MANSFIELD: Violating Constitutional Rights

Desperate times call for desperate measures. And I can already hear the howls of indignation as folks roundly castigate me for what I’m about to write — and I’m OK with that. People can howl away. But clearly, something drastic has to be done.

Yet another child, this time a 9-year-old girl, Saniyah Daniels, was killed by stray gunfire as two warring groups of thugs decided to have a shootout on the east side, right in the middle of Lee Road, near Cloverdale Avenue on Wednesday afternoon. Of course, law enforcement will eventually catch the shooters, but that won’t bring Saniyah back, or the next child.

Nor will the vigil against gun violence that is sure to take place do anything either in terms of stopping the senseless gunplay. The thugs won’t be at the vigil, and even if they were, they won’t be moved by the tearful outpourings of grief. Such events only serve as a release, a way to make people feel better about the senseless death they have no control over.

It’s time — indeed past time — for law enforcement to get proactive, not merely reactive.

Back in the mid-70s, I was living in New York City and there was a real problem with gun violence. So what the police did was to stop select vehicles (yeah, they were profiling), politely ask the occupants to exit the vehicle, and then conduct a search of both the car and its occupants. If they found a gun they simply took it and said, “Thank you very much, you can now go on your way.” They didn’t “dog” anyone.

They didn’t ask to see a driver’s license, they didn’t make anyone lay prone on the ground, they didn’t arrest anyone, they didn’t run warrant or background checks, and they didn’t try to determine who the gun belonged to. If they saw any drugs or smelled weed they ignored it. All they wanted were the guns. And guess what: they got them — it worked.

Of course, civil liberty organizations screamed bloody murder over the violation of constitutional rights, but those that were screaming the loudest were going home safely to Scarsdale and other secure suburbs every night. Neither they nor their loved ones were in danger of getting killed by a stray bullet. So I guess what I’m saying is, their voices or concerns don’t count nearly as much as the voices of the mothers and fathers who live in the neighborhoods where gun violence is so prevalent.

These folks have rights too — and paramount among them is the “right” for their progeny to continue to be alive. And they want the guns off the streets, the “rights” of the thugs be damned. Lofty “constitutional rights” don’t mean shit if you or a loved one ends up dead.

This is not an invitation for cops to roust everyone on the streets, only select folks — the thugs. And believe it or not, the cops know who the potential shooters are. One study showed that by the time a thug pulls the trigger to shoot someone he has had a minimum of seven contacts with law enforcement.

Every time someone dies by gun violence the entire community suffers. Not only are family members devastated, but the reputation of the city takes a huge hit. How are we going to attract talent and investment if we’re thought of as being akin to the Wild, Wild West?

Let the thugs hire lawyers and protest that their rights are being violated. So what? The cops violate rights all the time; just look at the list of dead young black men across the country. But, even if the thugs hire lawyers (and they won’t), it will take years for their cases to be adjudicated, and by that time many, if not most, of the guns will be off the streets.

And please, don’t bore me with the “slippery slope” argument, that if we allow law enforcement to take an inch, they will take a mile. That’s simply not true in this case, and even if it is, this is something that has to be encouraged and tolerated, at least for the nonce.

From CoolCleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.

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