6A THE WICHITA EAGLE „ MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2008
COM/NEWS
ALEX
From Page 1A
High School’s champion debate
team. She had an inclination
for blunt talk. In the 10 days
since Alex died, her parents’
grief had begun to irritate her.
Her father, usually even-tem-
pered, had become short-fused.
The idea that the busy presi-
dent somehow “owed” them a
visit irritated her, though she
didn’t like Bush.
She thought Bush had killed
her brother and everybody else
in his Humvee. She’d joined
the debate team four years
before, in part because the Alex
she adored then had been on
his school debate team. Alex
had gone on to become a dope-
head dropout, but she became
a student with a future, good
grades and high skill. Debate
either sharpens ideas or expos-
es weaknesses in logic. She
found plenty to expose about
Iraq, U.S. foreign policy, and
George W. Bush’s leadership.
Her parents supported Bush
and the war. And the war
killed Alex.
One hundred Americans
were killed in April 2007, the
worst month so far. Bush’s
Republican allies were desert-
ing him in Congress.
And now that Alex was dead,
her father was angry, and sar-
castic about politics, and her
mother retreated to the bath-
room every day and turned on
the fan thinking no one could
hear her sobbing.
Alex had been a jerk to them;
Bob had been so worried about
Alex’s petty crimes that he had
taken Karen to consult a lawyer
about what their liabilities
might be if Alex became a crim-
inal.
Gloria despised what he’d
become. Karen still defended
him, blamed the drugs, and
remembered the good boy Alex
had been. One day, she said,
her little boy brought home a
dead frog flattened by cars,
and cried at how it suffered.
But then Alex smoked pot
morning, noon and night,
including before he dropped
out of Heights High School.
CRIME
From Page 1A
“I don’t love it; I don’t hate
it; but you’ve got to take it
with a grain of salt.”
The rankings were com-
piled by CQ Press, the pub-
lishing arm of Congressional
Quarterly. The survey found
that New Orleans had the
nation’s highest crime rate
last year while Ramapo, N.Y.,
population 76,371, had the
lowest.
The list, which has been
published for 15 years, calcu-
lates each city’s peræcapita
rate for six crimes — murder,
rape, robbery, aggravated
assault, burglary and auto
theft. The publisher assigned
each city a score based on
how far it finished above or
below the national average.
The rankings are based on
data published in the FBI’s
2007 “Crime in the United
States” report, which was
released in September.
The FBI report cautions
that, “Each year when ‘Crime
in the United States’ is
published, some entities
use reported figures to com-
pile rankings of cities and
counties. These rough rank-
ings provide no insight into
the numerous variables that
mold crime in a particular
town, city, county, state, or
region.”
The rankings were criti-
cized last month by the U.S.
Conference of Mayors, which
issued a news release calling
them a “misuse of FBI data”
that distorts and damages
cities’ reputations.
Doug Goldenberg-Hart, an
editor at CQ Press who
attended a discussion about
the rankings at the mayors’
conference, defended the
publication. He said it offers
helpful information that is
not available elsewhere and
stimulates people to talk
about crime issues.
Brian Withrow, an
associate professor of
criminal justice at Wichita
State University, said crime
statistics when taken out of
context can be tricky and
misleading.
In 1991, while Withrow
was a Texas state trooper, a
man in Killeen, Texas, shot
and killed 23 customers at a
cafeteria.
Withrow said the murders
Karen was sure he had come
out of the drug fog in the
Army. From Iraq he had sent
pleading e-mails: Send German
CDs; he was studying German.
Send guitar lessons; he was
learning guitar.
In late December, she
learned, he’d been given a hor-
rible task. A roadside bomb
exploded beside a Humvee,
killing soldiers. Officers
ordered him to climb into the
wrecked cab with the blood
and body parts and strip the
Humvee of anything useful to
the enemy. He’d done that, and
then, days later, after Karen’s
father died, Alex e-mailed from
Iraq: “u still grieving your dads
death? You want to talk about
it?”
That was the real Alex, she
said. Her boy becoming the
man he was meant to be.
She wanted to stop breath-
ing. She wanted to die.
But Gloria — “Glo,” as her
Dad called her — was trying to
ride this out. She visited
friends. She sat in long
silences, the pale skin of her
face framed by strawberry
blonde hair, her look com-
posed.
She cried for her brother, but
she also told mourners the
truth — she loved him, he was
a screw-up. While she studied,
while she earned a spot as an
International Baccalaureate
student at East High School,
Alex got drunk, got laid, got
high, treated his parents with
contempt, and treated her cru-
elly, bullying her in grade
school, ignoring or taunting
her in high school.
He’d joined the Army, she
said, “because he had no other
place to go.” Before he enlisted
in 2004, he’d dropped out of
school and lived in a trailer
with listless friends.
At his funeral the day before,
Gloria and Andrew Eldridge,
Alex’s best friend, had listened
in puzzlement to e-mail mes-
sages read aloud from Alex’s
fellow soldiers.
Eldridge loved Alex, the nat-
ural leader, the guy who got
the parties started, but even
Eldridge conceded how mean
Alex had become. And now
they heard sincere tributes
from combat soldiers.
2007 CITY CRIME RANKINGS
Wichita jumped up 31 spots in an annual ranking of city-by-city
crime rates. Although critics say the figures are misleading at best,
the publishers say they provide valuable information. A summary:
Rank City
Top five
1 New Orleans
2 Camden, N.J.
3 Detroit
4 St. Louis
5 Oakland
Midwest
n/a Kansas City, Mo.
42 Kansas City, Kan.
37 Tulsa
59 Lawton, Okla.
77 Oklahoma City
91 Wichita
147 Omaha
148 Topeka
151 Pueblo, Colo.
172 Colorado Springs, Colo.
241 Lincoln, Neb.
272 Lawrence
291 Norman, Okla.
325 Boulder, Colo.
347 Overland Park
Bottom five
381 Brick Township, N.J.
382 Newton, Mass.
383 O’Fallon, Mo.
384 Mission Viejo, Calif.
385 Ramapo, N.Y.
Source: CQ Press
were dutifully reported to the
FBI. And he said it wasn’t
long before some started call-
ing Killeen the “murder capi-
tal of the country.” For the
people of Killeen, he said, the
murders didn’t change their
chances of becoming crime
victims.
“If you take those (mur-
dered) people out of that
equation, they’re just as safe
as they were the year before
and the year before that,” he
said.
Withrow also said the rank-
ings falsely imply that crime
is evenly spread across a city.
“Really, cities are collec-
tions of villages,” he said, “My
village in Bel Aire, for exam-
ple, is different from some-
body else’s village in Midtown
or somebody else’s in south-
west Wichita.
“It’s really irresponsible to
say that one city is wholly and
completely less safe than
another city because you’re
really not comparing apples
WWW.KANSAS.
ABOUT THIS
SERIES
Events described in these
stories were drawn from
interviews conducted over
an 18-month period with the
story subjects or from docu-
ments provided by the story
subjects, or were witnessed
by the reporter.
In most cases where dia-
logue is used, the majority of
the subjects interviewed
agree on the words that
were spoken. The exception
is Sen. Pat Roberts’ conver-
sation with President
George W. Bush on Air
Force One. That section
was reconstructed based
on the recollections of
Roberts, a former journalist.
TALK TO US
Jaime Oppenheimer/File photo
Army soldiers carry the casket of Alex Funcheon to a waiting hearse. The funeral service was The Eagle wants to know
held at Central Christian Church, where combat soldiers offered tributes to Alex. what you think about these
stories. Reach Roy Wenzl at
rwenzl@wichitaeagle.com or
from them. They obviously dont 316-268-6219.
like us to much.”
Alex Funcheon, Oct. 30,
2006, in one of his first At Kansas.com/foralex:
e-mails from Iraq
„ Read the first installment in the
Every night now in Baghdad, series.
1st Platoon Lt. Jon Bland went „ Read e-mails Alex Funcheon
to bed dreaming visions of exchanged with his parents during
blood. his overseas tour.
Every night his mind „ Watch a video of Bob and
replayed Funcheon’s Humvee Karen Funcheon talking about
disappearing in a blast of flame their son growing up.
and dust. Every night he slept „ View family photos and images
under the same roof as Iraqis, from Alex Funcheon’s platoon in
some of them probably traitors, Iraq.
and wondered whether „ Read journal entries written by
Funcheon and Martin and the Gloria Funcheon, Alex Funcheon’s
Courtesy of the Funcheon family others had died because Bland sister.
screwed up. „ Read and sign Alex Funcheon’s
Gloria, right, asked the barber to cut her hair like Alex’s, left,
when she was in first grade and Alex was in fourth grade. Every night before he went to memorial guest book.
sleep he relived the blast „ Learn the story behind the
moment by moment, including series with Roy Wenzl.
Her parents said the Army first grade, their hair cut exactly how he’d wanted to hose the
had grown up Alex. the same — bangs in front. Iraqi bystanders with his M4.
“Maybe,” Gloria said. “But I Gloria adored her big brother And every morning he for dead brothers, 1st Platoon
never saw it.” so much back then that she’d slipped 30-bullet magazines patrolled relentlessly, trusting
But sometimes, sitting at the told the barber to cut her hair into pouches and took 1st no one.
kitchen table, Gloria’s eyes like his. Platoon on patrol.
strayed to a bookshelf a few feet They’d come here gung-ho,
away, where two photographs „ „ „ laughing at Martin’s political Coming Tuesday: The
had been stuck into a crack to sermons and Funcheon’s alco- Funcheons meet the lead
make them stand up together: “I think i was here for 2 hours hol-drenched stories. Now, sur- Humvee’s sole survivor.
Alex in fourth grade, Gloria in before we got our first rockets rounded by enemies, grieving
SURVEY At Kansas.com:
„ Tell us what it would take
ple with incomes of $75,000
or higher, the study says.
Singles and divorced or
separated residents are least
From Page 1A for you to love the Wichita
community more or become likely to be involved, as are
more engaged with the city. those who have lived here
The study, the first part of Add your comment at the fewer than six years, people
Score Population 2007
a three-year effort, measures end of this story. with education no higher
rank
citizen engagement in the 26 than high school, urban resi-
communities where Knight „ Read the Gallup and dents and residents with
Foundation founders owned Knight Foundation’s “Soul incomes of $25,000 or less.
441.4 220,614 65 newspapers. That includes of the Community” study. The study recommends
381.9 78,967 5 Wichita. Find it online via a link area leaders focus on retain-
381.2 860,971 1 Gallup interviewed 400 attached to this story. ing students by connecting
355.0 348,197 2 randomly selected adults in them with businesses while
328.8 396,541 4 Sedgwick, Butler, Harvey they are in school, work with
and Sumner counties business leaders to better
between Feb. 1 and April 26. That compares to 38æper- engage their employees, and
n/a 450,375 18 Nationally it interviewed cent “neutral” for the com- find ways to engage new resi-
138.7 143,371 25 nearly 14,000 adults. parison group of cities and dents and midcareer work-
151.2 381,469 49 The study shows a signifi- 34 percent nationally. ers.
112.9 86,864 81 cant correlation between res- A high neutral rate isn’t Suzie Ahlstrand, vice
98.5 542,199 75 idents’ emotional connection necessarily bad news. president for community
89.9 358,294 122 to their communities and the “Neutrals can be converted advancement at the Wichita
49.8 431,810 157 growth in those communi- to be more engaged in the Metro Chamber of
49.6 121,885 166 ties’ populations and community,” Corriston said. Commerce, said the study is
48.4 103,958 176 economies in the last five Leaders, she said, can similar to a community-iden-
35.5 374,112 180 years. develop strategies to make tity survey Visioneering
-7.7 243,243 253 It identifies factors that people who don’t feel strong- Wichita conducted 18
-18.9 90,044 213 make residents feel connect- ly one way or the other about months ago.
-29.5 103,721 276 ed to their cities, hoping to the city feel more a part of it. Original findings by the
-45.8 91,047 318 show leaders where they can The study, for example, Visioneering study also
-54.9 169,224 347 focus efforts to improve long- shows that the city can chal- showed a high level of neu-
term growth. lenge its young professionals tral feelings.
The main driving force who feel neutral to become “If we can move that nee-
-79.7 77,886 376 behind residents’ emotional more engaged, said Sheryl dle from neutral to being
-81.3 82,731 371 engagement in Wichita is Wohlford, a member of the more connected to the com-
-82.1 76,542 n/a social offerings, the study board of trustees of the munity, that’s a positive,” she
-83.0 95,095 378 shows. Young Professionals of said.
-89.2 76,371 n/a We want more of them. Wichita. Ahlstrand said the Gallup
“It doesn’t just mean more “YPs more and more look study adds to the momentum
bars and restaurants, it at where they want to live generated by Visioneering
means places where people first as opposed to where Wichita’s work, as well
can go and feel connected to they want to work,” she said. efforts by the city to improve
other people,” said Anne Wichita scored lower than its parks, recreation, open
to apples.” Corriston, Wichita program the other cities in overall citi- spaces and regional pathway
Whether a city’s low-crime director for the Knight zen engagement, community system.
upper-middle-class neighbor- Foundation. “That can cover loyalty and community pas- “I think there’s a lot of
hoods fall inside or outside its a wide spectrum.” sion. It scored higher on loy- things that have happened in
city limits is one of several alty than the score for total the last four years that in the
factors that can affect crime Survey results adults nationally. spring will blossom forth,”
rates, Withrow said. Residents scored this com- she said.
“Chances are that these Wichita has a higher per- munity higher than peer In the next two years,
people didn’t calculate all of centage of residents who are cities in safety. They also Gallup researchers will ana-
that,” he said. neutral about the community rated it higher in economic lyze the trends of communi-
Stolz said Wichita police compared to four other areas conditions, economic ty-citizen engagement and
routinely compare current of similar size: Lexington, improvement and availability economic growth to find out
crime rates with those of Ky.; Columbus, Ga.; of jobs. But they ranked it whether community engage-
past years, and with those Columbia, S.C.; and lower in whether those jobs ment drives economic
of cities of similar size and Tallahassee, Fla., according provide the necessary growth or the other way
geography. to the study. income. around.
“We are in the business of It defines “neutral” resi- They rated it lower in Meanwhile, Corriston said,
crime prevention, and dents as those who lack full whether its leaders share Wichita can begin to develop
whether we like it or not we loyalty and passion for their their views and in the overall strategies around the new
rank ourselves,” he said. communities, but who see leadership of elected offi- data and take more pride in
“But comparing the New some positive aspects in cials. its assets.
York Cities of the world with them. “I feel like Wichita is com-
the Topekas — there’s a huge Roughly 43æpercent of area What comes next ing out of a slump where we
population and square mile residents feel neutral, 24æper- apologize for ourselves,” she
disparity there, and I’m not cent feel engaged, and Residents who tend to be said. “We do a lot less of that,
sure that’s always fair.” 34 percent do not feel most engaged in the Wichita but we need to keep mov-
engaged, the study says. area include homeowners, ing.”
Reach Hurst Laviana (The study’s percentages do widows, those who have
at 316-268-6499 or not total 100æpercent due to lived here 20 or more years, Reach Fred Mann at 316-268-6310
hlaviana@wichitaeagle.com. rounding.) suburban residents and peo- or fmann@wichitaeagle.com.