A week ago, UAPB homecoming activities were in full swing.
There were sanctioned events, which seemed to have gone off without incident. There were also unsanctioned events, such as the concert at the Convention Center, which were entertaining and well-attended. And we can only assume that there were many other parties and get-togethers as friends and alumni reconnected.
Then there was the mayhem.
People were gathered at the intersection of University Drive and Pullen Avenue, to the point that visitors to the city hurried away from the scene fearing something might happen. A short while later, four people were shot, and one has died.
At the Sahara Temple on Main Street, the chaos followed the same script. Lots of people. Someone started shooting. People were injured. And one is dead.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Police were said to have gotten to the scenes quickly. That is to be praised. Perhaps things would have turned out worse had they not. The state police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the firing of a weapon by a Pine Bluff police officer that injured someone. Such an investigation is routine, and it is done to make sure the gunfire was called for.
We mourn for the dead and their families and friends, and hope for a speedy recovery for those who were injured.
Beyond the human cost of the weekend, Pine Bluff itself will also suffer greatly. The public relations aspect is devastating. Headlines and stories and TV and radio broadcasts saying a dozen people were shot and one killed — now two — are the kind of media attention a city trying to get back on its feet doesn’t need. Suddenly, Pine Bluff news sounded like something coming from the Middle East or Chicago.
Would you want to move here after reading or watching that? Do you really want your children to come back here after graduating college? Would you want to open a business here? If you opened a business, could you get anyone to move here to run it? Would you expect you executives to live here?
Then there is the impact on those living here. Although the surveys have not been scientifically conducted, citizen-led groups have polled the public to find that many Pine Bluff residents cower in fear over the crime here. Such catastrophes as what happened last week only confirm what those residents are already feeling.
In one of the stories on the events of the weekend, a woman who grew up in Pine Bluff and who now lives in Tennessee said she came home to celebrate homecoming with other friends who used to live here. One classmate who never moved away, however, declined to go out with them. Why? Because he was scared. He hears the cacophony of gunshots most nights of the week and feared for his safety. This was not an elderly person but someone in the prime of their life, afraid to go out at night because of crime.
About a year ago, seven people were shot and injured in a parking lot here. Soon after, there was a string of homicides. Across the year, the number of deaths have mounted. As we have reported many times, Pine Bluff’s homicide rate is many times the national average.
Again, we call for a deep dive into the crime here by a crime commission that is funded and has the wherewithal to bring in experts to help us. We are not the only city in America that has this problem, and some of those cities have made improvements. We simply must lean harder into this problem. We can beautify our downtown until the cows come home, but if people are too scared to go down there, what have we gained? It is not enough to clap ourselves on the back because the police arrived at a crime scene quickly. We need to be outraged that there was a crime for them to hurry to. Where is that outrage?