Blacks dying in Missouri
PER CAPITA, MORE BLACKS DYING IN KANSAS CITY THAN ANY TOWN. By Mass Appeal News
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The ‘Shoot Me’ state has achieved a new low. According to the FBI, the number of 2009 black homicide victims in Kansas City, Missouri represent the highest rate per capita in the entire country. Kansas City’s rate of 34.72 per 100,000 black residents is seven times the national homicide rate of 4.76 per 100,000 residents.
Of 110 murder victims in 2009, 81 were African-American. Similar homicidal numbers are expected in 2010 and 2011. Studies have shown murder victims are three times likely to be black. “It’s sad, and it frustrates me and disgusts me,” said Paulita Holmes, who’s brother Leland Dickens was shot to death the day after Martin Luther King Jr.’s holiday.
“It makes me embarrassed for my city. It makes me embarrassed for my people. You’re taking each other away. There’s not going to be any generations left. These kids are going to be parentless children because of these senseless murders.”
Activist Alvin Brooks of the Ad Hoc Group Against Crime said he’s not surprised by the immense numbers. He believes homicide rates can be reduced through better parenting and more education. “We become so chalice sometimes about human life,” said Brooks.
“We’ve got our own home grown terrorists. That’s what they’re doing, terrorizing the neighborhood.”
If you have information on unsolved murders, please contact the TIPS Hotline at (816) 474-TIPS.