Epidemic of poverty, violence

Over a recent span of five days, gunfire rocked northeast Omaha.

A teen gunned down outside a bowling alley.

A 15-year-old shot in the face while walking to a bus stop.

A man shot dead inside a home.

A young woman shot in broad daylight, followed by a rolling gunbattle through north Omaha streets.

The surge of violence left three dead and another gravely wounded and heightened the tensions in several Omaha high schools.

But more than that, it underscored how Omaha's streets in recent years have become among the deadliest places in America for blacks.

Fueled by gun violence in northeast Omaha, Nebraska has the third-highest black homicide rate in the nation, according to the latest compilation of detailed national homicide statistics.

The figures are based on homicide data from 2007, but they aren't a one-year fluke. Nebraska's black homicide rate for 2008 was even worse, and should again rank with the nation's highest when national figures become available.

Nebraska's black homicide rate did drop considerably in 2009, a welcome change that police and north Omaha community leaders attribute to initiatives aimed at tamping down gun violence.

But as the recent outburst of gunfire showed, there is still work to do.

“When we do have a flare-up like that, we absolutely pay attention,'' said Omaha Police Chief Alex Hayes. “All these efforts are still ongoing. It takes a collaborative effort.''

Both nationally and here, gangs, guns and black-on-black youth violence are at the center of the black homicide epidemic.

Though Nebraska's 82,000 black residents make up about 4.5 percent of the state's 1.8 million population, blacks have accounted for nearly 40 percent of the state's homicide victims over the past three years. In Omaha, 55.5 percent of the homicide victims in that time were black.

A black Nebraska resident during that span was 18 times more likely to be a victim of homicide than a white resident. That black-white disparity is much wider in Nebraska than the nation, where blacks are about seven times more likely to be a homicide victim.

That two of the recent victims were teenagers was hardly surprising. More than half of last year's black homicide victims were between 16 and 24, ages where many north Omaha youth are at high risk of falling into street gangs. Omaha police have identified 3,038 suspected gang members, up almost 300 from a year ago.

Guns were the weapon used in nearly nine of 10 slayings of black residents in Nebraska over the past three years — including all 15 in 2009. And in the vast majority of cases where the shooter was identified, the shooter also was black.

“It tends to be intra-racial, focused in urban centers, and guns are the weapon of choice,'' said Josh Sugarmann of the Washington-based Violence Policy Center.

The toll goes beyond the victims and the people who loved them. There were children in north Omaha during the recent eruption of violence who saw people they knew gunned down in front of them.

Willie Barney of the African-American Empowerment Network, a community action group in north Omaha, said the Nebraska statistics and recent violence are sobering.

But he said he's been encouraged by the community reaction in the days following the latest shootings. Not only in north Omaha but in neighborhoods far beyond, people are saying loud and clear: It's time to stop the killing.

But to make a difference, he said, such words need to be turned into action by expanding street intervention programs that reach out to gang members, providing more mentors and viable activities as alternatives to gangs, and implementing new training and employment programs. All will require money, manpower and focus.

“When you say ‘Enough is enough,' the next step is, what are you going to do about it?” Barney said. “This is a critical juncture for Omaha.''

Though concern about gun violence in Omaha's black community is not new, what wasn't known until now was how the violence has made Nebraska among the deadliest places for blacks.

That's largely because Omaha homicide statistics haven't been reported into a detailed FBI national homicide database for almost two decades.

A Violence Policy Center study based on that FBI database and released last month found that Nebraska ranked 42nd in black homicide rate. But the study included only the five black homicides in 2007 that occurred outside of Omaha.

When the 22 black homicide victims from Omaha are added to the study, Nebraska shoots up to third in per-capita black homicide rate, behind Pennsylvania and Missouri. Nebraska's rate of 34 homicides per 100,000 black population in 2007 was 65 percent above the national rate.

If the Omaha numbers are added to the group's two previous studies, Nebraska ranked 14th in 2006 and eighth in 2005, its per-capita rate in both years well above the national average.

But violence surged even higher in 2007 and 2008, pushing Nebraska's rate among the very highest. Even with the significant drop in homicides in 2009 — from 28 down to 15 — Nebraska's rate fell to only slightly below the typical national average.

Police Chief Hayes and north Omaha leaders said that the high rankings may be startling at first but shouldn't surprise anyone in light of the similarly high poverty rates and dropout rates seen among Omaha blacks in recent years.

The latest U.S. Census survey indicates Omaha has the 11th-highest black poverty rate among the nation's 100 largest metro areas. At least three national studies in recent years have found Nebraska to have among the highest dropout rates for blacks, each putting the rate at more than 50 percent.

“I'm extremely disturbed by those numbers, but I'm not surprised by those numbers,'' said Ben Gray, the Omaha city councilman who represents north Omaha. “It goes hand in hand with the poverty we see and the racial separation which is obvious to anyone who comes to this town.''

When the director of the State Office of Violence Prevention sees the numbers, he sees the reason his office was created in 2009. It's likely no coincidence, Mike Friend said, that lawmakers were moved to act in the wake of violence we now know was among the nation's most severe.

Indeed, the escalating gun violence in 2007 and 2008 — including a month in the summer of 2007 when there were 31 shootings citywide in 31 days — got a lot of people's attention.

Police responded by cracking down on illegal gun possession and collaborating more in the community, seeking to break a culture that discouraged “snitching'' in the shootings' wake.

Gray, Barney and other north Omaha leaders launched the Impact One intervention program to open lines of communication with gangs and stop retaliatory killings. Some of the program's counselors are former gang members, giving them credibility in efforts to lure youths to more productive lives.

A summer jobs program for at-risk youths started modestly in 2008 and then, through federal stimulus funds, expanded to 500 kids in 2009, giving them work experience, some income and keeping them off the streets.

The entire anti-violence campaign has grown into Omaha 360, a coalition of business, philanthropic, community and faith groups inside and outside north Omaha.

A key test for the effort, said Urban League of Nebraska Chief Executive Thomas Warren, will be finding funds for an expanded youth job and training program this summer.

There were noticeable drops in violence during months the program was in place, the former Omaha police chief said. Mayor Jim Suttle has been lobbying for more federal dollars, and other sources are being explored.

“Even as chief, I always felt violent crime was a symptom of poverty,'' Warren said. “If we're going to prevent violent crime, we have to start dealing with the causes, including under-education and lack of employment.''

Barney said everyone in the community has a role to play.

“Not everyone is a gang intervention specialist,'' he said, “but you can be a mentor.''

Contact the writer:

444-1130, henry.cordes@owh.com

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