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And if more white people will get off their sofas next year, we might just get a lame duck President too.

Despite changing mayors I'm betting the CCC (City Council Clowns) will continue to provide much amusement & entertainment -

GOOD LUCK to you Bill Knight in attempting to deal with "passengers in the City Clown Car" (especially Mary, Trudy, and Zack) over the next two years! And, by all means, completely attend to comments by knowledgeable Councilman Robbie Perkins ( while completely ignoring the usual rants of "tabloid-man" John Hammer) as you attempt to become an effective, progressive City leader! Seriously -- very!

Good luck to the new Mayor but your first official duty needs to be to apologize to the Chief of Police for the comments you made about him not being qualified for the job.

Mayor Knight,

I congratulate you on your victory, and I look forward to the changes for the better you can implement here in Greensboro.

Having said that, I beg you to step with caution when matters of the police department arise. The Greensboro Police Department has certainly received its share of negative press of late, not all of it deserved. But the City should take heart, because at the foundation of the department are a large number of brave, loyal, intelligent, hard-working, and honest police officers. Your department does a fantastic job of solving and stopping crime, often times very quickly. It handles a huge call load in a swift manner, and as the number of officers on the force reaches the numbers needed to counterbalance the recent land additions to the city, these call times will only improve. If and when the issue of replacing Chief Bellamy comes to light, I urge you to consider the fact that your department is very effective at fighting crime. There is some fat to trim, but whomever is chosen to succeed Chief Bellamy should not be brought in to make sweeping changes that disrupt the harmony and effectiveness of the police department.

There are some simple things that you and the public can be do to assist in reducing crime in our city. One is promoting District Attorneys that concentrate on putting criminals behind bars rather than reducing charges; many a violent offender is returned to street due to having drug and gun charges dropped and having been allowed to plead to lesser charges. Similar to this, ensuring the judges who are elected aren't letting those found guilty of crime with light sentences or community service. Third, an audit of the Greensboro Housing Authority is necessary; gangs, drugs, and violence strive in GHA housing because far too often tenants who grossly violate the terms of their lease are allowed to stay for years, while they and their brood force repeated calls for police response. The police fill out GHA cards whenever they witness a violation that can be traced to a certain apartment, and some times one tenant can run up dozens. Fourth, there are hundreds of vacant houses in the city, and in some places, these empty houses become nests of drug use and prostitution; the City should condemn these houses, and charge the landlords when repeated problems arise from them. At the very least they should be heavily boarded up to keep out the squatters, prostitutes, and drug users. Fifth, the police can't do everything; any and every police department depends on the citizens to help them rid the streets of criminals. The public has a duty to assist the police with information. Only when the citizens take pride in their community and responsibility for what goes on in their neighborhoods will they be truly safe. Stop protecting the thugs, even if you've known them since they were babies. Lastly, let the police department do its job; the members of your police department are well-educated in basic law enforcement, and many are highly trained in advanced police tactics. Let them do the job for which they have been trained.

These suggestions are ways to get criminals off the streets, and less criminals means less crime. If we all work together it can be done.