deal rollin gun battle in Brookside was anything but funny. Judging from all of the bullet holes they were showing on the news, its a miracle that nobody was killed, or even wounded.


I'm not going to piss anyone off by making light of a serious situation. But I may piss a few people off with some random comments, observations, and predictions. The truth tends to do that.

I predict a heavier police presence in Waldo, and more than a little profiling by said police.


I predict the Mayor, who by and large has all but ignored crime in the city proper, will suddenly get on his high horse and vow to address the issue.



The heightened police presence in Waldo will temporarily push the growing criminal element in the more affluent areas, back to the east side where it belongs. Violence will increase and eventually spill back over west of Troost.



I know the chase started on the east side and worked its way west to Brookside. The news made It sound like this type of thing was so far removed from the area that the shooters must have come here from Mars. In reality, 39th and prospect is 10 minutes or less from Waldo/ Brookside. I have yet to see anything on the local news or in the paper regarding why this sudden rash of gun battles have found their way to the Waldo and Brookside area. In the last 3 weeks there have been at least two gun battles in fairly close proximity of one another, the first being around Gregory and Holmes a couple of weeks ago. The police have been quick to point out that the trouble started east of troost and just randomly ended up where it did. And there is the obligatory interviews with Brooksider's who react with shock and amazement because "This sort of thing just doesnt happen here in Brookside".



I beg to differ. What we are seeing is what I call the Starbucks Syndrome. When Starbucks thoroughly saturates an area, they expand, they spread out, and the dope trade is the same way. Right now the two areas most heavily saturated with Gangs and Drug traffic is the east side and parts of KCK. Crime, especially Drug trafficking is an ever expanding industry, and west of troost is part of that expansion. It just stands to reason that bad things are going to occur with increasing regularity. Another very telling element of this story is the manner in which people are reacting. You would think that we would all be immune to the shock factor by now. I mean people shoot at each other on a regular basis a mile or two from the 63rd and Brookside. What a difference a couple of miles makes.



What everyone should learn from this is that the shit that happens in the less affluent areas has a ripple effect. We tend to disconnect with the day to day violence in the disenfranchised areas of the city. The more we ignore what happens in those areas the more we run a risk of what we saw happen in Brookside. The police and City Hall have been content to let folks blast each other on a regular basis, thinning the herd by proxy. Never mind that there have been countless innocent people caught in the crossfire on the eastside for years. It will be interesting to see how indignant folks get over these latest spats of crime. All I can say is I told you so. It aint no fun when the rabbit has the gun.