Previously on SBPDL: In 29% White Dallas, TX, New Black District Attorney Reveals Plan to Stop Prosecuting Thefts Under $750 to Help “People of Color” from Being Arrested

What is the take away from this article?

Read it carefully.

Pay close attention to the image from the article and what it tells us about residential segregation and how this helps insulate white communities in Dallas from the violence impacting non-white communities (because of non-whites committing the violence, which the article fails to mention). [Dallas’ sudden spike in homicides has officials perplexed. And not everyone agrees that state troopers are helping., Texas Tribune, August 15, 2019]:

After Dallas experienced 40 killings in May — its highest monthly total since the 1990s — Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directed the state’s Department of Public Safety to send state troopers to reduce violent crime in a city that has struggled for years with a massive shortage of police officers. Since the troopers’ arrival, they’ve seized more than 70 guns, according to the Dallas Police Department. Violent crime — though still up compared with last year — has also dropped by nearly 30% in the areas of Dallas where they’re deployed.

But some city officials now say the troopers are doing more harm than good as an “overwhelming” number of residents complain that they are over-policing neighborhoods; questioning people about their immigration status; and stopping people for soon-to-expire, but still valid, inspection stickers. Dallas City Council member Adam Bazaldua recently called for Dallas police to indefinitely pull state troopers from his district that covers parts of southern and eastern Dallas where residents are more likely to live in poverty and be people of color.

“Small, tangible results may be good in the now,” Bazaldua said. “But when this initiative is over and DPS leaves our community, it’s going to be our city’s mess to clean up. We’re going to be the ones fixing these wedges that have been created between the community and law enforcement.”

Even before that tension boiled over into public view, people were already attributing the homicide spike to city officials’ and law enforcement’s historically lackluster engagement with such residents. But that’s not the only theory.

Others point to understaffing in the Dallas Police Department’s homicide unit.

Yet as conjecture about potential causes seems as endless as the homicides themselves and officials remain mum on their strategy for using state troopers to combat the violence, many agree that the partnership won’t be a long-term solution.

While the pace of slayings has slowed since May, Dallas is still on pace to experience nearly 220 homicides this year. The city hasn’t reached that figure in any one year in more than a decade.

As local and state officials quarrel over the best strategy to stem that dramatic rise, consensus on the underlying explanations eludes one of America’s largest cities. Meanwhile, outside of public view, relatives of some of Dallas’ homicide victims are left in sorrow as their loved ones’ killers remain at large.

“The grief has been horrific. I mean, truly, truly horrific,” Haag said. “This is not a club you ever want to be a part of — and you just feel terrible knowing more people will.”

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As city officials explore solutions to Dallas’ homicide uptick, they’ve floated around ideas such as creating a gun buyback program, strengthening conflict resolution initiatives and improving community relations. But when asked whether enough has been done to curb the city’s violent crime, longtime Dallas resident Eric Adejuwon had two words: “absolutely not.”

The issue’s personal for him. Over the past few years, he’s run a mentorship program for high school boys. One of his mentees, 17-year-old college football signee Leroy Hawkins, was killed in June in downtown Dallas. Just six days after he celebrated his graduation from Desoto High School — and less than 24 hours after Malik Tyler’s shooting — Hawkins was found shot to death in his car.

“It’s hard not to be numb,” Adejuwon said. “When you see all of these black people being maimed, shot, assaulted — it becomes a nightmare that translates into reality.”

Black residents represent the third-largest racial demographic in Dallas, or about 24% of the population, according to the most recent estimates. Yet more than half of all Dallas homicide victims since 2014 have been black, department data shows.

As homicides rose this year, they followed that trend. Advocates have pushed for the department and the city’s black residents to forge stronger relationships to start changing the situation. Adejuwon worries it still isn’t a priority for officials.

“This murder spike should only be pushing the envelope for them to have better engagement with the community so this can stop — and that has not happened,” Adejuwon said. “When you want to create a better relationship with this community that you serve, you have to be able to make a connection with those people. When you’re isolating yourself or only showing your face on Fourth of July events, you’re not going to see any change.”