THE CHIEF SPEAKS

Richmond Police Chief Andre Parker spoke nothing but good sense the other
day when he promised to take back the city street by street. To that end,
he said he will hire 58 more police officers, add more detectives, provide
surveillance cameras to neighborhood-watch groups, and more.

Those are useful steps. Of just as much use were Parker's frank words about
the community itself: Too many criminals are "armed to the teeth," and too
many residents display "great willingness to use violence to solve
problems." In Richmond "we have 14-year-old boys fathering children . . .
.The fabric of the African-American community is being destroyed from
within." Parker said he is "appalled by the level of citizen tolerance of
violent crime . . . .When are the citizens going to say, 'Enough is enough'?"

Commonwealth's Attorney David Hicks added, "We cannot make a city safe in
spite of itself." (Yet Hicks' words would have carried even more weight
were it not for the simultaneous departure last Spring of four of his top
five deputies, and the grumbling of at least some police officers about the
Commonwealth's Attorney's office.)

Yes, residents in crime-infested areas are fearful, as the ever-helpful
Councilman Sa'ad El-Amin pointed out while conceding the truth of what
Parker had said. But fear is the counterpoint of courage. Only the
foolhardy lack fear; the courageous act in spite of it. Last year Richmond
had more murders than Alexandria, Arlington, Chesapeake, Portsmouth,
Roanoke, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, and Fairfax combined, though their total
population exceeds Richmond's more than tenfold. The police can do only so
much in reducing that horrific statistic without help from the citizens.

But that help should come from more than just the residents on the front
lines. As Parker said, the entire region has a role to play. Drugs drive a
major portion of the violent crime in the area, and the buyers come from
tony subdivisions in Henrico, Hanover, and Chesterfield as well as from
housing projects and trailer parks. A few high-profile drug arrests - a few
seized Mercedes and Lexuses, a few mortifying perp walks - could go far
toward reducing local drug demand. It also would help if local judges would
present a united front in treating kids from fancy Tudor homes in the West
End with the same severity meted out to kids whose housing goes by the name
of Section Eight.

Richmond did not descend into its current condition overnight, and it will
not recover overnight. We urge Chief Parker to continue to hammer home the
message he delivered the other day. At times he might feel as if he is
leaning into the wind. For those days we commend to him "Isaiah's Job" by
Albert Jay Nock, in which the Lord tells the prophet to warn the people of
the wrath to come:

"Tell them what is wrong, and why, and what is going to happen unless they
have a change of heart and straighten up. Don't mince matters. Make it
clear that they are positively down to their last chance. Give it to them
good and strong and keep on giving it to them. I suppose perhaps I ought to
tell you," He added, "that it won't do any good. The official class and
their intelligentsia will turn up their noses at you, and the masses will
not even listen . . . ."

[This] raised the obvious question: Why, if all that were so - if the
enterprise were to be a failure from the start - was there any sense in
starting it?

"Ah," the Lord said, "you do not get the point. There is a Remnant there
that you know nothing about. They are obscure, unorganized, inarticulate,
each one rubbing along as best he can. They need to be encouraged and
braced up because when everything has gone completely to the dogs, they are
the ones who will come back and build up a new society; and meanwhile, your
preaching will reassure them and keep them hanging on. Your job is to take
care of the Remnant, so be off now and set about it."