Truck Driver’s Videos Serve as Testimony on KC Crime

By PETER RUGG

According to the site’s counter, not many people are watching Aaron Nickens’ series of videos on YouTube titled “Urban Testimony.” Not that it bothers him.

“I’m not trying to get the most hits. I’m trying to show that there are some people in the inner city who care enough to give other people a platform to say how they feel,” says the 37-year-old truck driver. Nickens, born and raised in the inner city of Kansas City, Missouri, started posting the videos three months ago. The idea is simple — approach people living in the areas most affected by violent crime and give them a few minutes to talk about what they think should be done.

Nickens says he has never been a victim of violent crime. “But I don’t feel it should come to that to get involved,” he says. Most people he has interviewed tell him that the problem with crime begins at home, especially those with one parent. “Sometimes the mother who is the one there with the children most of the time, she can’t give those kids what they want because she so focused with keeping a roof over their heads.”

So far, he has posted seven, with at least 10 more on the way.