People in Pine Bluff gravitate toward Little Rock for many reasons. Restaurants, shopping, live theater, movie theaters, the symphony, the parks. The list goes on.
It’s understandable. Little Rock is many times over the size of Pine Bluff so one would expect the offerings to be vastly greater.
Another thing it has in growing quantity is crime. The difference is that Pine Bluff gets labeled with its crime while Little Rock doesn’t. But that appears to be changing.
In the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Monday, there was a piece with the headline: No letup seen in Little Rock violence; gunfire hits activist Annie Abrams’ home.
Other than the actual shooting that took place and the fact that children have been hit by gunfire, sometimes with tragic outcomes, one of the more surprising elements of the story was that violent crime, defined as homicides, forcible rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults, was, through May, up 17% from a year ago. And last year was a high water mark for violent crimes. In May, the story said, “there were 405 violent crimes, the second highest in the decade, behind only June 2020, which had 407.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
There was a fair amount of hand wringing, as one might expect, with politicians, activists and ministers saying that it was time for all facets of the community to come together to fight the problem. Specifically, however, they said, things were better in Little Rock when the city had intervention specialists who worked with young people on conflict resolution, but that those positions had been removed from the budget.
It was also noted in the story that the general public was becoming more concerned about crime because it was happening, not just in certain segments of town, but across the entire city, as one person said.
Residents in Pine Bluff are certainly familiar with crime. A recent survey pointed out that even people in their own homes didn’t feel safe at times and that because of crime, they routinely alter their plans so as to avoid it.
But even at that, such stories about what our big sister city is going through in terms of crime are wake-up calls for Pine Bluff to become laser focused on our own crime problems. Are we adequately pushing back on the criminal element? Are we getting out in front of young people in a way that diminishes their interest in a life of crime, in a way that shows them that resolving conflicts with guns is avoidable?
A finalist has been named in a search for a police chief. Perhaps he will be offered the job and will accept. Or perhaps city leaders will continue to look for someone to fill this very important position. Either way, it will take more than one person to fix Pine Bluff’s crime problems. As several in Little Rock noted, everyone has to come together to fight this beast.