Hal's 7-Part Plan to Fight Violent Crime

Good morning. Thank you all for coming. 

 

As I continue my campaign for Mayor of Omaha, I have been meeting with residents and neighborhood groups in all areas of the city. In these meetings, as Omaha’s citizens have shared their concerns, one issue stands out. It’s the same issue that tops our television news shows, leads our radio reports and dominates our front pages – violent crime.

 

Whether the current wave of violent crime and murder has touched your particular neighborhood isn’t the point. It is an issue that has touched OUR CITY, and that makes it a priority for every citizen.

 

Our current mayor, City Council and other elected officials, as well as law enforcement and many civic groups and leaders have been working hard on this most-pressing issue. Each agrees that dramatic steps must be taken. And I want to praise them for their efforts, because reaching a solution will require teamwork and the commitment of the entire community.

 

As a candidate for mayor, it is important that I tell the people of Omaha specifically what they can expect from me. Campaigns should be about ideas, and I want voters to know my vision for Omaha.

 

There are many facets of the program I am about to lay out—both social and law enforcement—but it would be safe to say that my proposals should be characterized as nothing less than a get tough, all-out war on violent crime in Omaha.

 

Some say our current situation is a product of gang activity. I believe attributing it to one cause puts an unreasonable limit on any solution. No matter its source, violent crime has seized our community like a disease and must be treated as a disease before it consumes the entire city.

 

Rather than refer to it as gang violence, I prefer another name for the epidemic infecting our city. I call it, domestic terrorism.

 

Indeed, a large part of it is gang-related. It takes place in an organized fashion, perpetrated by groups of people affiliated to each other in many ways, or by the area in which they reside. They commit murder and other crimes against each other and the community. They recruit children to join them and commit crimes on their behalf – knowing full well that the criminal penalties for juveniles are less severe than those for adults.

 

Other acts are committed seemingly at random; senseless killings and acts of violence that seem to defy explanation. We search for answers, pointing our fingers at conditions such as a lack of jobs or a bad economy.

 

 I am here today to say it is time to stop pointing fingers and take action.

 

 

First, we need to approach this challenge in a new way. We need to view violent crime – especially gang-related violence and murders – not only as individual acts, but as a part of growing and well-organized crime syndicates that have been building and gaining strength in Omaha.

 

The Project Safe Neighborhood and the Federal Gang Prosecution Task Force has identified several gangs that have formal organizational structures and hierarchy……These aren’t just a bunch of kids running wild with guns. These are sophisticated operations with specific territories.

 

Therefore, we need to have an equally sophisticated and organized crime-fighting battle plan to stop them.

 

 

 

Number One….. If elected mayor, I will dramatically increase our partnerships with the FBI, other federal agencies and the local federal prosecutor by tapping their ability to more aggressively use racketeering laws, such as RICO—the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations act. This allows for arresting and convicting those involved in an organized pattern of crime—not just those who may have pulled the trigger.

 

RICO allows prosecutors to charge multiple members of a gang simultaneously with the crimes of their colleagues, simply because of their connection to the gang. Because of the inter-state nature of many of these gangs, they can be charged and tried in federal court, which offers tough sentences and, unlike state courts, no parole.  

 

Anti-racketeering laws are being used in other cities in America. Omaha’s violent crime problem has reached the point where this makes sense here.

 

We need to send a message to those who knowingly organize criminal activity that Omaha is a RICO city – a city without any sympathy for violent crime. We need to let these criminals know that if you are caught organizing or being involved as part of a related activity, YOU WILL GO TO JAIL FOR A LONG, LONG TIME.

 

 

Number Two…….Just as we have created a federal office of HOMELAND SECURITY to combat terrorism against our nation, I believe we need to designate an official to act on behalf of our own HOMETOWN SECURITY.

 

That is why, as mayor, I will create the position of HOMETOWN SECURITY COMMISSIONER.

 

This person will be an expert on fighting gangs whose goal will be to eliminate gang-related violence in Omaha. He or she will report to the Chief of Police, and will have Deputy Chief status and an expanded gang unit under his or her command. I plan to meet on a regular basis with this Hometown Security Commissioner.

 

The Commissioner would also be responsible for coordinating our efforts with the FBI, federal prosecutors, the State Patrol and the sheriffs of Douglas County and the surrounding counties.

 

This will be a focused management coordination effort, unfettered by other duties and responsibilities. It will include developing citizen and community partnerships – utilizing citizen participation and promotional activities involving parents, educators and clergy – to create a massive TEAM EFFORT aimed at becoming one of America’s safest big cities.

 

 

Number Three……We need state legislation for RICO-like flexibility at the local level, so local law enforcement can join federal agents in infiltrating and prosecuting these violent gangsters and murderers.

 

The legislative package that has been proposed by State Sen. Brad Ashford is a giant step in this direction. I fully support all of its key provisions, and I call upon the mayor and the City Council to get behind this legislation in the upcoming session of the Unicameral, as well as toughen minimum mandatory sentences.

 

Number Four……I will budget city funds to help further the Building Bright Futures initiative. I believe there are key roles for the City in this community-based effort—particularly in the areas of truancy enforcement and after-school programs.

 

Although the focus of many of my proposals is to declare war on violent crimes and the gangs infecting our city, I also believe we need an effective, long-range plan to prevent our young people from being lured into these gangs.

 

Building Bright Futures is just one of the ways to attack this aspect of the problem. This program, whose existence is a credit to Mayor Fahey and many civic, education and community leaders, is an innovative and necessary component to our plan.

 

To their credit, the leaders of this program have indicated that they do not want to re-invent the wheel. Neither do I.

 

Together, we want to support existing programs….such as The Salvation Army, the Urban League, Scouting, the YMCA, Big-Brothers-Big Sisters and programs such as Tom Osborne’s “Teammates.”

 

I believe that our highly successful and popular Sun Dawgs program could be expanded to include after-school activities and events. When my administration began the program in the summer of 1995, it was always envisioned as more than just something fun for kids to do, but rather an important tool in re-directing kids to a healthier lifestyle and keeping them out of trouble. Now is the time to expand it.

 

This effort would also include strengthening the good work being done by The Neighborhood Center, the community-based, neighborhood-driven outreach program of UNO’s College of Public Affairs and Community Service; as well as the many neighborhood associations, neighborhood watch groups and neighborhood coalitions. I believe we also need to more effectively utilize our school resource officers.

 

 

Number Five…..We will employ the very successful “Broken Windows” policy of enforcing every law to the fullest to ensure that an atmosphere of lawlessness does not permeate the city. 

 

The “broken windows” approach challenges us to target all crime, large and small. When implemented in New York City, the “broken windows” approach reportedly resulted in a significant reduction in crime. Other cities have since adopted “broken windows” policing in some form. Paying attention to the smaller problems prevents them from becoming larger problems.

 

The best example of this for us will be a zero-tolerance policy on graffiti. Also, I will appoint a Mayor’s Crime and Traffic Advisory Committee to act as a source of neighborhood input to the law enforcement community.

 

Number Six……I will work with the police collective bargaining leadership to find a way to retain more veteran police officers.

 

The incentives for early retirement have left the force drastically short on the experience critical to defeating the gangs. We need to reverse that trend.

 

We will also look at finding ways to bring back some retired officers to utilize their advice and experience in key crime-fighting positions.

 

 

Number Seven….We will get more uniformed, trained police officers out from behind desks and out on the street…..filling more of those administrative functions with civilian employees.

In Summary……I want to promise the citizens of Omaha that stopping the epidemic of violent crime and murders—gang-related and otherwise—will be my top priority as mayor...

 

This is a leadership issue. In my previous two terms as Mayor, I’ve hired police chiefs, managed public safety issues, and developed innovative ideas – from the summer Sun Dawgs Program, now in its fourteenth year, to initiating the Offender-to-Work program that put jailed offenders to work on the city’s needs, to the effective helicopter air surveillance unit and establishing the Omaha Police Department’s first national accreditation.

 

I will take every legal means available to accomplish this task and make Omaha safe for every resident in every neighborhood.

 

Again, thanks for coming this morning. I’m happy to answer your questions.