Columbus billboards ask ''Why the Violence?''

Tiny victim is anti-violence crusaders’ biggest hope
October 17, 2003
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The newly formed Urban Crime Advisory Commission convened its first meeting yesterday under a 40-foot billboard from which the image of 1-day old Alamar John-William Wright looked down.

Alamar was killed a month after his birth during a robbery attempt May 29 at his Weinland Park home. He has become the poster child for a campaign to stamp out violence.

Neighborhood leaders and state Rep. Larry Price, a Columbus Democrat, hope that 10 billboards bearing Alamar’s image and 1,000 yard signs bearing the message "Why the Violence?" will reduce the violence in targeted urban hot spots.

Why the violence??? In part, because a CCW law has not been passed. Criminals who do not care about the law will not care about billboards or yard signs.

Was the robbery that resulted in this child's death one of the 127 estimated to have been preventable if HB12 had been passed in June?

"It's getting people to realize that it takes a community effort," Columbus Police Officer Steven Billups said. "Law enforcement can't do this alone."

Amen. We heartily agree.

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