Adrian Perkins, the mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana, finally figured out a solution to combat the violence in his city.
Prayer. Two days of it. That should do it.
He made the announcement on Tuesday, adding that the city council fully supported him on this measure. This isn’t just symbolic, either. They’re literally making plans to go into the streets to say their magic words to the sky.
On Saturday, June 5, each council member will go to an intersection in their council district along with faith leaders and community leaders and they will hold five to seven minutes of prayer. The intersection will be blocked off. Those Saturday prayer meetings will be held in all seven districts of the city.
Why is this a city initiative? How the hell is a generic prayer — or many of them, even! — going to prevent acts of violence when the root causes of that violence have nothing to do with atheism, Satan, or anything else connected to faith? Are these people aware that religious people commit acts of violence all the time?
Someone also needs to tell me how God plans to stop violence that God didn’t prevent in the first place:
The Shreveport Police Department reported 28 homicides in the first four months of 2021. The homicide total is an 87% increase over the 15 homicides through the first four months of 2020.
Violent crime is also up over last year. SPD reported 561 violent crimes in the first four months of 2021 compared to 459 last year for a 22% increase.
Keep in mind the pandemic and quarantines really began in the third month last year, so there are reasons for the rise in crime that go beyond people just being more violent. Whatever the case, turning to “thoughts and prayers” to prevent a problem has never worked. We know that from even mass shooting. It’s all the more frustrating when the people offering those prayers are the government officials that were elected to do something about those problems, not pass the buck to God.
If a higher power can solve the city’s issues, why did people bother electing Perkins or anyone else on this city council? Might as well vote them out if they’re throwing up their hands in prayer and basically admitting how useless they are.
Perkins, by the way, is a Democrat. He ran an unsuccessful campaign to unseat a GOP senator last year. I want to like this guy but actions like this suggest he’s all out of ideas. It’s no way to show people you’re someone who deserves to be in higher office.
(Featured screenshot via YouTube)
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