Our city (Dover) is in a crisis and under siege. The streets have become profoundly dangerous, and blatant and open-air drug use, drug dealing in plain view of citizens and police, prostitution, aggressive panhandling and the deterioration of the quality of life have become commonly accepted by the mayor, City Council and city officials.
Now, shootings and homicides have become a common event in our communities — the killing of a 22-year-old last month being the most recent example of continued chaos. It was an event that once again demonstrated a lack of urgency and prioritization from City Hall.
It has been quite concerning that the mayor and council have not taken a more proactive approach to address the longstanding social issues that have been plaguing Dover. However, we are now seeing this issue being compounded with repeated violence in our community. Remaining silent with no plan and no discussion on what or how to address these shootouts is unacceptable, and there is no excuse. It has been weeks since this last incident occurred, and there has been nothing put forth publicly by the city’s governing body to provide any confidence to the residents that it is actively working to address these issues.
The citizens of Dover deserve better.
Judy Blue
Dover
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
