Killings in Kansas City are happening at an alarming rate, and policeand residents say the slayings can be traced to the same urban maladiesthat have plagued the city for years.
Two more suspected homicides were reported Thursday morning,bringing the yearly toll to 105, and officials say 2008 could wind upas the deadliest year in Kansas City since the 1990s. There were 21homicides in August alone — a record for a single month.
Detectives and people who live in neighborhoods infected with violencesay years of economic depression and failed education are at the heartof the homicide surge.
“I think the challenges with this problemare bigger than the police department,” said Kansas City police Maj.Anthony Ell, commander of the violent crimes division. “Many of the homicides are just the result of a breakdown of a whole bunch of other things going on.”
Unemployment, lack of education, poor anger-management andconflict-solving skills and easy access to guns consistently emerge ascontributing factors to the killings, he said.
The worse-everyear on record was 1993, with 153 homicides. The 127 killings in 2005were the most for any year in this decade, but 2008 could top that.
City leaders and concerned residents have tried for years to get ahandle on the problem. But marches, campaigns encouraging witnesses totalk and comprehensive city plans have yielded more frustration thanlasting solutions.
“We cannot keep going the way we’re going inour community because every year we will see the same numbers orsimilar numbers” of homicides, Ell said.
Most of the killingsare happening on the city’s economically and academically troubled eastside. Residents forced to cope with joblessness and failed schools areincreasingly resorting to desperate measures, police say.