Our beloved city must deal with a crime problem if it wants to have a downtown worthy of its world-class aspirations. But when the publisher of The Dallas Express brought this point up recently before a group of Dallas’ business and community leaders, pearls were clutched and offense was taken.
When Monty Bennett stood before leaders of the downtown community, he warned them that even though strides have been made to address safety in the heart of the city, especially with regard to violent crime, Dallas leaders must climb out of the trap of self-congratulatory complacency. That they must face up to where Dallas has come up short, like reducing robberies and car thefts, and where it is backsliding, e.g. a rising murder rate. What Bennett hoped was to convince his peers that Dallas risks losing the fragile progress it has made thus far if the steps already being taken are not consolidated with even more bold and necessary action — and fast, because time is of the essence.
But of course, some city leaders had to take personal offense to Bennett’s words, as if he had made the trip downtown just to insult their personal legacies. That appears to have been the unfortunate takeaway of two of our esteemed former mayors. One confronted Bennett, telling the hotelier that his comments about downtown crime were “inappropriate.” Another former Mayor and crime denier expressed incredulity at Bennett’s remarks, according to reporting by The Dallas Morning News.
That the much-needed honest discussion of crime in our city is now being framed as inappropriate or a petty quarrel between business and civic leaders is thanks to legacy media. Always ready and eager to signal a “coast is clear” so that they can go back to advocating for soft-on-crime policies, they whisper into the ears of past leaders that they should take personal umbrage to common-sense observations in order to distract them from the point of the matter.
These include the old standard Dallas Morning News, but also less than fully forthright carpetbagger publications like The Real Deal, a New York-based publication that has little stake (or knowledge) of the quality of life for Dallasites. The Real Deal is best known for providing air cover for their large advertisers that have been exploiting the EB-5 program for years.
The truth is, Dallas is uniquely situated to make the leap to world-class, while much more heralded and older cities like New York City and San Francisco are in crisis and in decline. None other than the nation’s capital city, Washington, D.C., has been so paralyzed by crime that its beleaguered downtown is about to lose both its professional basketball and hockey teams to Virginia. But Dallas has not strayed so far from a culture that values law and order and quality of life, which is why people want to move here.
Still, we are not unscathed by the unfortunate trends that have devastated other cities altogether. Dallas has seen its police force shrink for the better part of a decade. “Bail reform” and other snake oil being sold as criminal justice reform have doubtlessly contributed to the rise in our city’s murder rate.
During our brief experiment with not prosecuting thefts of items valued at $750 or less, was there any doubt that many people avoided our downtown because they knew opportunistic criminals had a free hand to rob? Even now, who in that room of esteemed guests addressed by Bennett would comfortably park on the streets of downtown, especially overnight, where their car could be broken into or stolen?
Bennett spoke those now infamous words because he understands that for Dallas “to take its place among the greatest cities in the country or the world,” the heart of the city must lead the way. For a businessman who spent his career in real estate, that much is self-evident. Now it’s just a matter of getting the message through to enough others to make a difference.
