Read this timely editorial pointing out the vast differences in how two mayors and two governors reacted to different two brutal attacks; Newark and Dunbar Village. Then pick of the phone and call these folks. If you want to know what to ask the Governor of Florida, you can read this post, or go to this letter.

Contact: Governor Charlie Crist, 850-488-7146
Contact: Lois Frankel, Mayor of West Palm Beach. 561-822-7146

Lois Frankel, the Mayor of West Palm Beach has an agenda and that agenda is not helping the residents of Dunbar Village, the home of a vicious gang rape of a 35 year old Black woman and her 12 year old son culminating in the mother being forced to perform a sex act on her own child at gun point. They both screamed for 3 hours and not a single neighbor came to their aid or called 911. Two weeks later another African American woman was attacked outside in the open mere steps from her apartment less than a mile from Dunbar Village. Did I mention that the police in this case didn't bother to alert the media of the attack on the 42 year-old woman for two weeks while the six teens involved roamed free?

Immediately following the news reports of the Dunbar Village gang rape, the POLICE of West Palm Beach didn't notify the media to alert the public that ten gang rapists were roaming around, it was a scared neighbor at Dunbar Village that called. The Mayor didn't go on the air in an attempt to apprehend the 10 rapists. OH NO, because actually getting ten violent rapists off the street is just too boring for Lois Frankel. NO, she used the Dunbar Village gang rape to attack the federal government for turning down a $165,000 grant to the City of West Palm Beach. So instead of asking for assistance a la Corey Booker or most other Mayors faced with a group of dangerous criminals at large, Mayor Frankel decides to use her brief national platform to attack the feds for not giving her enough money and waging war in Iraq, now we can all fight about the War and spending and all that jazz, but with so many other critics and platforms speaking about THAT, wouldn't it have been a more judicious use of her platform to try to aid the victim, by highlighting the victim's assistance fund?

After the hideous gang rape and assault at Dunbar Village, Mayor Frankel appeared on CNN and blamed the Iraq expenditures for the problems at Dunbar Village. The conditions at Dunbar did not develop overnight. They took many years to take shape. Why has the public never heard from Mayor Frankel on the conditions at Dunbar during her term as mayor? (SOURCE)

Wouldn't it have been a good time to ask for assistance in hunting down the ten brutal rapists roaming West Palm Beach?

Folks this is what I would call the makings of a disturbing pattern. But you wouldn't know that based on the way the governmental leadership in Florida was behaving. Mind you ten people participated in the gang rape at Dunbar Village.... hmmm ten roaming rapists in one city, I would think that that would be cause for a big ole' press conference to warn residents. But alas, this is West Palm Beach, Florida and they have the misfortune of having Lois Frankel as their mayor.

Now I remind you that while Dunbar Village was descending into chaos, Mayor Frankel sunk $164 MILLION on building a state of the art office tower and filling it with fine furnishings.

Among other things, Mayor Lois Frankel will be remembered for her pet project, the $154 million City Center complex that will stand as a monument to bureaucrat furnishings and parking-garage design.(SOURCE)

This is during a period of time that she is lamenting that the federal government wasn't giving her $165,000 for a security guard. Perhaps as one editorial suggested, Mayor Frankel and the city leadership could have considered modest salary decreases to make sure that the residents of Dunbar Village didn't live in a self-described Hell on Earth. Read my take on Lois Frankel's lack of initiative and creativity in coming up with a measley $165,000 when in my own city, a local animal shelter managed to raise $200,000 in three weeks when the air conditioning went out in the middle of summer. All the money was raised through private donations.

Now that the federal government appears more than willing to hand over money to improve the lives of the people who live in that area of West Palm Beach, Florida:

With public pressure, it finally may be possible to win millions of dollars from the federal government or find city or private money to tear down the entire public housing project at once, city leaders said. After the rape, calls and e-mails from across the country came into the city, asking what was being done to help the victims.

"Dunbar Village is in the news, and people want to help, so maybe we can do it quicker," Mayor Lois Frankel said. "If we can figure out where to move 300 people, then we can do something quicker than a row at a time."(SOURCE)

However, this is Lois Frankel we are dealing with. Now, Lois Frankel is balking at paying to have the grant application prepared.

Will the city help the housing authority with $100,000 to hire a consultant and apply by November for a federal grant of more than $20''million to overhaul Dunbar? Mayor Frankel's open to "discussing" it, but, she said, it's "a lot of money."(SOURCE)

HUH?

"I have a deep, passionate belief that Dunbar Village should be razed and something much safer, more decent should be put in its place," Frankel said. But, she added, this crime could have happened anywhere. SOURCE

First you run around blaming the federal government for lack of funding, now they seem prepared to hand over tens of millions of dollars and you are too cheap to pay a consultant or lack the initiative to appeal to a professional to donate their time or ask the Governor to lend you a state grant writer for a month?See what more important items West Palm beach is spending their money on.

But let us get back to the original point, the apprehension of the all of the gang rapists, atleast a half dozen remain at large.

Frankel says she's had Dunbar on her radar ever since she took office in 2003 and applied for a $30 million grant to tear it down and build a mixed community with both public and work-force housing. The grant was turned down and then the program was cut, she said. SOURCE

That should scare the crap out of you if you. It was on her RADAR since 2003? Well how did all this crime happen?

Now mind you almost 650 calls to police came from Dunbar Village alone in one year. Tt was home to 15 murders and numerous assaults and property crimes, but even with this wonderful track record from law enforcement, Mayor Frankel says this:

Said Mayor Lois Frankel through a spokesman: "We have a great police force ... and we plan to keep it that way." (Source)

Oh really? a great police force for whom? Certainly not the residents of Dunbar Village.

In my sole interaction with Mayor Frankel after she allegedly fired the police spokesperson for the bad press she had recieved from the Dunbar Village case, she completely all my concerns other than making sure I knew the police spokesperson was fired due to budget cuts.

I said....

I recently saw an article that indicated that you fired Ted White
because of bad press your city received as a result of the Dunbar
Village gang rape. I also read that while those citizens in Dunbar
Village were living in Hell on Earth, you spearheaded the construction
of a 164 Million Dollar office building and parking garage, yet you
blame the federal government for a lack of funding to protect the
citizens of your city.

When do you plan to take responsibility for what happened on your
watch as Mayor of West Palm Beach and stop blaming others because you
elected to spend money on office furniture instead of human beings?

Mayor Frankel responded......

Pleased be informed that Mr. Ted White was not fired because of "bad" publicity. His position was cut from the city budget due to restrictions put on us by the state legislature. That decision was made prior to the awful crime at Dunbar Village.

LJF

You can e-mail her at lfrankel@wpb.org.

Mayor Frankel, this wasn't just an "awful crime", it was a hate crime, a crime against humanity, a crime that violated a sacred bond between a mother and child, a brutal vicious attack, during which the neighbors ignored 3 hours of screaming from both of the victims and then failed to render aid when the attack was over. Then to be swiftly followed by a very similar crime involving a gang attack on a 42-year old woman OUTSIDE in the open? At which point to do start to take seriously that you have a serious problem, worth of serious leadership?

Let's pause for a moment to consider the fact that there is a city in this country where gangs of teens have raped two middle-aged Black women within a mile of each other only weeks apart. Now due to the horrifying militaristic nature of the crimes, both because of the actual crimes committed, the ages and behavior of the assailants during and the community's response after, most sane political subdivisions would think "Perhaps we have a problem?"

Well apparently West Palm Beach, Florida isn't one of those political subdivisions. It is now time for the State of Florida and step in to protect the residents of West Palm Beach, Florida as their local elected leadership appears unwilling or unable to perform a fundamental function of local and state government, protect the public.

Charlie Crist needs to step in, Lois Frankel, Mayor of West Palm Beach, Florida. She is overwhelmed and under skilled to address the anarchy that ensued on her watch.

Please take time to contact the Governor and ask him to intervene in West Palm Beach, its poor Black residents are also citizens of the State of Florida. Read my letter to the Governor

Governor Crist's Office