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COLUMBUS, Ga. — “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” — Abraham Lincoln.
As of March 7, 2023, no less than fourteen people have been shot to death in our city since Jan. 1, 2023. That is a period of just 66 days.
With a population of 205,617 people, our city has already experienced a homicide rate of 6.809 per hundred-thousand residents (called per cent mille, or pcm). The national average homicide rate for an entire year is 6.9 pcm; we have reached that in just 66 days.
The 66-day period from Jan. 1 through March 8 accounts for 18.08% of the year. Should our city continue to suffer homicide at our current rate, we are statistically on-track to endure a total of 78 homicides throughout the rest of 2023 at a rate of 38 pcm.
For context: a homicide rate of 38 pcm is more than 5.5 times the national average. If Columbus was a country, the homicide rate we are currently suffering would now rank us the seventh deadliest on earth, right behind Lesotho at number 6 (43.6 pcm) and Jamaica at number five (56.4 pcm).
AN INTRODUCTION
Just over one year ago, in December 2021, mayor Skip Henderson published a video describing his plan for combatting our city’s egregious rates of violent crime. The video came on the heels of our city suffering its worst homicide rate in recent memory, with a disturbing 70 record homicides at a rate of more than 34 per hundred-thousand residents.
Henderson’s video was of grave concern even at the time, as residents and public safety officers heavily criticized the lack of probable methods through which Henderson planned on securing our city.
As the head of our city’s public safety department, that burden ultimately lies completely on Henderson’s shoulders — though Henderson blamed anything and everyone but himself, continuing to take no action while effectively saying ‘it’s not my fault and there’s nothing I can do.’
Let us be perfectly clear while grabbing the good Mayor’s attention for a brief interlude before we dive into the breakdown of his utterly-failed plan for public safety:
If parents are lacking in their accountability of their children: It is still your responsibility to ensure the safety of the public.
If there are 1,800 gang members in Columbus, which is just under 1% of the entire population: It is still your responsibility to ensure the safety of the public.
If the police department cannot retain its officers, ironically because of your own neglect, pandering, and spineless inaction: It is still your responsibility to ensure the safety of the public.
If the city is experiencing a homicide rate exceeding that of third-world nations: It is still your responsibility to ensure the safety of the public.
Here’s a detailed break-down of why Henderson has quite obviously continued to fail in his responsibilities.
PRIORITIZATION OF WORK
Right off-the-bat, the first sentence out of Mayor Henderson’s mouth in his Dec. 2021 video clearly prioritized automobile break-ins over the city’s worst homicide rate on record, saying the following:
“Our community — and in particular our law enforcement community — has been experiencing an increase in criminal activity — especially as it relates to some of the automobile break-ins that have been occurring throughout the city.”
After making his primary point of the problem of automobile break-ins, Henderson then indirectly addressed the city’s homicide rate, blatantly admitting that the murderers do not place any value on human life. Put a pin in that admission for later, because it is very important:
“They (our law enforcement officers) still have to worry about some of these individuals that seem to have no regard for human life, and think that whatever they want — or any conflict — can be resolved by pulling a trigger.”
Henderson then put the city’s unprecedented 2021 homicide rate of 34 pcm aside again, opting to continue focusing on automobile break-ins instead:
“With regards to the automobile break-ins, I want you to know that the police department is focusing their patrol efforts on the areas that have been hit the most over the last several weeks. The Sheriff’s office is contributing as well; they are running patrols with their tag reader outfit — and you may see some Georgia State Patrol vehicles in the community as well. We have invited GSP in and asked them to help with patrols in some of these hard-hit areas.”
Take note of the size of Henderson’s remarks about automobile break-ins compared to the single sentence he gave on the city’s extreme homicide rate that year.
As a result of Henderson’s misprioritization of work, which favored the pursuit of things like automobile break-ins over the city’s continuous increase in gang-related homicide and violent crime, our city now experiences a homicide rate worse than we did in 2021.
Henderson’s priorities of work have failed. If he would like to rectify this issue, he should immediately raise hell-and-high-water to reestablish our city’s Gang Task Force in order to place an extremely-acute prioritization on the identification, investigation, arrest, and prosecution of our city’s more than 1,800 validated gang members. Period. Bar none.
But he hasn’t, as he continues to preach about how hardened criminals with “no value on human life” will somehow all-of-a-sudden respond to his programs of unicorn farts and fairy dust, somehow suddenly seeing the light and giving up their life of murderous crime.
Newsflash, Skip: Those 1,800 gang members do not care. They do not value human life, let alone your programs. Put the boots on the ground, give them the leadership they need, and let them do their jobs. Quit being a little rich kid about it from your swivel chair. Sheesh.
More on this later as it comes up again in Henderson’s ‘plan.’
LACK OF POLICE OFFICERS AT RATES FAR EXCEEDING NATIONAL AVERAGE
Henderson then went on to discuss how our city’s police force was severely short-staffed, though he did so by wrongfully misleading the city. While Henderson attempted to minimize and deflect the issue by claiming that law enforcement retention was suffering nation-wide, he conveniently failed to mention that the Columbus Police Department’s staffing issue was 6.22 times worse than the rest of the nation.
CPD experienced a 112% increase in officer resignations in 2021, while the national increase that same year was just 18%. Knowing that those officers specifically cited Blackmon’s poor leadership as the reason for their resignations, this highly significant piece of data shows — by itself — the extreme effects of the department’s current leadership malignancy; officers are quitting the Columbus Police department at a rate 6.22 times higher than the rest of the nation.
Here’s what Henderson had to say about the dangerously-low staffing of our city’s police department:
“Our law enforcement agencies are short-staffed. They are continuing to patrol and are continuing to answer 9-1-1 calls, but just like a lot of other agencies across the state and across the country, recruiting has been a challenge.”
Remember: at the time of Henderson’s words, no less than one formal study had already identified that Chief Blackmon’s poor leadership was the single primary factor driving the city’s police staffing shortage, which was in fact 6.22 times worse than the rest of the nation.
Paying no mind to the formally-documented severe leadership problem driving the department’s dangerous retention issue, Henderson went on to describe how he was throwing money at the problem by trying to bribe officers to stay on the force:
“The council has recently approved a recruiting & retention package that would give a $5,000 bonus to anybody joining CPD or the Sheriff’s office — and in addition, all of our existing personnel will receive $6,000 over the next twelve months. Now, this doesn't get us to where we want them to be, and it doesn’t really accurately reflect the value we place on our public safety individuals, but it's a start.”
As has been clearly evident, Henderson’s plans of bribery failed. The officers weren’t leaving because you weren’t giving them a retention bonus. They were — and still are — leaving because of Chief Blackmon’s dangerous leadership.
As we have heavily covered in great detail, the Columbus Police Department has suffered terrible-enough leadership under the command of police chief Freddie Blackmon that four professional studies were required to document his lack of leadership ability, poor communication skills, and lack of strategic aptitude.
The abhorrent leadership the department continues to endure has resulted in no less than 70% of our city’s entire police force giving a formal vote of no confidence in Blackmon’s ability to lead the department in Feb. 2022, though Henderson and other city officials responded by proclaiming that ‘racism’ was somehow to blame.
After no action was taken to correct the leadership issues, community leaders privately funded a recent world-class study by none other than Jensen Hughes. The study found that Blackmon’s atrocious leadership was the single largest contributing factor of the department’s demise, going so far as to say: “Addressing the development of leadership within the organization is critical for future success.”
The Columbus Police Department now suffers a vacancy rate of 41%; it is only 59% staffed with roughly 290 officers for the minimum 488 funded positions our city requires. For context, the Savannah Police Department is staffed at roughly 83%; LaGrange is staffed at 90.6%, and Peachtree City is staffed at 98%. We, however, are staffed at only 59%.
Because of this severely dangerous staffing shortage, there are literally no more than a dozen officers patrolling our city on any given night when a minimum of 50 are required to properly patrol our city’s 26 police beats. As a result, violent criminals continue to go unchallenged as our homicide rate continues to soar.
Henderson’s plan for retaining police officers through bribery has failed, as officers continue to resign from the department. They continue to cite Chief Blackmon’s dangerous lack of leadership as the reason for their resignations.
If Henderson wants to recruit and retain officers for the Columbus Police department so that our city may once again be capable of being properly patrolled, he must realize that his police chief must be relieved and replaced. Regardless of Henderson’s ill-advised, inexperienced, and naive political opinions that seek to prioritize his own public image over the safety and security of our city, there is some serious advice Henderson needs to hear:
No one will follow Blackmon. Blackmon has already eroded irreparable trust between himself and his officers over the course of years. Officers will continue to resign until he is replaced. Their years of irreplaceable experience will continue to leave with them. Whether you agree with that statement or not, we assure you: it is a factual reality, and our city will continue to suffer under your watch until you take the actions necessary as our city’s head of public safety.
Either relieve your bowels already, or get off of the proverbial pot, Henderson.
People are being killed at seriously unfathomable rates. It is ultimately your responsibility to prevent and is therefore your fault.
WILLFULLY DANGEROUS CRIMINAL SENTENCING
Henderson then went on to briefly describe how our city was planning on ensuring that criminals are quickly arrested and then “put away for a long time,” though our city’s recent history also shows that this has largely failed as well in deadly ways:
“We also understand that enforcement is such a big piece of what we need to accomplish — and our law enforcement agencies are laser-focused on making sure that they stop crime and prevent it when at all possible; if they cant, that they respond to the 9-1-1 calls and they try to make an arrest quickly, and put the individual away for a long time.”
Most recently, and perhaps most painfully, a man who had been arrested and tried for murder had his charge reduced to manslaughter. That man was sentenced to twenty years, but to only serve five; he was released and placed on probation.
That man then illegally obtained a handgun, walked down to the riverwalk on the Phenix City side of the river, and shot a man multiple times in broad daylight during the city’s Christmas parade, less than one hundred feet from the Troy University campus.
That same man then noticed another person approaching who accidentally witnessed the murder, so the man shot him multiple times as well.
It took a combined task force of every local, state, and federal agency in the area to locate and capture that man who is now on trial for the double-murder committed this past December.
Henderson’s plan for having our city’s own law enforcement capture criminals in a timely manner has failed.
Henderson’s plan for having our city’s judicial system prosecute and sentence criminals who have literally killed several human beings in cold blood has also failed.
If Henderson wishes to rectify this issue, he should immediately do two things: replace the department’s current chief so that the department may begin to rebuild itself; and ensure our city’s judicial system is properly charging, prosecuting, and sentencing those who have been found guilty of heinous and violent offenses.
The real world does not care about your optimism, Henderson. The real world cares about fewer dead citizens. Grow up.
NO CONCEPT OF NEAR-TERM THREAT VS. LONG-TERM PROACTION
Henderson then continued by describing how his many ‘programs’ are helping to deter the city’s crime rates — which is utterly false.
As seen in Henderson’s next statement, our city’s head of public safety erroneously believes that the same violent murderous criminals he just described as ‘not valuing human life’ are suddenly going to all have a ‘come to Jesus’ moment and submit to the light through crime prevention programs.
Newsflash, again: No, they will not.
Let’s take a look at what Henderson said, and then we’ll break down why Henderson’s approach to lower the city’s currently-acute rates of homicide and gang violence through crime prevention programs is not being properly implemented and far-to-heavily relied upon:
“But there are some root causes that we have to continue to stay focused on as well: poverty; mental illness; a deterioration of the family; and education. The city continues to fund the crime prevention grants to the tune of just about $800,000. So those grants are made to organizations that are doing some activity that is designed to eliminate or prevent criminal activity or behavior from occurring. About 80% of that is currently being spent on youth programs to mentor, guide, and put a fence up around some of these young people to make sure they don’t end up going down a path that leads them to criminal activity and maybe gang activity.”
First, ask yourself: Have these programs worked to reduce the city’s violent crime, or do we currently have a homicide rate that rivals third-world nations?
The answer to that question may be uncomfortable for Henderson to face, but that is the measurable reality.
There is a reason for that.
What Henderson’s reliance on programs fails to take into account is the differentiation between the city’s acute near-term threats and methods of long-term culturally-implemented crime prevention programs.
Additionally, the programs Henderson is relying on are also questionable at-best, though that isn’t the primary failure; not relying heavily on long-term programs to prevent near-term crime is the failure.
The city’s homicide rate — its current batch of 1,800 violent criminals — are a near-term threat. They already exist. They do not value human life, as Henderson himself admitted earlier. There is no program that is going to reduce the number of violent murderous criminals on our streets other than hard policing, in large presence, over an extended period of time. Again: if Henderson does not like that reality, too bad. That is the reality.
The city’s development of future violent offenders that may not already be on that path, however, may at least somewhat be positively impacted by programs like Henderson describes — though they are not in any way, shape, or form a substitute for hard policing.
Murderous criminals who do not value human life are not going to value your programs, Henderson. They do not care. This really is not a difficult concept to understand.
If Henderson wants to rectify this issue, he must immediately allow the Columbus Police Department to rebuild itself. To do that, he must do the one thing he ever-so-politically continues to refuse to do: he must replace police chief Freddie Blackmon.
As we have stated earlier, no one in that department is going to follow his ineffective, poorly-planned, under-communicated, and dangerous lack of leadership. Until Blackmon is replaced, our city does not have an effective means of combating near-term criminal threats. No program on earth is going to change that reality, whether Henderson likes it or not.
CRIMINALS DO NOT CARE ABOUT BLIGHT
Henderson then continued by explaining how he believed that old dilapidated buildings are a causal factor of our city’s violent crime, stating specifically that he believes real estate development will somehow cause murderous thugs to take their AK47s and go home.
Henderson’s statement makes it quite clear that he has no concept of the difference between a correlation and a causation, as his plan for tearing down dilapidated houses to eradicate crime is bass-ackwards:
“In addition to that funding, council has appropriated over two-and-a-quarter million dollars to tear down some of these dilapidated, burned-out houses that exist in these neighborhoods. They’re rotting the neighborhood from the inside-out. In fact, those locations are very attractive nuisances for criminal activity to operate out of. So we’re currently taking care of all of those properties that have been on the list, and tearing them down as quickly as we can to try to make things a little bit better in the neighborhoods.”
First, ask yourself this: Do you think crime exists because of the dilapidated houses, or do you think the houses are dilapidated because of crime?
We’ll give you a hint: it's the latter.
Does Henderson really think that tearing down dilapidated houses and replacing them with presumably new housing is going to cause criminals to stop? What a ridiculous proposition to make.
They absolutely will not stop.
Instead, they will destroy the new structures and reduce them back to the dilapidated state from which you are currently trying to escape.
Building new houses isn’t going to stop criminals from committing crime. Demolishing the houses and leaving vacant lots will increase crime. Building new houses isn’t going to attract people to move into crime-ridden neighborhoods, either.
What is Henderson thinking?
This should be common sense, yet here we are as our city’s head of public safety cannot grasp how idiotic his wrongfully-appropriated causation is.
If Henderson wants to rectify the situation, he must begin by addressing the problem’s cause instead of its symptom. The symptom will continue to present itself time and time again until the cause is ripped out from the area and placed in a six-by-eight cage.
If Henderson wants to fix the problem of dilapidated houses in high-crime neighborhoods, he must remove the damn crime, first.
To do that, he needs a functional and sizable police force. See above.
This isn’t rocket science.
JOB SKILLS TRAINING
Henderson continued by explaining how he plans to have the availability of ‘job skills training’ serve to lower the city’s horrific homicide rate.
Question: have these ‘job skills training’ programs not already been available through our area’s four colleges and universities?
Question: Do we think that our city’s 1,800 gang members who “do not value human life” are going to value job skills training?
Those who are willing to participate in job skills training are statistically not the same people committing murders. There is practically zero overlap between these two strata, and thus there is a very low correlation between the availability of new jobs training programs and an immediate reduction in violent crime. Zero. Zilch. Nada.
Now, do not misunderstand us: education programs and the availability of job skills training do largely correlate with a population’s overall crime rate — though this is the result of long-term implementation over the course of a generation or longer. Henderson’s reliance on it as a pillar to reduce the city’s immediate near-term threat of violent crime — especially without any sort of hard policing capability whatsoever — isn’t just moronic: it's dangerous.
Again, if Henderson’s — and Tomlinson’s, for that matter — implementation of these programs were as valuable as they say, then why has our city’s homicide rate continued to rise since the mid-2000s?
Murderous criminals who do not value human life do not give one iota about a job skills program.
Look around you. The proof is in the pudding.
If Henderson wants to rectify this situation, he should again treat the cause instead of the symptom. See above.
THE BOTTOM LINE
While Henderson continues to favor his own public image over taking the actions required to protect our city; while Henderson continues to preach about how crime prevention programs are going to cause murderous criminals to stop killing our friends, family, and neighbors; while Henderson continues to believe that a robust, well-manned- and highly-trained police force is not an absolute necessity for the safety and security of our city:
People continue to die.
These are human beings.
Henderson is responsible for preventing this.
Our city does not merely require Henderson to do his duty as our city’s head of public safety; it demands it.
If he cannot accept the responsibilities inherent within his role and take the appropriate actions to secure the safety of our city, then Henderson should likely prepare for his constituents to embark on the legal procedures for ensuring someone else will.
Your move, Henderson. Our city is bleeding. Do your job.
Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.
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Residents can voice their opinions on the current state of our city’s public safety by contacting their city council members.
