Another Dead Black Teen In Omaha

Another Dead Black Teen in Omaha:

When Will We Start Saving Black Omaha?

Its gotten beyond unbelievable. Words like "sad", "shameful" and "violent" don't even begin to describe the state of North Omaha. In a state that promotes "The Good Life", and in a city that is constantly touting how much it is improving, growing, and changing, teens and other black citizens are being slain in the streets weekly. This time, 17 year old, Brandin Princole is shot in the head at 2:40 in the afternoon. That would be right around the time of release from the nearby high school  which is about 2 blocks away from the scene of this homicide. Several elementary schools are in this area.

The worst part about it is that I fear Black North Omaha is becoming numb to the violence if it isn't already.

A Routine Scene in North Omaha

As I'm driving home in my bus, I hear over my CB radio, "Ames is shut down from 30th street onward. Avoid the area", then "46th and Grand is also closed, police everywhere. " then "Looks like they're chasing someone, if you can avoid the area, please do so." Several times, my wife has called me on my way home from work to let me know which streets are closed by the police because someone has been shot. I have an intimate knowledge of all the backstreets here in Omaha, as does any North resident, because so often roads are taped off. When does abnormal become normal? When it becomes routine.


 Black people being shot and killed in Omaha, Nebraska is routine.

Worst still, is that outside of the area, many are unaware of truly how hellish it can be in North Omaha.

When I first moved to this city in 2004, I lived Downtown, and then later in West Omaha. I was never aware of any of the violence that was happening only blocks away from where I was staying. Sure, my White friends warned me mythically about avoiding the area, but they sound like any other stories of people of affluence avoiding poor areas. This had to be the case, I was sure.

Although I attended suburban schools in Dallas, TX, I lived in the Oak Cliff neighborhood, and spent my summers in West Dallas. These areas are a far-cry from the small-town suburban area in which i spent my academic life. Gangs, guns, drugs, fighting, murder, poverty, prostitution, robbery were just as normal to me as tricycles and Harvest Festivals. But, at least from my young experiences, they were not daily, and were overshadowed by childhood memories like new toys and amusement park visits.

Will we ever move from this.....

Upon re-locating back to Omaha in 2010, I became acquainted with the "Real" Omaha. Not quite the "Belly" cinematic depiction of the MidWest city, but certainly not far from it.


This is a town divided severely by race, social class, education, and economy; Black North Omaha being at the bottom of every list.




I, myself, have nearly been killed by random acts of violence 3 times in the last two years. Once to gun violence, once to a man intent on stabbing somebody (read "anybody"),  and another due to ignorance and fighting, leaving a woman trying to mow people down in her SUV.  This doesn't include all the mace I've ingested here, the parties I've had to leave early, the guns I've witnessed concealed or not, the drugs apparently on almost every block, the stories of child rape in almost every family, the miseducation or non-education of the average North citizen, the mentally unstable homeless/drug-addicted roaming the streets, and countless other indicators of a suffering environment.

...to this.

As if this wasn't bad enough, 2012 seems to be the year of murder in Omaha. Already this year we have seen the deaths of a teen mother, a man burned in bed, a teen killed over an XBOX, an Ice Cream Man, a mother in front of her 3-year old, parents in their home discovered by children, and now a teen slain blocks away from the High School in the middle of the day.

Yet, I have not heard one politician, nor school-board member, nor community activist, nor state representative, nor pastor organize an initiative to remove the guns from Omaha Streets.


Where is the gun turn in drive? Where is the citywide outrage march? Where is s the legislation? Where is the prayer vigil? Are we numb to it? Is it "Omaha as Usual"?

Meanwhile, a constant surge of re-gentrification is moving slowly North from Downtown. Historically Black Omaha is being turn-down and replaced with high-rise condos, White-Oriented and owned businesses, and a flood of new police "protection".  Rents and mortgages are being being carefully raised and lowered around the city, concentrating the poor and Black into a smaller and smaller area of the city. News stations report the violence not as a city problem, but a neighborhood specific problem.

Black Omaha. Wake up and look around. Do you not see what is happening to you?

We are killing ourselves, stripping ourselves of property, losing any business prospects, rejecting the education available, over "self-medicating", and slowly losing any justification for renovation.  In 30 years, there will be no Black North Omaha, and "Omaha Days" will just be another page in the history books.

There has to be a change. There has to be a push to not only stop the gun violence, but either remove the guns or re-educate the gun owners. The lack of education has to be addressed. The health of North Omaha has to be addressed. The family health has to be addressed. The gangs have to be addressed. NORTH OMAHA NEEDS AN OVERHAUL. And if we don't do it ourselves, someone else will.








Once, this was a thriving, active, tight-nit community of learning, loving, educated, industrious Black people, contributing to the city at large and at the same time maintaining it autonomy and identity. That can be the goal again. Just as Benson, Dundee, Florence, Bellevue  La Vista, Carter Lake, South and West Omaha can all retain their respective neighborhoods, it is time that North Omaha reclaim its place as a wonderful place to call home.



Da Beast


Watch the News Story:
http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/Shooting-Victim-Critical-173936561.html

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