“IS IT TRUE” JANUARY 9, 2020

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We hope that today’s “IS IT TRUE” will provoke honest and open dialogue concerning issues that we, as responsible citizens of this community, need to address in a rational and responsible way?

IS IT TRUE that a group calling itself “FOR EVANSVILLE” is in the process of putting together a publication on the State of Evansville that is called “THE STATE OF E”?…the report is expected to be a fair and honest look at the state of things in the City of Evansville and will be a snapshot of how life is for the citizens of Evansville at the end of a given year?  …we must confess that the information we read so far has motivated us to post some additional facts and information that might be helpful to the “THE STATE OF E” report created by the “FOR EVANSVILLE” group?

IS IT TRUE that Evansville was just profiled in a summary of FBI statistics in the State of Indiana for being the 4th most dangerous city in the state?…many members of the CCO readership have expressed surprise but that just tells us that they have not been paying attention?…the rise of the rates of violent crime in Evansville has been the subject of dozens of columns in the CCO starting with drive-by shootings and a parking lot shoot out in downtown Evansville roughly 10 years ago and continuing through 2017 when Evansville had enough murders to compete with hell holes like St. Louis, Detroit, and Baltimore for the dubious honor of the murder capital of America?…the specific words used in the article were, “with a crime rate of 57 per one hundred thousand residents, Evansville has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to communities of all sizes”?…the only cities in Indiana identified as more dangerous than Evansville were Indianapolis, South Bend, and Michigan City

IS IT TRUE we wonder how Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend will explain the distinction of South Bend being the 2nd most dangerous in Indiana after he had been in charge for 8 years?…we highly doubt that being the mayor of a small violent town with crime statistics that mirror giant lawless communities qualifies anyone to claim to have the qualifications to be the President of the United States?…we expect the crescendo regarding the shortcomings and legacy of crime and poverty in South Bend will be ratcheted up in the next Democrat debate and that Mayor Pete will really have no adequate response to explain any of this away?

IS IT TRUE everyday members of our local law enforcement work many scenes of shootings several times every week? …they also chase and apprehend suspects fleeing the scene of the shootings? …we are proud of our man and women in blue for help keeping our community safe from bad people? …our law enforcement has an extremely stressful and dangerous job?  …the next time you see our first responders please give them a “thumbs up” for doing a great job in protecting us?

IS IT TRUE in 2018 we predict that starting on January 1, 2019, the Vanderburgh County Commissioners will become a non-partisan group of like-minded individuals that will begin to make good decisions based on “Good Policy Policy”?  …we are extremely pleased that three (3) extremely talented individuals have been working hand-in-hand in order to take Vanderburgh County into the remainder of the 21st Century?  …County Commissioners Cheryl Musgrave, Ben Shoulders, and Jeff Hatfield have made us proud that they were elected as the “THREE MAYORS OF VANDERBURGH COUNTY”?  …as of today, our predictions have been spot on?
IS IT TRUE we are hearing that some Republicans are looking for ways to stymied County Commissioner Ben Shoulders political agenda because they’re afraid that he might run for Mayor of Evansville one day?  …we feel that they will be fool-hearted to consider such a move?
IS IT TRUE we would like to thank a long-time supporter and friend Joe Wallace for his help with the City-County Observer during the time that our publisher was facing serious health problems?  …that Joe Wallace is a shining example of what true friendship is all about?
IS IT TRUE that the Executive Director of SWIRCA & MORE, Rhonda Zuber is doing one heck of a job for this most worthy community organization?
IS IT TRUE that Ellen Horan has just resigned as the Executive Director of GAGE to take a job in Texas?  …we wouldn’t be surprised if this “E For Everyone” group will pay big bucks to hire an out town agency to find an out-of-towner to replace Ms. Horan?
IS IT TRUE that several years ago Deaconess Hospital and Henderson Community Methodist Hospital formed a group called an “ACO?”  …that “ACO” is where referrals are preferably kept within the group and only certain doctors at Deaconess and Methodist are invited to be a part of that group?  …we wonder how the “ACO” referral group created by Deaconess Hospital and Henderson Community Methodist Hospital is currently doing?
IS IT TRUE last year it was reported that a Congressional sub-committee heard testimony from the Department of Veterans Affairs officials concerning computer problems that have caused GI Bill benefit payments covering education and housing to be delayed for months or never be delivered? …because of this unacceptable bureaucratic mistake that many veterans are facing serious debt problems or even homelessness because of this issue?  …that the Veterans Affairs official that caused this unacceptable problem was demoted instead of being fired?
IS IT TRUE when the people fear the Government we have Tyranny!  When the Government fears the people we have Liberty
Today’s “Readers Poll” question is: Do you feel that County Commissioner Jeff Hatfield’s re-election endorsement of Commissioner Cheryl Musgrave was effective?
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10 COMMENTS

  1. Mr. Hatfield, whose ran for office as a Republican and Democrat, chose to endorse a member of the opposition (LOL) before there were any other announced candidates, either GOP or Dem, for her position. While Musgrave has always been an able and honest public servant and deserves to be re-elected, we have another clear sign of the non-existence of real party affiliation in the Vanderburgh county Democrat Party. It has lowered itself to invisible “Indivisible” status and will remain there until there has been a real flushing of it’s current leadership.

  2. If the crime rate is going up ? Who do we hold accountable for the high crime rate? Should Police Chief Billy Bolin be fired? Do we have enough officers on the street? Do we have too many officers doing working inside the police dept and their jobs should be hand off to civilians? We have a high crime rate but yet the jail is overcrowded. Is the justice system that slow? The new trend in the country (okay mostly,New York and California) is releasing people with bail. Also Gary is a better place to live than Evansville? Really? Oh well at least we dont have people (homeless or mentally ill) pooping in the streets of Evansville..yet.

      • Don’t want to poo-poo the effort you guys show, but if you want to be taken seriously as journalism and not gossip, you should have sources at the ready.

        It’s a report from NeighborHoodScout (https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/in/evansville/crime)

        Digging further into their sources, they say their report is based on the FBI’s 2018 data. Even then, analysis of crime figures is notoriously difficult. Certain neighborhoods may be overwhelmingly more dangerous than others and bring the city as a whole down.

        https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-to-make-sense-of-conflicting-confusing-and-misleading-crime-statistics/

        Like I said, I appreciate the work you put into this site but you need this is why you need to cite things. A naive reader might assume from your posting that the FBI itself said “Evansville has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to communities of all sizes” and not an aggregation site that automatically generates reports based on FBI data without any appreciation for the completeness or quality of the data.

        • MR. Mann

          Wow. We appreciate your input and must say the additional information is extremely enlightening.

          Editor

  4. That crime rate I guarantee is almost totally driven by drugs. A certain segment of jobs has dried up in Evansville and leaves people unemployed and with nothing to keep themselves busy. You end up with people trafficking in meth and whatnot.

    Then nobody wants to move their plants here because we don’t have enough skilled workers or people who can pass drug tests. It’s a self-perpetuating problem.

    How do we fix it? Better community resources for drug rehab (going strictly punitive won’t solve a damn thing other than making us feel good and petty short term) and bringing in more non-service jobs.

  5. Check out this article for a good writeup on how bad the opioid and meth epidemics have places like Evansville.

    https://psmag.com/magazine/a-year-in-the-heart-of-the-addiction-crisis-in-rust-belt-america

    And sure, it’s easy and probably makes people feel good to just blame it all on the addicts, but something has to be done to address a system where it’s so easy to fall into addiction. Even if you lock them all up or let them die of OD (like so many people wish would just do rather than helping them) plenty more people will get caught up in it to take their place.

    After all, if a kid’s brought up around drug use can we really expect them to even know there’s a different way to live?

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