When is enough going to be enough? When will be fed up? No, better yet, when will we get mad? It's these times that challenge the passion in positive Jacksonians.
Over the weekend, death visited our city too often. It seemed as if when one fatality was announced, there was another right behind it. My head began to spin out of control as it became increasingly harder to make heads or tails of what prompted such violence. Black people, gunned down indiscriminately. One of them a 2-year-old boy, killed as he sat with his father seemingly minding their own business.
Becoming numb to violence and tuning out lead stories on the local news is one thing. But I think we can all agree that when innocent children are killed, somewhere, somehow, Jackson, we've missed something.
As a father my heart cries out. That could have been me sitting in my vehicle with my 18-month-old, or my 14-year-old at a drive-through or red light. The two men killed in their apartment could have just as easily been me and Queen sitting in our living room watching TV.
For some reason, after this weekend it has hit too close to home, and I don't like it. I've talked about the randomness of crime. I've talked about true crime statistics and the propagandists who want to trump up the frequency of such occurrences. I still believe this city on a whole is safe. But now I'm concerned with the cavalier attitude that exists in those who do commit crime. When houses are robbed in broad daylight, when folks are shot sitting in their cars with no regard for women and children, we all have a problem.
Now is not the time to be apologists. Nor is it time to place blame. Especially if you're going to do like most folks do when talking about black-on-black violence and blame the "parents."
What it is time for now is an immediate, all-inclusive, frank discussion on how we can curb these occurrences in our city.
This past weekend we received statements from our mayor and police chief. That should satisfy those of us who needed to hear from our city leaders. Now what we need is a plan—a substantive plan that will address not just the actions, but address the symptoms of crime. Not just the "what" but the "why."
If you really want solutions—which means not pontificating based on racial stereotypes that you call "truth"—you'll know that no one is born inherently bad. If you're truly interested in fixing the problem, you know that if presented with an alternative, most wayward souls will choose the straight and narrow.
What we have to grasp is that we have glaring joblessness, homelessness and drug problems in our city, symptoms that fester into crime. And until we begin to adequately address those, we're not trying hard enough. Add 100 more policemen, levy heavier punishments, all the like. Those will help, sure.
But as long people are hungry, as long as there are Jacksonians living in crippling poverty, as long as there are pushers and addicts roaming our streets, we could be in for more of the same.
I for one, am mad as hell and don't want to take it anymore. What are you prepared to do?
And that's the truth ... sho-nuff.
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