By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on August 20, 2024
An Editorial Opinion
Birmingham, Alabama is the third most dangerous city in America in 2024, according to Forbes Magazine. Murders in the city have skyrocketed. No one is safe, except the city officials who enjoy a bevy of police protection for themselves.
The primary reason Birmingham is unsafe today is because the city only has 400 sworn police officers who are deployed to provide public safety for 151.9 square miles of territory. Everybody in law enforcement knows that the number of police officers required for this much territory is 912. The police department’s website acknowledges the required number of officers and support staff needed for adequate police protection.
Every resident of Birmingham who pays local taxes is guaranteed the right to adequate police protection. There was a time when the payment of local property taxes, sales taxes, business license fees and, in some cases, occupational taxes assured Birmingham residents of adequate police patrols and law enforcement protection. That day has come and gone. The taxes are still paid, but the adequate police protection is gone.
Today, it is physically impossible for the Birmingham police department to provide city residents with adequate police services with only 400 police officers. As a result, city residents are dying in record numbers from soaring street violence, out-of-control drug dealing, and rampant gang violence.
Slick PR Gimmicks are NOT the Answer to Soaring Murders
City Hall has found a creative answer to the soaring murders in Birmingham – lull residents to sleep with coordinated, jointly-published, powder-puff PR articles about the city’s woefully anemic efforts to fight violent street crime. One of these articles was published today by two local print media outlets and one local TV station.
None of the three media outlets involved in this joint publication arrangement disclosed the fact that its joint publication group gets paid $32,500 per month (collectively) from City Hall to publish favorable news reports about Mayor Randall Woodfin and suppress any unfavorable news about him. The money is paid to the news media/PR organization with direct ties to City Hall and is shared with the other multimedia outlets, as needed. Once paid, all recipients of this money spin the local news in a way that attempts to make Mayor Woodfin look good.
To be clear, this $32,500 per month is NOT money to cover the cost of publishing legal notices. That's billed and paid separately. This $32,500 per month is paid to spin the news in a way that polishes and spit-shines Mayor Woodfin’s public image.
Forbes Magazine does not spin the news on the most dangerous cities in America, and neither do I.
Nowhere in today’s jointly published local article is there any reference to the fact that (a) Birmingham is the third most dangerous city in America or (b) the city’s police force is understaffed by 56%. Instead, today's article talks about police roadblocks in the East Lake community and probes whether roadblocks are good or bad for the neighborhood.
Anybody with walking-around sense knows that a severely understaffed police force is the primary reason violent street violence is festering, spreading, and soaring in Birmingham. Yet, this understaffing problem has never been featured in any article by the news media recipients of Mayor Woodfin’s PR money.
So that you know, at www.donaldwatkins.com, we do not accept money from any source to spin the news. This is why our news content presents cold, hard facts, regardless of the subject-matter of our articles or who is featured in them.
Lulling Birmingham residents to sleep while the city is the No. 3 most dangerous one in America is bad policy and ill-advised journalism. It suggests that the powers-to-be in City Hall really do not give a damn about the lives and safety Birmingham residents.
It Only Gets Worst from Here
Staying alive in Birmingham is really a matter of luck and not the result of good, solid policing. That's the cold, hard, truth!
Sadly, the Birmingham police department has reached a tipping point. More officers are expected to flee the department because the force has dropped to 400 policers, in a situation where 912 are required to adequately police the third most dangerous city in America. This 56% reduction in force jeopardizes the lives and safety of the remaining 400 police officers. They run an extremely higher risk of being killed in the line of duty because there is no adequate backup support for them in very dangerous situations.
For all practical purposes, public safety in Birmingham has collapsed. In exchange for $32,500 per month from City Hall, three local news organizations will spin the news away from the core public safety problem that has made Birmingham the third most dangerous city in America -- a severely understaffed police department.
PR gimmicks have a place in society, but they have no place in combatting dangerous, out-of-control, violent crime on the streets of Birmingham.
Sources inside the Kamala Harris campaign tell me that Birmingham Mayor Randal Woodfin is trying to position himself for a top-level job in the Harris administration, should she win the presidency in November. Senior advisors for the Harris campaign also tell me they are aware that: (a) Woodfin presided over the failed Birmingham School System, as school board president, (b) Woodfin’s police department has collapsed and will likely be taken over by the state of Alabama next year, (c) Birmingham is the No. 3 most dangerous city in America under Woodfin’s leadership, and (d) Woodfin has not grown the city’s economic base in the seven years he has been in office. They do NOT see a future for Randal Woodfin…