One of the most highly regarded newspapers in the country recently ran a story on Denver, but it wasn’t complimentary. The New York Times published a piece on the rash of unsolved gun crimes that have gripped Denver in recent months. The story was no doubt inspired by the shocking assault on a group of college students from Kansas, who were shot even after surrendering their wallets to muggers at a light rail station in the Five Points neighborhood near downtown. One of the students remains in the hospital in serious condition.
When Darrent Williams, the Denver Bronco, was shot and killed through the window of his limousine a few months ago, the media spotlight again turned to Denver’s problem with gangs and guns. While the Williams murder commanded more attention than others, police have been fighting a burgeoning movement of gang violence that has claimed many lives, including several key witnesses who were slated to testify against gang members.
Javad Marshall-Fields and his fiancée, Vivian Wolfe, both 22, were shot dead in June 2005 just before Marshall-Fields was scheduled to testify in a murder trial. Two men have been convicted in the murders of Marshall-Fields and Wolfe and may face the death penalty. In another case of witness killing, Kalonniann Clark, 28, was murdered in front of her home last December after she refused to withdraw her name from the witness list in the attempted murder trial of suspected gang member Brian Kenneth Hicks, 27. Hicks tried to kill Clark herself in June 2005, and she was considered the prime witness for the prosecution.
The killing of witnesses poses a grave threat to our judicial system. If people are scared to testify, prosecutors won’t be able to build strong cases against gang members, who are notoriously hard to convict as it is.
Denver needs to save its reputation and quality of life by pumping more resources into combating gang activity and steering young people away from the lure of street life. Children who are at-risk of becoming involved in gangs should be our priority; public schools and state agencies must do everything possible to encourage these kids to seek education and employment by offering after-school and extra curricular activities, summer programs, academic tutoring and personal counseling.
