By Juan Montoya
The 2016 Brownsville crime stats are in and according to Police chief Orlando Rodriguez, the 20 percent drop in crime is a "testament" to the relationship city cops have with the community.
So the flip side of that coin is that in all the past years when crime didn't drop it meant that that the relationship between the cops and the community was bad?
According to the interview with the local daily, Rodriguez said crime against property such as auto theft, burglaries, etc., which makes up 93 percent of the crimes reported had seen a drop in 2016.
Other crimes, like homicide, assaults, aggravated robbery, are not really preventable and were not covered in the newspaper's report.
It is very telling that the chief crowed over only "reported crimes." How many people in the city have gotten tired of their kids bicycles getting stolen, people breaking into their homes and cars and not bothering to report it to police because in their experience, it does no good?Take for example, the experience of a single mother living with her family in a northern Brownsville apartment complex. Her kids' bicycles, which were chained to a pillar of a stairwell, were stolen not once, but twice. Each time she reported to police, they came, took a report, and said they would get back to her. After the second time, she stopped calling them.
"What's the use?," she said. "They never got the bikes back and they never called to say whether they were working on the case. I know it's not a big deal to them. The third time when the thieves broke the heavy cable and padlock they recommended that I buy, I just didn't bother to call them anymore."
In a very real sense, then, the 20 percent drop in crime that Rodriguez trumpets may simply reflect that drop in people reporting thefts and burglaries to police because they know nothing will be done.
The same applies to the warehouse owner who sold pallets of goods. After six times of calling the police to report that yet another break in, he stopped calling them. After two more burglaries, he just gave up and closed his business. That won't show up in the crime reports, either.
If Rodriguez thinks people feel safe walking downtown or in their neighborhoods, he really should get out of the office on Jackson Street and ask the people on the street and the merchants downtown just how safe they feel. His bubble may be [popped when he hears their answers.
"Ask him if someone feels good when they see the flashing lights of a police car ordering them to pull over and stop," said a downtown merchant. "That's the real testament to the relationship between the police and the community."