Montgomery citizens show up and speak out about crime at daytime city council meeting
The Montgomery City Council met today, and once again crime was the main topic. Council members heard about the progress on different construction projects around the city, including renovations to two large transit systems – one on West Fairview and one on Molton street. But continued violence across the city – including 3 separate shootings Monday that killed a man and injured 2 others – was foremost on the minds of all who attended.
More than 100 people came to a daytime city council meeting on Tuesday asking for updates about the city’s plan to combat crime. “The mayor has said in a couple of press conferences that he is fully open to transparency. I’d like to see the city council put crime and public safety on the agenda until we can get this thing under control. Not just to criticize the statistics, you guys know the stats, we don’t need to tell you how bad it is, but maybe we can also celebrate the good that’s being done in this department and in the city,” said Montgomery resident Ian Maloy.
While Mayor Steven Reed did not give an update on the search to replace former Police Chief Albert, who resigned in April, he said a partnership targeting crime is in the works. “Soon we will announce an unprecedented collaboration to identify, pursue, and arrest our community’s most violent offenders. This partnership will include officers from the Montgomery Police Department, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, ALEA, the Attorney General’s office and others,” said Mayor Reed.
Montgomery resident Terry Willis has been deeply involved with the city’s Hispanic community for more than 20 years. He has served as a pastor and also helped with the prison ministry at First Baptist Church. He says the level of frustration about the recent triple homicide at the Tienda Los Hermanos grocery store on June 4 is reaching a boiling point. “There is a level now of anger, almost of rage about what has been going on. The Hispanic community has been victimized here in Montgomery for decades. Petty theft, not so petty theft, home invasion, stealing out of cars, just accosting people, taking purses, taking wallets, stealing tools out of trucks, and this is causing major problems in those neighborhoods where the Hispanics live too,” said Willis.
Willis says business owners are frightened. “The law abiding Hispanics are arming themselves here in Montgomery. Many of the stores have security, with people packing pistols, and that’s not a good situation. This vacuum left by the lack of police officers, by the lack of police presence is provoking all of this,” said Willis. The mayor said the police department has made some shifts in scheduling to try to cover additional areas of the city. MPD is still about 200 officers short of what they should have. There have been 33 homicides so far this year in the Capitol City.
