Crime Is Coming for the Rich. Now Will People Care? | Opinion

In major cities all across the country, crime is spiraling out of control. Many people still have tired, old, 1990s perceptions of the type of areas that are dealing with crime. But contrary to the stereotypes and generalizations, crime is no longer confined to the poor areas of major American cities. It's everywhere, and not even celebrities or athletes are immune from feeling its wrath.

On May 5th, Greg Newsome II and Perrion Winfrey, two Cleveland Browns players, were robbed at gunpoint leaving an upscale nightclub in downtown Cleveland. They weren't in some seedy bar in a rough side of town. Downtown is one of the wealthiest areas in the entire city, with a median income five times higher than the east side neighborhood that borders it. Downtown has seen a 389 percent increase in households making at least $150,000 a year, which dwarfs the entire state of Ohio's median income of $56,600.

And still, surrounded by wealth and opulence, crime paid a visit to these two NFL players.

They aren't alone. There has been a rash of high profile robberies in the last few years. In 2021, Lady Gaga's dogs were stolen and her dog walker shot in Los Angeles. In 2022, rapper PNB Rock was shot and killed in a robbery attempt, again in Los Angeles. Also in 2022, actor Barton Fitzpatrick was robbed at gunpoint in Chicago. This year, NFL player Zach Pascal was robbed at gunpoint in Maryland. On May 19 of this year, former NFL player and current sports commentator Shannon Sharpe's L.A. house was robbed while he was out with friends.

We know that no one cares when poor and working class people and people of color are targeted by criminals. The opposite: There seems to be a taboo on talking about crime, especially in the liberal mainstream. Will these high-profile episodes finally make people care?

Cleveland's City Council President, Democrat Blaine Griffin, is someone who has consistently raised the alarm about these issues, long before Newsome and Winfrey were attacked, though Griffin was of course outraged by the attack. Griffin told me that the attack on the athletes was a symptom of a larger crime problem that has been plaguing the city in recent years. "Forget being a Browns player or an elected official, when you get violated like this... it does something to your psyche and to your trauma that you never, quite frankly, return back to feeling safe again," Griffin said. "It leads to an escalation and more guns being bought and other things because people are fed up, man."

Why is this happening? Police recruitment is down nationwide; many current officers are retiring or leaving the force, and cities are struggling to find new officers to replace them. In Cleveland, the city has lost nearly 390 officers in the last two years.

Griffin believes that one way to address the police recruitment issue is to hire younger—a bipartisan idea that has gained traction in Ohio and in other states across the country. State Rep. Josh Williams, the first Black Republican elected to the statehouse in 50 years, recently proposed a bill to allow police departments to lower the minimum age from 21 to 18. Williams says that by lowering the age, police departments could have a better chance at recruiting people before they start on a different career path.

Griffin, Williams and other sane elected officials are trying to do something to tamp down the violence that is plaguing our cities. Philadelphia voters just elected a tough on crime moderate Democrat as its next mayor. San Francisco's Mayor London Breed has recently morphed from a being a "defunder" to requesting a $63 million increase in the police budget. In Washington D.C., the City Council proposed a criminal code overhaul that was so radical that Muriel Bowser, the city's progressive mayor, vetoed it. When the City Council overrode her, she gave tacit approval to the Republican led congressional effort to override them.

Celebrities, athletes, and the general public should all feel safe in America's cities. The constant stream of crime, violence and police departures is unsustainable. In the age of remote work, if cities are not careful, they could descend back to the bad old days of the 1970s, a particularly brutal decade for cities that took years to recover from. The point of no return is quickly approaching.

Here's hoping that the apathy that those in power seem to possess when it comes to poor folks being victimized by crime will disappear when it comes to celebrities. It's not just, but at least it will help those who need it most.

Darvio Morrow is CEO of the FCB Radio Network and co-host of The Outlaws Radio Show.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.