WV National Guard helicopters patrol the skies of Huntington WV after murder outbreak following opioid epidemic.
Huntington WV is best known for Marshall University and the touching film, We Are Marshall. Lately, Huntington has taken on the unwelcome title of epicenter of the opioid epidemic. Netflix recently produced a documentary called Heroin(e) about three women working to combat this problem. I personally have friends who have lost children to this horror. I lost a promising student to an overdose. Now this tragedy is spreading beyond the overdoses and deaths to a murder epidemic. In the past week alone, there were five shootings with six people being shot. Three shootings were reported within three hours one night. Three people have died. There are a total of 21 homicides, with a population of only 48,000 people.
Huntington now has the 3rd highest murder rate, per capita, with St. Louis and Baltimore taking the first and second place on that list. Below Huntington, on the list, are Cleveland and New Orleans at fourth and fifth place. Many shootings appear to be drug related.
To combat crime, Governor Jim Justice has provided the resources of the National Guard.
“Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, West Virginia’s adjutant general and head of the state’s National Guard, wouldn’t go as far as to say the support is a “boots on the ground” effort or a deployment of Guardsmen.
Instead, it’s a bump in manpower for the Guard’s counter-narcotics support program, which has been present in the city and helping police there for 20 years, Hoyer said.
“The focus of what the governor wants the Guard to do is what we have done for a number of years, and we are pretty good at — providing that technical support so the law enforcement officers can get out and spend their time doing the law enforcement work that they need to do in greater numbers,” Hoyer said.
The nature of the governor’s order will provide additional National Guard members in Huntington beginning Friday, and their work will include analytical support and some aviation assets, to allow Huntington police officers to patrol West Virginia’s second-largest city from the sky, Hoyer said.” www.wvgazettemail.com/…
One big problem is that Huntington’s police force is poorly funded and has had recent cutbacks. The budget was in a big deficit in part because of overtime from fire, police and emergency overtime (as well as some off budget equipment purchases by the fire department). Huntington Mayor Steve Williams has been the point person for dealing with the budget deficit www.wsaz.com/… and the layoffs in the police and fire department have infuriated the local voters.
As a political aside for national politics, Mayor Williams, a Democrat, has declared he is running for 3rd Congressional District currently occupied by Evan Jenkins (R) in 2018. Jenkins has announced his candidacy for US Senate, but he will need to combat the Steve Bannon endorsed Attorney General Morrisey in the primary. Manchin is favored over both Republican candidates in polls. Jenkins is a slick former Democrat and Morrisy is a drug lobby favoring carpetbagger recently from Maryland. Manchin is clearly a better candidate and if a liberal primaries him, it will probably make him appear more centrist and appealing.
William’s big win for Huntington was in a contest called America’s Best Community, a revitalization program with a big cash prize. To his and Huntington’s credit, they were working on dealing with the drug problems in this plan. But many local voters view this win as ridiculous considering the many bad problems that clearly indicate the community is in crisis. I am doubtful that Williams is electable, even if he wins the primary. The Republican messaging on this issue is clear. Richard Ojeda is another Democratic Candidate for this district, representing the coal counties in the legislature. Ojeda is more of a conservative than Williams, but I think he may prove to be more electable. More candidates may emerge as well.
The whole thing reminds me of the crack cocaine crime problems of the 1980s, when the murder rates for the country were extremely high. There has also been an increase in other crimes- armed robbery on the streets, breaking and entering to steal items to pawn, increases in prostitution, driving while intoxicated leading to terrible accidents and more deaths, injuries and property damage ( www.wsaz.com/… www.wsaz.com/...). When a drug user causes a car crash, the ER has to decide who to treat first, even if it is the drug user. Hospitals will be stretched with other crises like heart problems or appendicitis vs. treating a drug overdose.
Another big issue is fear- my friend who runs in the evening after work is running in the day now because her family doesn’t feel she is safe. Marshall University students aren’t feeling safe since most recent murders are within blocks of the campus, and I am afraid parents might decide not to send their students to Huntington- very harmful to the beleagured university after three years of harsh funding cuts.
Emergency responders are really stretched and stressed- responding to overdoses is heartbreaking when this is the same person overdosing again and again. Our public health department has pushed through a needle exchange, but there are also deaths due to infections like MRSA from contaminated needles, not to mention HIV and hepatitis. But local people often express dislike of needle exchange and NARCAN use, thinking addicts should just die. The town is filled with grandparents struggling to care for grandchildren and the foster-care system is overloaded.
Helicopters are a feel-good PR response. People are being murdered indoors. I want someone to provide real assistence for the root cause of the problem- heroin and other drugs. More guns are not the answer, but I bet that becomes the solution for many citizens. The state can’t offer much real financial assistance because of the economic mess from the collapse of the coal industry and the people fleeing heroin epidemic. Trump babbled on about the murders in Chicago to the FBI graduates, but I guess he doesn’t want to look at Huntington WV, in a state full of Trump voters and lots of guns. Trump’s heroin response has not been matched with a funding increase and frankly, its a joke on his voters and non-voters alike. The drug problem affects the whole system and needs a systematic approach.
