B'ham, AL police chief fighting high crime rate with her faith!

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B'ham, AL police chief fighting high crime rate with her faith!

This is just too crazy! The homicide rate here in Birmingham, AL has been rising to record highs for a couple of years, but according to our police chief Satan is to blame!

Christian police chief sees Satan at work in Birmingham
Homicides rise dramatically

By JAY REEVES
Associated Press
Published on: 08/21/06
Birmingham — Annetta Nunn's office could belong to a preacher: A photo of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. greets visitors, mocha-colored angel figurines fill a bookcase. The baseball cap behind her desk says "God Answers Prayers."

But Nunn isn't a minister — she's the police chief. And she wonders if the fact that she is an outspoken Christian has something to do with the surging murder rate in Alabama's biggest city, where homicides are up more than 25 percent over last year.

Nunn says one thing is certain to happen anytime Christians speak boldly: "Satan is going to attack." So Nunn can't help but wonder if her own actions — singing hymns at the funerals of three slain officers, making speeches and writing articles mentioning God — somehow have made the devil meaner than usual in Birmingham.

A 26-year veteran of the department, Nunn became the city's first black female police chief in 2003. She has improved the firepower of the department by acquiring rifles and additional stun guns for officers, and she worked in the community to bolster neighborhood watch programs.

She also is trying to improve the department's communication with other police agencies, and she has encouraged officers to get involved in the community with volunteer groups.

Critics on radio call-in shows, Internet forums and letters to the editor have called Nunn too soft. They claim the city needs more hard-nosed policing and less Christian rhetoric.

But police Sgt. Allen Treadaway said Birmingham's increasing homicide rate isn't the fault of Nunn, who was appointed by the mayor. City leaders need to provide more money for recruiting and retaining officers and operating task forces to combat problems like drugs, he said.

"We have to have a strategy in place and resources available to take those who are not contributing to society out of society," said Treadaway, president of the city's Fraternal Order of Police lodge.

For Nunn, faith and crime fighting are intertwined.

One of Nunn's first ideas as chief was a Bible-based plan of civic responsibility for cleaning up rundown neighborhoods, and she supports police chaplains who hold revivals in crime-ridden communities.

She talks about the need to lock up criminals, but she also talks of working with pastors to discourage crime and change hearts.

"I do believe we have to get back to God to permanently change a person's behavior," she said in an interview. "We put people in jail all the time. Our stats show we put in over 20,000 people last year. But our prisons are overcrowded, and they come right back here."

Overall, Nunn says, things are improving: The city's total crime rate is down 1 percent this year. But homicides seem out of control, with 72 killings recorded through Thursday compared with 57 during the same period last year.

The killings take a toll on Nunn, a soft-spoken mother of two who used to play a mean shortstop in softball and still attends the same Baptist church where she was baptized at age 8.

In 2004, three Birmingham police officers were shot to death as they entered a drug house trying to make an arrest. She helped their families cope — and gave herself strength — by singing a hymn at the funerals for the men.

"It was the first time I ever sang outside my church," she said.

It was also when she began to ask questions about her own faith and crime.

"There was a point particularly after the officers were killed where I wondered, 'Is it my fault?'" Nunn said. "I wasn't on the scene, and there was nothing I could have done. But [I wondered] if it was as a spiritual attack. I was looking at it that way."

Some answers are hard to come by. And the questions came again this year as the city's homicide rate rose.

A stack of letters offering support rests near Nunn's desk, and she draws strength from people who promise to pray for her.

But she can't help but wonder about the solution to what's going on in Birmingham.

"We've got to enforce the law. But we've got to change people's hearts," she said.

"The only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason."


Amber (not verified)
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Wow

I lived in Alabama for a year, and attended eighth grade there. I have to say what they need, hands down, is better education. Granted I was living in an obscure town, and not in a major city, but that doesn't mean it doesn't make an impact. There is a deep prejudice still lurking around there. As a young black man crossed the street in front of my cousin while she was driving, she said, "If only it wasn’t illegal, I'd run that nigger down." This problem, I think, reflects poor education. A lot of these people are so sheltered in their world and there are not a lot of gateways out of it. Teachers don't get paid as much as they should to start out, how many well educated ones would want to flock to these towns to teach at even lower wages? People don't have a lot of hope when they only get a high school education and the best place to work at in their town is Wal-Mart. I think some people move to these larger cities because there are more job opportunities, but then when they get there they realize they can only move up so far with their education. Some might find crime necessary to their survival. Now, to back track a little, I know this isn't the only scenario, this isn't the only factor, and I’m sure there are good teachers and well educated people living there and not everyone is prejudice, but the fact of the matter is, poor education is a factor in crime, Satan isn’t. Instead of looking to reform people’s spirituality, they need to put time and money into things that actually make a difference.


MattShizzle
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And if people were better

And if people were better educated they would know prayer does nothing (except for a placebo effect.)

Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team


Kelreth
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hmm smell that? thats the

hmm smell that? thats the smell of peoples brains slowly oozing out of their asses, smells like religion