News-Record.com

Let's just hope the City Council is sincere in their quest to stem this latest rash of violence and this meeting is not just a political move. Homicide is the most difficult crime to predict and prevent ,however, the latest homicides appear to be happening on the weekends around nightclub type facilities and where large numbers of people congregate or where drug dealing is prevalent. The Police Department must focus its efforts on illegal guns, curbing domestic violence, street drugs sales, gangs and more aggressive enforcement of the alcohol laws especially late at night.

This will require additional manpower and resources and City Council must be willing to provide them. There must also be some long term intervention strategies that focus on poverty and other social ills that are plaguing this community. Police must also be willing to redeploy resources. There are always cops on the highway writing speeding tickets. This may not be the best use of resources at the present time.

It's not just homicides; it's robberies and vandalism too. The City is hurting this holiday season. What's causing all this violence and what can be done to stop it?

We need to take back our city somehow. But how?

I bring back, Mr. Wray.

First time criminals involved in gang activity should be warned of deportation and/or denied citizenship, and second time offenders should be deported along with their families without exception. It is a previledge to live in America not a right.

please quit giving away our tax money to businesses that want to expand and/or relocate here. use the money instead to hire more police....mrs. groat recently had an unpleasant experience trying to get a response from the police, everyday teenagers are holding up business, etc...we need a strong military type police show of force, and we they get arrested, kept in jail....quit using tax money for special interest and hire more police...hire more police...thank you...

Ref: The comment about police writing tickets for speeding instead of catching criminals. The police aren't doing this enough! I invite the poster to drive down Market Street in the morning or evening and witness the aggressive driving, speeding, and reckless driving.

Bottom line is there are NOT enough police officers to do everything that needs to be done! And what does Greensboro do? They annex MORE area that will need to be patrolled by an already stretched police department. Instead of pouring money into the special projects, instead of going along with Skippy's idea of "Letting the programs work" and instead of being so concerned about tossing down the race card, we need to fund a larger police department and build a bigger jail. Until then, the criminals will continue to have the upper hand because they are well aware (thanks, in part, to the N&R) that we don't have enough officers, the response time is slow, and there isn't enough jail space to house them if they are caught. We're at the critical stage, people.

The city could have curbed gang violence years ago but did not because of the Drama going on at city hall and the Police Department. Yes more money needs to be spent on police........

Get rid of illegal aliens and the crime rate in Greensboro and surrounding areas will drastically reduce. Stop pandering and being concerned with 'polital correctness' and enforce the law!

City Council could have curbed the gang problem years ago !! But all the drama at city hall and The G.P.D. kept that from happening !~

The New City Council should be proactive in cleaning up the city administration i.e., the city manager and Police chief. Once competent adminstration officials are in place then the responsible city official should start addressing solutions for the problems. The mayor is incorrect in her assessment "that is if all we do is to agree to disagree" agreeing to disagree is not solutions for the problems facing the city.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is good men do nothing."
This city is in critical need of leadership!

Comments like this i find quiet funny being that i would like to know were you are getting your information from? No where in the article does it state that these crimes were committed by illegal aliens. All i see in this report is that a person was shot and killed by MS-13 gang members which true these guys are criminals but not necessarily illegal aliens. They could be born and raised right here in Greensboro North Carolina. I am tired of everybody blaming illegal aliens for everything that happens take responsibility in the fact that crimes are committed by criminals regardless of where they are from. And before you start throwing your illegals did this and illegals did that talk get your information straight. Its quite annoying when you see any article that has Hispanic involvement it ends in some illegal alien talk. Curb the racism please because that's what it is.
John J

"Get rid of illegal aliens and the crime rate in Greensboro and surrounding areas will drastically reduce. Stop pandering and being concerned with 'polital correctness' and enforce the law!"

"First time criminals involved in gang activity should be warned of deportation and/or denied citizenship, and second time offenders should be deported along with their families without exception. It is a previledge to live in America not a right."

Although an immediate response to the increase of drug dealing and homicides in Greensboro is law enforcement; I strongly believe and recommend that our City (business leaders, educational institution, elected officials and community) take a hard and analytical look at the root cause for young people's attraction to drug dealing, which in many ways is the cause to the increase violence. Economic development is tremendously important and appears to be a hot topic on a consistent basis in our town; however, we seem to place particular attention to economic development in areas of high paying professional jobs. We must think of people in our city that for more reasons than I can list hereto must have employment opportunities that do not need years of professional experience or multiple degrees. Our youth MUST have appropriate and realistic educational opportunities that will prepare them for the "real" world. Lastly, there are cities throughout the nation where partnerships have been developed between the business community, municipal government and the educational system that create employment opportunities for our teens during the summer. These are obviously long term visions for our City, but I truly and whole heartedly believe that we have the ability, wisdom and desire to make the City of Greensboro a model city for the rest of the nation to emulate.

I think the city council should hire more police officers...more officers are retiring as soon as possible.

More officers on the street, equals more officers to protect you and others. Presently officers are "running from call to call" with very little time to be proactive in their jobs. The city council needs to find some more money to allow more police officers to be hired.

I think the city council should hire more police officers...more officers are retiring as soon as possible.

More officers on the street, equals more officers to protect you and others. Presently officers are "running from call to call" with very little time to be proactive in their jobs. The city council needs to find some more money to allow more police officers to be hired.

Well, is it skyrocketing or slightly above the 5-year average? The latter. The skyrocketing meme is a newspaper creation: if it bleeds it leads. Greensboro can pretty much count on 30 homicides a year, and this year we got them.

If you want solutions, it would be to put more people in jail. But that would be a new crisis. Headline: Greensboro sees skyrocketing incarceration rates.

I believe the good citizens of Greensboro have exactly what they wanted. Only after they have it, now they don't want it. They allowed Mitch Johnson to railroad David Wray out of town and now see what you have. Nothing against Chief Bellamy at all, as far as I know he is a fine person, but he stepping into the path of a giant snowball that may be impossible to stop. As for the City Council...well they have played at their positions so long that they don't know how any longer. The former Mayor and Mitch Johnson have done more to destroy the image/reputation of Greensboro than anyone else in the past 200 years. Mayor Holliday started out fairly well until his daughter was murdered, since then, well he is now out of office. I believe it's going to get a lot worse before it gets any better.

All,

I was at today's meeting and it appears that all members of the city council are passionate about helping the GPD tackle the escalating gang/crime problem in Greensboro. You can sit back and point your finger at what has or hasn't been done or who said what... but the bottom line is that these actions do not help the situation.

I would urge you to attempt to have a positive attitude and at the very minimum allow the council the opportunity to help the Chief and our community. During the past couple of months I have really started to realize just how bitter members of our community are and I hate that it has reached such a boiling point.

The next time you decide to make a comment on the Web it would be very helpful to offer a solution of some kind rather than just making a derogatory statement about someone or a certain group of people. Mistakes were made in the past and we all know that but we have to make a conscious effort as citizens to move on and allow Greensboro to grow. And before someone says it, no I don’t think item A, B or C from the past should be forgotten… but it should not be our main concern when we have such high levels of crime plaguing the community.

Ryan

The media tends to lean toward painting the dramatic twist to whatever story is chosen to be covered/printed. Yet I have not seen the correlation between street gangs and terrorists. I'm sure Bin Laden would be damn proud of the acts of unprovoked random violence against defenseless/innocent bystander’s or business owners in this community these so called gangs, I like to use the term COWARDS, that roam the "tough" streets of Greensboro are doing. Domestic Terrorists/Gangs that use guns to rob and harm defenseless people in a relatively small community such as Greensboro, imposing doubt and fear of the unknown, using cowardly tact, I can think of no better term that is newspaper printable. Gang is too nice a term for these groups..... it sounds like team or family, when they are actually domestic terrorists.

I am new to the area, but have lived in much bigger and certainly more crime challenged cities such as Detroit and Cleveland. Greensboro is growing and it has an escalating drug, alcohol, and violent crime problem as evident in the headlines day after day. More police will help and city counsel can make that happen, but you can't continue to always operate behind the curve. There's the bull..... there's its horns..... now what?

They should resign.

From reading Jerry Bledsoe's series in The Rhinoceras Times, it is clear to me that many of the so called crooks are actually working FOR and INSIDE the Greensboro Police Department.

Until the City finds the courage to fire scoundrels like Hinson, James, and others, there will continue to be nothing but rampant ineptitude and scandal from WITHIN the Greensboro Police Department.

Where is David Wray when we need him most?'

John Jacobs- I never mentioned 'race'. YOU did!

The police department could haul these criminals away if they could only keep the Hooker's out of their patrol cars !!

The bottom line? Get off their butts and do something about it! As a native of Los Angeles I can tell you one thing that scares the heck out of me: the downward plunge into gang violence and other problems associated with the flood of illegal alien invasion is happening a helluva lot faster than it happened in L.A. LOTS faster! Your city will be lost, your local government officials will all have hispanic names, your homes will have bars on their windows, etc., etc. unless you do something about it now - but that's something the Greensboro city council (at least the previous one) doesn't seem to understand.

I think first and foremost this meeting was unneccesary. The Council is now fanning the flames and making matters look worse than they really are. Greensboro has had high levels of homicides in the past under Chief White and Chief Wray. Crime is cyclical in nature and goes up some years and down the next. Having more police officers alone will not help this situation but it cannot hurt. Saying that leadership in the Police department is the problem for the homicide increase is like saying they are also responsible for our drought conditions. I do feel the media plays a bigger part in all of this than they realize. It is important to let citizens know of various crimes happening in our community. But when the media such as the Rhino continues to berate our police department by publishing one sided articles and details of indiscretions proved to be false, even the criminal element starts to believe our department is in trouble. I believe this misguided journalism only emboldens our criminal element and increases violence in our community.

FIRST OFF IT IS NOT JUST ILLEGAL ALIENS THAT ARE DOING THE CRIMES- ITS BLACKS AND WHITES TO- JUST CAUSE THEY ARE ILLEGAL AND CAME HERE ILLEGAL THEY ARE DOING ILLEGAL THINGS AND THAT IS NOT TRUE AT ALL- PEOPLE OF EVERY RACE COLOR NATIONALITY ARE DOING CRIMES EVER DAY- LOOK AT THE FACT THAT VA TECH WAS SHOT DOWN BY AN ASIAN- AND THE MALL WAS SHOT DOWN BY A WHITE BOY AND CRIMES THAT HAVE BEEN MADE IN GBORO SINCE OCTOBER THIS YEAR HAVE BEEN MAINLY BLACK MALES- SO ITS NOT JUST ONE RACE ITS EVERYONE WHETHER THEY ARE LEGAL OR ILLEGAL- THEY MAKE THESE DECISIONS YOU CANT ACCUSE EVERYONE ELSE FOR THEIR ACTIONS-

Bring back an experienced and skillful administrator, a specialist in police
administration, and one who has the knowledge
of the qualities it takes for an effective
police officer. One who is not biased or engages in petty politics. One who is educated
and has leadership abilities. One who can see
through difficulties. One who recognizes
character and has the expertise to deal with
unpalatable individuals.
THAT MAN IS DAVID WRAY!

Like the man wrote sometime ago.
You are reaping what has been sown.

Hello, I stumbled on this blog, because I just heard about a MS13 shooting. In less than 1hr, I got two calls warning me of this.
Americans, the solution is not to hire more professional intelligent police to fight the unprofessional and ignorant gangs. We as Americans have our "RIGHTS"!
Don't take away our rights to protect ourselves from the enemy, by making us stand in line like puppies to get a license for firearms.
Quit giving the idiots all this publicity and TV coverage. Go under cover like they think they are, write everything out, and see how many can read their fame.
Americans make it so easy for the outsiders to come in, so why not take it a little further and wipe our nose in their gratitude or (the brown mud looking stuff)
Calling all the former American Gangsters: "KKK", "Black Panthers", "Skin Heads", and oh lets not forget the "Politicians". You guys should be feeling rather weak, to let someone else invade your territory.
From:
"Wouldn'tyouliketoknow" (Lets see them figure it out!)

The city needs to open their eyes to the reality of the gang culture that is creeping over the city like a plague . Our High Schools are out of control. Whose bright idea was it to bus in rivaling gangs to one school? Strict discipline programs need to be established and enforced. Our rising adults need more guidance in how to be upstanding citizens. I am so tired of getting rude service from our young adults!!!! As a whole, we need to embrace our youth. Give them structure and stability, something many of these youngsters have never known. We need to utilize the young adults who are excelling to mentor and tutor the younger classmen that are struggling. We need to pump some serious money into our education system to give teachers the supplies and training necessary to handle the situations that are now becoming common everyday occurrances.