By Mark David Blum, Esq.

So, Mister Case “knows how it goes”, eh? In his column this morning, he penned how there were no witnesses to a recent shooting because, “Me? Didn't see nothing. I was standing there sucking weed and chatting up my woman on a cell phone.” Shame on you, Dick.

First, your words are amongst the ugliest, most racially offensive stereotypes imaginable. You claim people did not see a shooter because they were too stoned smoking pot. Alternatively, you posit that somehow chatting up a girlfriend is more important than assisting police in a witnessed murder. Underlying all of that is the insinuation the witnesses are Black and more self interested than in the lives of those around them. Apparently, Mr. Superstar Columnist for the Syracuse Newspapers, you have niggled your way into racist imagery as the foundation for your argument.

Secondly Sir, I find your overall writing style in that column to be below standard. It is choppy, without continuity, and goes nowhere. A pregnant woman was hit by stray gunfire apparently resulting from a shootout nearby and no witnesses can be found. There Sir, I just wrote in one sentence what you took up column inches in the paper today. Notably too is that I did so without a single racial stereotype. It is a sad shame you are getting paid to write at the quality of today’s column.

Third and let us get into the meat and potatoes of what this is all about: Your correctly noted that citizens of poor Black neighborhoods do not cooperate with police. But your premise that they do out of some narcissistic sociopathic entropy is completely misplaced. People in the poor Black communities in Syracuse do not cooperate with police because police have shown themselves as being enemies of the citizens. Police are not trusted and see themselves likewise at war with the neighborhood. Study after study comes out establishing significant patterns of racial profiling; but you never write about those. The stories of abuse of process and powers by police upon the weakest in our community fill volumes of file cabinets at the Office of the Corporation Counsel and the Citizens Review Board. Yet, you Mr. Case have not once bothered to trek on down and peruse those files to get a better understanding of why people ignore police. When police treat a single citizen unfairly, it is witnessed by family, friends, and future generations who all hear the same message: The Syracuse Police Department is not your friend. The Common Council and the Mayor’s Office have no interest in the problem because the poor and disenfranchised don’t vote.

Fourth, I am willing to bet you Sir that at the conclusion of the investigation by police, you will find that the shootings themselves were related somehow to the business of drug trafficking. Our laws insist that organized crime and not we, the People, control the drug market. Consequently, business people have to rely upon high powered weapons on street corners instead of high powered lawyers in court rooms. If you want to blame someone for the violence on the streets, look no further than your own jails. Every time you arrest a drug dealer, all you do is create a job opening. Because police are forcing themselves into a transaction that is consensual by all parties, of course police are going to be seen as the enemy.

Finally Mr. Case, in your utmost demonstration of ignorance, you argued that, “our law enforcers have a good record of scooping up the guns that kill and maim us.” I hate to get all NRA on you, but not one of those guns scooped up killed anybody. Those guns had as much to do with the deaths as Ford Motor Company was responsible for Steven Corsello’s DWI. Somebody pulled the trigger and that is the enemy the police should chase; not the gun.

All in all, for someone of your stature in the community, I am very angry at you Mr. Case. Your quick jump to racial stereotypes to build an explanation for a social phenomena is weak and without cause. If you would get out of your suburban lifestyle and vehicle and spend a few days “out there”, you might learn facts upon which you can build an argument. Until then, however, you owe a great many people an apology.