Seems like everyone is using this isolated, but significant shooting to vent their frustration with the current state of downtown, specifically Fayetteville Street and areas surrounding the bus station. Fayetteville Street is in its current state due to short-sighted decisions (pedestrian mall) and changing trends (WFH). 2019 was the recent peak of Fayetteville Street, and as @zoso stated, went into decline after the riots. Anyone who saw what happened that night would second guess opening a business along there, even nearly a decade after.
The bus station is the way it is because the bus system is designed to serve low-income people, with no other transportation options, who need to get to jobs and/or various services. Unfortunately, bus riders have to deal with mentally ill, drug addicted vagrants causing disturbances at the station, and by extension on the busses too. Many city politicians who talk about or “advocate” for public transit are just virtue signaling to their base of voters, most of whom live in their West Raleigh/North Hills mansions with a land yacht out front.
a problem in NC big cities (maybe not the case at the courthouse particularly) is that repeat offenders are released on the streets again and again and again. This has to stopped and we do not need to live like this and crime including violent crime would be much less if we locked up these repeat offenders. Most of all the violent crime in Charlotte is from repeat offenders and you have had multiple cases in Raleigh too. Regardless of race if you do the crime you need to do the time!
I see your point, but the amount of money required to scale up the police, prosecutors, courts, and especially jails and prisons by a factor of at least 3X to stop the revolving door is huge. The U.S. already has the fifth-highest incarceration rate in the world, behind El Salvador, Cuba, Rwanda, and Turkmenistan (all good role models, huh). Every indication is that the perp in the most recent downtown shooting is mentally ill. That’s a recurring theme… the combination of mental illness and guns is deadly, literally. We can’t do anything about the gun situation, realistically, so mental health is the available approach. It’s not cheap, either.
You don’t need to scale up police to lock up repeat offenders. They’re already being arrested, they’re just being let off the hook afterwards.
Additionally, what you said is the issue with the system. We either need to have available mental facilities to put dangerous mentally ill people or we need to put them in jail. Either way, they need to be taken away from the public.
I know it’s not a popular opinion to have, but the alternative means that we all are subjugated to their will. And what that is changes based on their mental state.
One side says what you are saying in that it’s their fault. The other side isn’t willing to pay for the system to house mentally ill people. The resulting sotustion is what we have now. And, it’s clearly not working.
I mean, that’s generally the idea lmao but if you truly think crime was lower back in 1986 because the cops didn’t “allow” crime rather than the fact that there were exponentially less people in downtown Raleigh than there are today… I may have a bridge I’d like to sell you!
Can you inform me of the last time there was a shooting outside the courthouse regarding a specifically court-related matter? I’m not seeing how this is a “repeat” disruption. I think the reaction to this is absurdly overblown.
The woman was quite literally arrested immediately. This did not go unchecked lmaooooo
Please don’t bow out of this forum because of the overblown “crime crime crime!!!” rhetoric from some older heads - there are still some with the ability to see the big picture, here.
Personally, I think that downtown is plenty safe and people (on this forum, out in the suburbs, and especially in the media) are overreacting. I’ve never felt unsafe at Moore Square or in the Bus Station, and I think a lot of the fear-mongering around it has racial undertones.
HOWEVER, I think that these people who are (in my opinion) overreacting unfortunately make up the majority of the population in the Triangle, so I do think it’s time for something to be done. No idea what that is or should be (most of the ideas I hear don’t make any sense) but I’d like to see the city light a fire under the ass of RPD and start making some structural changes to achieve this goal, as this perception is starting to harm growth and progress in the city.
I’m sorry, but I’m not completely convinced. To an extent you might be correct, I would definitely agree that some of the concerns might be a bit over-exaggerated. But while I personally don’t feel unsafe there during the day, to say ‘I’ve never felt unsafe so there’s no problem’ completely ignores the 2 stabbings that have happened there in the last week, and the other occurrences I seem to hear about on a monthly basis.
Yes, I know most of these happened later at night. Yes, I know the chances of the stabbings being completely random victims instead of those intentionally targeted (like the courthouse stabbing) is probably lower. Regardless, how many stabbings in a certain timeframe do you think are ‘acceptable’ before you think we should be worried? I’m still gonna use the bus station, but I don’t think any amount of stabbings at Moore Square should be ‘tolerated’…
Nobody said courthouse-related shootings are a “repeat occurrence.” That completely misses the point.
The concern is not that this exact event has happened multiple times at the courthouse. The concern is that incidents involving violence, aggressive behavior, disorder, and declining public confidence downtown are becoming increasingly common conversations among residents, business owners, and visitors and it’s as if we would be surprised if this was not happening at Moore Square anymore. This shooting simply intensified concerns that already existed.
And yes, the suspect was arrested immediately. That’s what should happen after someone opens fire near a courthouse. But “the person was arrested afterward” is not the same thing as addressing the broader conditions and public safety concerns people are talking about.
When people repeatedly say they no longer feel comfortable in certain public spaces, avoid parts of downtown, or feel leadership is dismissive of their concerns, that should not automatically be waved away as hysteria or overreaction. I spend a lot of time downtown (I live 1 block away) and 99% of the time feel safe, but I also am not immune to the wave of general concerns that are raised and unfortunately scroll right past the “Moore Square” stabbing articles, because it is “Moore Square” and I have become immune to the disorder that is in this area.
You can acknowledge that this specific incident may be isolated while still recognizing that public confidence in downtown safety has clearly eroded for many people. Those two things are not mutually exclusive.
Put me down as a white suburbanite who does NOT feel unsafe downtown. Of all the cities I’ve visited all over the country (including scary Portland, OR last year) I have only felt truly unsafe in downtown St Louis. Back in the day, parts of Richmond were on the sketchy meter, but they have really turned things around since I lived there.
As someone that lives close by, your experience pretty closely mimics mine. It was fine until it wasn’t. It’s definitely not as bad as people make it out to be, but I had a number of incidents close enough to each other that I now refuse to walk on the sidewalks next to the bus station on my walks except in rare occasions where I make sure my head is on a swivel.
Unfortunately, this isn’t an RPD issue as much as it is a station design issue. There is just not enough visibility or sight lines in the station for security and the cops to have eyes on everything.
I have worked downtown Raleigh for 40 years! It has changed! I had two coworkers assaulted in broad daylight near One Exchange Plaza. When workers walk in groups to their cars so they don’t get harassed then the City and downtown has a problem. Don’t shoot (sorry for the pun) the messenger but I use to wait 20 minutes to get into restaurants at lunch now I can walk in at 12:10 and pick about any seat. So it doesn’t matter what I say there are fewer and fewer who want to venture downtown. I still go but I find people want to meet at places that are not downtown for lunch.
last year) I have only felt truly unsafe in downtown St Louis. Back in the day, parts of Richmond were on the sketchy meter, but they have really turned things around since I lived there.