A Little Support Can Go a Long Way

Houston is a difficult place to live in, not to mention if you turn into the wrong street and by chance if that street is dark, you are bound to get robbed. Such is the experience that many Houstonians seem to elaborate about. One must wonder than is that all true or is it just an image that has formed? According to the article (David Jennings, Big Jolly Politics, 6/3/14), the title “Psst, hey, criminal dude, c’mon down to Houston!” suggests much the same as the article body itself highlights what a dangerous place Houston is for its civilians. Where is the law then we ask? Surely they have taken care of this and are investigating such crimes. However the article tells us differently.

                The intended audience for this article is perhaps targeting the public or more indirectly the government. The author is trying to convey the pleas of the Houstonian population through his words. He too is concerned about his family and what the police department is doing to protect it. He chooses to provide evidence in order to support his claim that the police department is actually not doing anything. In the article a reference to another newspaper article by journalists tells us in few words that 20,000 criminal cases were not investigated and ignored in 2013.  The journalists further ranked Houston as out of 1000 residents 9.9 violent crimes were committed. Thus making it the highest ranked city for violent crime in major Texas cities.

That being said one would think that surely now the government would put all their focus on getting these investigations done, but to the dismay of the reader the author goes on to explain that Mayor of the town Annise Parker demands that more tax revenue would be needed in order to pay for these investigations. The author also states that tax revenue should already be coming from high property taxes. To this point I agree fully with the author that the Mayor of the town should definitely be more concerned with the society’s wellbeing, however investigations such as these do require money. Further investigation would thus make this point stronger as to whether tax dollars are being used correctly or not. Therefore at this point the author is just assuming that even the previous tax revenue for amending roads in Houston led to unfilled potholes. Houston is fairly large, perhaps the author hasn’t investigated where this work had occurred. Therefore to jump to any conclusion on this point would be raising questions without proper knowledge of the situation.

                Another claim that the author makes is that the Mayor is actually acting as a legal defense to these criminals by not investigating their crime. He thinks that if little crimes are let go and are ignored, they will turn into bigger crimes and there won’t be much that the population can do. I agree with this point of his although I do think he takes it to an extreme level where he feels that if a pervert criminal shows up in the bathroom of a little girl, they will have a legal defense for themselves, that defense being the Mayor. Yes crimes need to be investigated no matter how small they are, yet the public needs to understand that many crimes occur, and it takes time and money to investigate all of these things. The last quote the author provides is “Ah, progress, isn’t it grand?”, which certainly mocks the system. Forgive me if I don’t completely believe that this attitude will not help the city move forward. What will help it move forward and help it rise from above crime is the public and its support to help the Mayor of the city.

Together many problems can be solved. Yes by delaying the investigation into crime the Mayor is putting the city of Houston at risk, but it cannot be disregarded that there may be certain reasons as to why this delay is occurring. Therefore to make such assumptions is really uncalled for. To each their own, perhaps you may hold a different view to mine?