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Troy's Perspective: Keep using ShotSpotter?

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Wednesday, 24 September 2025

Written by Troy Williams

On Sept. 8, the Fayetteville City Council voted 8-2 to extend the controversial ShotSpotter technology utilized by the Fayetteville Police Department for another year for $220,000.
Councilmembers Mario Benavente and Deno Hondros stood firm in their opposition, casting their votes against the measure.
Fayetteville's new police chief, Roberto Bryan, supports the use of ShotSpotter technology. Chief Bryan, an African American, provides a contrasting perspective on the somewhat controversial use of this technology in African American communities.
African American concerns center around civil liberties, the potential for over-policing, and the perception that ShotSpotter creates a false sense of security. Critics argue that the technology offers poor returns on investment, pointing to low rates of arrests and gun recoveries. On the other hand, supporters assert that it can enable a rapid response to gunfire incidents.
ShotSpotter claims a high accuracy rate of around 97%. However, critics and independent research indicate that the system often fails to produce evidence of gun-related crimes. A study conducted in Chicago revealed that 89% of the deployments did not yield any evidence of such crimes.
Similarly, a study in New York showed a success rate ranging from only 8% to 20% during specific periods. Additionally, an independent study conducted in Fayetteville by the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law has also raised questions about the effectiveness of this technology.
Gun violence in America has reached alarming levels, posing a serious threat to our communities and way of life. The assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on a university campus in Utah, along with a shooting at a high school in Colorado—which resulted in the shooter's death from self-inflicted wounds, two student deaths, and three others injured, both incidents on the same day—highlights the ongoing issue of gun violence in the country.
Many African Americans oppose ShotSpotter technology, and while it may contribute more to the problem than to the solution, it is essential to acknowledge the stark reality: the risk of homicide is significantly higher in the Black community compared to the white community. Black Americans are more than 12 times more likely to die from gun homicides than white Americans.
Gun violence is the leading cause of death for African American males aged 15 to 34, and Fayetteville joins other major cities with high homicide rates. The shooters and victims typically share the same racial background. At some point, we all hope this cycle of violence comes to an end. Elected leaders and law enforcement officials are understandably seeking answers to the situation. The challenges they face are significant.
They need to set both immediate and future goals to drive success and ensure progress.
Could the $220,000 have had a more meaningful impact if allocated differently?
Perhaps, but Fayetteville needs to significantly increase its crime prevention budget for genuine effectiveness. Efforts to solve our gun violence problem with ShotSpotter are further dividing those who need help and those sworn to assist them.
This isn't a solution that benefits everyone; it's a scenario where one side wins while the other loses.

Publisher's Pen: Reflections from prayer walk honoring Charlie Kirk

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Wednesday, 24 September 2025

Written by Bill Bowman

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Downtown Fayetteville, 400 members of the community gathered for a prayer walk honoring Charlie Kirk. Kirk was a man whose message of faith, freedom, and unity has resonated across the country since his untimely death on September 10th.
This event on Sept. 21 brought together Fayetteville and Cumberland County residents, city, county, and state leaders, clergy, and free speech advocates from diverse backgrounds. They were all united by a common cause and a commitment to peace, respectful dialogue, a love for humanity, and God.
As the prayer walk proceeded solemnly from the Cumberland County courthouse to Festival Park, the peaceful march culminated with a brief but inspirational program by local community leaders.
Semone Pemberton, Cumberland County Commissioner Henry Tyson and State Representative Diane Wheatley eloquently reminded us of the significance of Charlie Kirk's death and shared inspirational messages about God, family, and the constant need for respectful, empathetic dialogue between all people.
The program ended in a prayer led by Reverend Archie Barringer and heartfelt closing sentiments, which encouraged attendees to carry the spirit of Charlie Kirk back to their homes and communities.
I was deeply moved by the unity, conviction, and compassion shown by everyone who participated. They came with open hearts and shared beliefs in God and the power of prayer, and the dignity and worth of all humanity.
Thank you for reading the Up & Coming Weekly community newspaper.
—Bill Bowman, Publisher

Festival Park, Sept. 21, 2025
Today, we honored Charlie Kirk—not just the man, but the message he carried. A message rooted in faith, freedom, and the unwavering belief that every voice matters. Charlie stood for truth, respectful dialogue, and the idea that love for humanity begins with listening, understanding, and courage.
What we experienced together was more than a tribute. It was a living example of peace, respect, and love. And now, as we return to our homes and communities, I encourage everyone to carry that same spirit forward.
Let the peace you felt today walk with you. Let the respect you showed for Charlie Kirk echo in your conversations. And let the love you shared be the light that guides your actions.
I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to the City of Fayetteville and Cumberland County, the Fayetteville Police Department, for ensuring our safety, and to Laura Mussler and the dozens of local freedom and free speech advocates who made this tribute possible. Their commitment to God and community made today truly special.
Let this moment ripple outward. Let it inspire others. Let it remind us that freedom of speech, thought, and faith are not just ideals—they are responsibilities. And when we honor them with grace and humility, we reflect the very best of what Charlie represented.
I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to the City of Fayetteville and Cumberland County, the Fayetteville Police Department, for ensuring our safety, and to the dozens of local freedom and free speech advocates who made this tribute possible. Your commitment to community and conscience made today truly special.
Depart in peace. Go with purpose. And go knowing that what we shared here today matters—to our children, to our neighbors, and to the future we’re all shaping together.
May God bless you all. And, God bless America.

Shoddy statistics will produce US bad policy

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Wednesday, 24 September 2025

Written by John Hood

President Donald Trump has removed the head of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and appointed an economist from the Heritage Foundation to replace her. A legal exercise of the president’s powers? Absolutely. But the replacement, E.J. Antoni, must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
I hope North Carolina’s Thom Tillis and Ted Budd give the matter careful consideration.
The stakes are high. BLS produces crucial data on employment, wages, prices, and productivity. To do so, it relies on monthly surveys of households and of business establishments, as well as other surveys and administrative data from government programs. Other agencies, universities, and private firms also conduct surveys and produce statistics. But few offer the breadth and depth of coverage that BLS does.
Many individuals and institutions rely on the data. Here in North Carolina, for example, fiscal analysts for the state legislature, governor’s office, and local governments use BLS statistics to project public revenues and expenditures. Companies use them to make investment decisions.
The two fields in which I’ve spent most of my career, journalism and policy analysis, also rely heavily on BLS reports. We report on monthly releases of unemployment rates, job counts, and price changes.
We sweep months or years of BLS data into spreadsheets to calculate longer-term trends. Scholars download decades of BLS data to build econometric models and attempt to evaluate changes in public policy.
Even when other entities produce valuable information, they often test its validity by comparing their data to what the BLS reports. For example, recent research by UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise and other partners shows that business-formation data collected by the North Carolina Secretary of State represent a reasonably accurate predictor of changes in employment and economic activity.
Why is that important? Because the secretary’s business-formation metric is readily available by county. Employment data (from BLS) and GDP data (from the Bureau of Economic Analysis) have much longer lag times, especially at the county level. This might well represent a handy new tool for assessing economic growth in North Carolina. It is, however, no substitute for monthly BLS reports (and quarterly BEA reports).
To put it bluntly, if large swaths of policymakers, executives, investors, and the general public come to distrust what comes out of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that will make it harder to conduct prudent business or have meaningful conversations about economic policy.
I don’t assume that Antoni would manipulate BLS processes in an attempt to concoct a pro-administration spin. But the political circumstances that led to his nomination are worrying. When firing the previous administrator, Trump noted that she had been appointed by Joe Biden and claimed she had “rigged” job numbers to make him and Republicans “look bad.”
Declining response rates to BLS surveys have made the agency’s job more difficult. But as George Mason University economist Vincent Geloso found in a careful analysis of two decades of BLS data, there is no convincing evidence for the bias the president alleged.
Sometimes, BLS has revised job numbers down under Republican administrations. Sometimes it’s done so under Democratic ones.
“The claims that the BLS is systematically partisan and incompetent collapse under scrutiny,” he concluded.
That’s not to say no improvements are possible. Indeed, the new head of BLS ought to consider University of Chicago economist Tomas Philipson’s idea of giving respondents cash incentives to fill out BLS surveys regularly and accurately.
“After all, such incentives are used by the IRS to reduce measurement errors for reporting taxable incomes,” Philipson wrote in National Review. “Paying respondents for their contribution to improve our understanding of the economy, therefore, generates a mutually beneficial exchange, just as wages do for any regular work.”
Perhaps this is the kind of reform that Antoni and the Trump administration have in mind. If so, great.
If they modify the methodology or frequency of BLS reports without clear and convincing explanations, however, they’ll get a lot of blowback — and deserve it.

Editor’s Note: John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His books Mountain Folk, Forest Folk, and Water Folk combine epic fantasy with American history (FolkloreCycle.com).

(Photo: The Postal Square Building in Washington D.C. holds the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

Visit Florida, the Measles State

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Tuesday, 16 September 2025

Written by Pitt Dickey

Just when you thought Alligator Alcatraz was the epitome of Floridaness, along comes their very special cowboy/cowgirl boot-wearing governor, Ron DeSantis, who declares that all vaccine mandates are off.
Don’t feel like getting your kid vaccinated because some guy on a radio told you it was slavery? Have you done your own research on the interwebs and now know more than the medical profession? Move to Florida, where freedom is now spelled FREEDUMB.
Viruses need love, too. No longer will you have to attack such child-friendly viruses as measles, whooping cough, or COVID. Let the viruses run free. Survival of the fittest is the rule of the day in the Sunshine State. The Florida Surgeon General, the esteemed Dr. Joseph Ladapo announced the ban of mandatory viruses, pronouncing: “Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body?
Every last one (vaccine mandate) is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.”
Want your child to be a charter member of the Florida Lesions of Honor? Want to play connect the measles pustules on his feverish little body wracked with pain to see if Robert Kennedy Jr is sending you a secret communication on your child’s pockmarked tummy?
Keep him unvaxxed. Your little darling should be liberated to enjoy measles without the interference of the Nanny State. Although the measles pustules on their body may drip with pus, result in cosmic levels of itching, hearing loss, pneumonia, encephalitis (brain swelling- but who needs a brain in Florida?), blindness, and possible death, at least they will know they were free to contract the disease without the slavery of modern science and the Nanny State telling them to get the vax. They will be proud to be Floridian, where at least they know they are free, or crippled, or dead.
Like the UNC fight song, the little darlings will be Florida born, Florida bred, and when they die, they will be Florida dead. They will be free to infect their classmates who have compromised immune systems.
They will be free to spread measles to pregnant women, including their teachers, which increases a woman’s chance of miscarriage, premature birth, and low birth weight infants. There will be no more vax mandates dripping with disdain and slavery.
Don’t be a nervous Nellie, even if the lack of vax leads to increased misery, pain, and avoidable death, there is a brighter side. An unknown commentator on the Interwebs pointed out: “When I was a kid, I attended a funeral for a baby. There was a tiny casket and everything. But afterwards, there were sandwiches and cookies and stuff. So, I guess it won’t be all bad, Florida.”
That will own the Libs. Medical science is for sissies. Political science trumps medical science every time. Stupid doctors don’t know nuthin’. Vaxxes are a badge of slavery. A pox on their vax.
Making measles great again is just the nose of the camel sticking through the oxygen tent. Once measles is established, what other vax banished diseases will be heading our way?
Right now, Mr. Smallpox and Miss Polio are polishing up their tandem bike to ride down I-95 to the Promised Land of Antivax Happiness in Florida. The best part is, unlike Vegas, what happens in Florida doesn’t stay in Florida. Lots of tourists go to Florida (not Canadians anymore, but that is another story), they will be able to get infected with measles and bring disease cooties back on the plane to their hometowns to spread the wealth of freedom contagion to all their friends and neighbors.
Being personally calendar-enhanced, I am old enough to remember the delightfully scary times of polio back in the 1950s. To keep polio from spreading, the Nanny State closed schools, swimming pools, movie theaters, and other venues where people gathered in large numbers. I can recall the yellow quarantine signs on the doors of houses where polio had entered.
Kids went from playing sandlot baseball to living in Iron Lungs to keep them alive. Lucky polio victims wore clunky metal braces on their legs to hobble around. The unlucky ones went to the cemetery.
Making measles great again will open the door to the Good Old Days before vaccines eradicated significantly bad cooties. Epidemiologists are just trying to enslave you.
As Dirty Harry once asked: “Are you feeling lucky?” Maybe your kid will be lucky and the bad viruses won’t visit your home. Politics, podcasts, and luck beat medical science. We don’t need no stinkin’ vax. Live free or die.
We have Robert Kennedy Jr. and his pet laboratory state of Florida to own the Libs.