By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on January 7, 2025
An Editorial Opinion
Yesterday, the Birmingham Crime Commission that Mayor Randall Woodfin appointed in October 2024 released its 67-page report. I read the report last night.
Normally, I would summarize the report’s findings and recommendations for my readers. However, this report is so devoid of any relevant history, critical assessments, analytical thinking, and law enforcement merit that such a summary would be a complete waste of time.
For starters, the report never explains why Mayor Woodfin made massive cuts to the police department's budget in May 2018 that (a) greatly reduced the number of sworn officers needed to provide adequate police protection within the city limits and (b) contributed to the near-ending spike in violent crime.
The report is an utterly useless PR document that appears to have been marinated in AI sauce. Frankly, the document is the latest tool for (a) gaslighting the residents of Birmingham about the city's record-breaking homicides numbers in 2024 and (b) seducing them into tolerating runaway violent crime.
As such, I will skip my customary “merits review” and allow readers to judge the report for themselves. Click here to read the report.
At this juncture, it is clear to me that the elected officials in City Hall are NOT serious about curbing skyrocketing homicides in Birmingham. For all intents and purposes, Birmingham has a “do nothing” government.
Birmingham residents are living and working in an active combat zone. They should act accordingly. Residents in the city who do not want to surrender to increasingly violent street criminals must take the steps necessary to provide for their own public safety, even if it means fleeing the city (as many city department heads and paid consultants have done).
There is no help coming from Birmingham's elected officials. In their view, this out-of-control public safety problem can be solved by hiring slick PR firms that spin the news, via laundered payments to cash-strapped local news media companies and political consultants. This is how the city, which is ranked No. 3 on Forbes Magazine's 2024 list of the "Most Dangerous Cities in the U.S.," hopes to achieve a "vision" of Birmingham becoming the "safest city in America." It's all "smoke and mirrors" bullshit.
Unfortunately, the report is a political mirage that is being peddled as a solution to violent crime. Meanwhile, homicides on the streets will continue to increase until Birmingham is the undisputed "Murder Capital of the U.S.".