Less than two weeks after a local man came forward with what proved to be a misleading story about being attacked downtown by a group of young Black men, nine people were shot and three killed over the weekend. Seven women were shot in a single incident.
The story of Stuart Doster and the killing of three Chattanoogans are different issues with a common denominator – violent crime. In Doster’s case, misrepresenting any crime does a disservice to public safety and the hardworking members of law enforcement.
I was among hundreds of Chattanoogans who shared Doster’s account on social media just six days after another young father was shot near Main Street in an armed robbery. When a police investigation revealed inconsistencies in Doster’s story along with important facts that he had been drinking and appeared to initiate a fight, many of the same people who have advocated defunding the police took the opportunity to further misconstrue the incident and downplay violence in Chattanooga altogether.
While Doster’s initial claims were inappropriately embellished and omitted important details, CPD corroborated several aspects of his story – that he was punched multiple times, he was followed up Second Street and later “chased” back down the street by “juvenile African-American males.”
It is uncomfortable for all who love Chattanooga – the “Gig City” and the “Best Town Ever” – to objectively talk about the rise in violent crime in our city, but the numbers speak for themselves. According to the FBI’s crime database, violent crime increased 22% in Chattanooga from 2015 to 2019 despite decreases across the state of Tennessee in the same timeframe. According to the Chattanooga Police Department, violent crime rose another 11% from 2019 to 2020 and is on track to increase by double digits again in 2021.