“The measure of a civilization is how it treats its weakest members.”

 Having that in mind, how would Omaha test, following the circumstances surrounding the killing of Payton Benson?

There are no weaker members of civilization than our very young. How is it that it took a reward of $25,000 from Omaha Crime Stoppers to illicit information from the community? There shouldn’t need to be a monetary reward for information concerning the death of an innocent five year old.

Why would people not be so outraged by this senseless, avoidable death that they’d want to take whatever means necessary to find out who did it and bring them to justice? What does it say about the community that it took raising an original $5,000 reward to $25,000 before anyone wanted to help the police find out who fired the errant shot that killed a five-year-old?

Payton Benson was not the intended victim, but in the realm of societal morality, the intent of her death does not matter. It is fact that Payton’s death was wholly avoidable. This is not a debate on gun control, but the issue is a familiar marker as to the point in which our society finds itself. It is truly a dark time in the community if it finds itself unable to muster enough decency and regard for life that a situation like this could come to pass.

There are two reasons as to why people would want to stay quiet about something like this. Either people are afraid that they might be the subject of gang-related violence if they talked to authorities or they believe there is a societal stigma against the believed notion of being a snitch.

If this were a case of the former, the police have a bigger problem within the community. It cannot stand to reason that gangs would have so much power over the community that the police wouldn’t be able to ensure protection to those that sought to create a community bereft of senseless violence.

However, even that isn’t as deplorable as the idea that if you help the police in any way, you’re a snitch. Is it ‘not cool’ to help find the killers of a five-year-old girl? What kind of person are you if you think it’s bad to help find Payton’s killers? Those people are just as bad, if not worse, than the person who fired the bullet that killed Payton Benson. How dare they stand by and say nothing. Doing the right thing should never have a stigma connected to it, the community should be up in arms, not silent.

It is a shock to this writer, that a city full of wholesome and caring people like Omaha would have such a difficult time finding someone willing to come forward. But this town is very clearly compartmentalized into distinct sections.

For change to truly occur we must start to realize that these problems aren’t just a problem for one or two specific districts of town. You cannot have a city where problems from one or two districts are seen as solely problems for those areas to solve alone. These cannot just be a North Omaha problem or a South Omaha problem; they must be Omaha problems that take the entire community to solve.