Dayton used to have a police force of 500 sworn officers.

The city may have less people, but it’s still shaped like an octopus and big.

Now, Dayton has around half that. Still, racially unbalanced compared to the general population.

And, still, unable to find the killer of one of their own. You’ve seen the banners on the stations- “Reward” for the killer of officer Kevin Brame.

I feel bad that I’m writing this on the 30th- instead of July 29.

It’s my annual post asking to find the killer/s of Sgt Maj North Woodall. A decorated veteran of 3 wars who was killed in a “home invasion.”

It would be easy for me to put it in my calendar and get a reminder every year, but I don’t. Because I don’t want it to be easy. I don’t want to forget Sgt. Maj. Woodall, or the fact that his killers are still on the loose. I don’t want it to be automatic- I want to have to remember. I want to feel guilty when I write a post a day late.

That front page story from the July 29, 2009 Dayton Daily news hangs, yellowing, right above my computer- “Veteran of 3 wars, 85, dies in home invasion.”

You won’t find the private police at U.D., Miami Valley Hospital, Grandview, Good Sam, Metroparks, Sinclair Community College doing a damn thing to investigate that murder- or trying to find the killers. Nope, those are the police forces of the rich white folks who’ve been running this city for long before I got here.

We have money to buy buildings for half a million dollars for which there is no public use. We find money for paying a certain demolition contractor to tear things down. We find money for developers- and give away taxes for our schools to General Electric and any other big company that waltzes into town…

And now we want more income tax. Because, our friends in high places still have their hands out…

at least those who didn’t pack up and move to the tax free (for white collar workers only) mecca of Austin Landing…

Instead of charging a $50K per year fee for each private police license- and making sure our department still has the people it needs to solve crimes, our city is coming for more money, to pay for pre-K education (because Mayor Whaley thinks shes the education goddess of Dayton). They say they want more money for police too… but, we’ve heard that before.

What we really want is killers brought to justice.

For Kevin, for his sister Karen who will never give up. For Sgt. Maj. Woodall, for whom I hope to never give up.

But, maybe, just maybe, the voters of Dayton will learn, we don’t really want to solve those crimes-

because the victims are black men.

And we all know, black lives don’t really matter in Dayton the way rich white mens lives do….