Post-Roundtable Thoughts and Take-Aways

Sheriff Simmons' community roundtable on violence and crime meets in Brownsville, 10-18-2022

Escambia County Sheriff Simmons sponsored a community round table yesterday evening, and there were lots of discussions among the panel and lots of input from the community as well as the assembled group of elected leaders.  I think everyone at the table is/was interested in solutions. Genuinely.  Many have ideas about how we can address some aspects of the violence problem in our community.  Many had reasons why they felt we have reached this point in society.  For my part, I did provide input about my thoughts on the problem and my belief that any solution(s) will require a short, medium, and long range set of strategies, many of which I described in my pre-roundtable blog post on this topic.

After we went around the room a couple of times and answered audience questions, the sheriff announced the same group would definitely meet again, more than likely in January.  He also asked that each of us come prepared to describe what concrete steps we are taking within our own organizations and spheres of infulence-- or are prepared to take--- to help with this community violence epidemic.  So watch for this upcoming meeting early next year, it should be good.

Some issues that will be looked upon more and more going forward to curb some of the violence and to support young men (the primary culprit in most all violence in the community according to the sheriff) and their families include redoubled efforts at engagement utilizing methods like Parent University, Organized Youth Sports, and additional education and training of young students in conflict resolution and the aftermath of violence utilized as a means of resolving life issues.  The panel also appeared to settle in to the idea of starting small with one or two local communities at a time for testing/implementing any agreed-upon, funded proposals.  Senator Broxson stated he'd sponsor a pilot program at the state level for Escambia County to try this approach.

A Coupule of Take Aways: 

SPORTS

I agree in part that sports is a way to help some at-risk youth---but only to a point.  I played sports, as did all three of my children and all of their friends.  But what are the core value(s) of "sports"?  When I wrestled in 9th grade--the objective was to beat the opponent.  When I rolled with a Judo Sensei--the goal was to throw your opponent using his force and velocity against him to defeat him.  There were no social value judgments attached--none that stuck.  Baseball and Football were great and fun--but the object was to work together as a team beat the opponent and win.  In tennis, I try to beat my opponent.  So what social/core and moral values do sports instill that will assist young men in not wanting to lead a dysfunctional, gangster type lifestyle, sling drugs, beat people, and  devolve into a life of violence?  Yes sports are fun, yes they instill a desire to win and to work with a team--but I don't know that this, in and of itself, instills the core, moral values that are missing from many kids' lives.  (Interesting that other groups like FBLA, FFA, Key Club, Mentor Programs, Band, or even Boy Scouts were not mentioned at all.... why not?)  I was a boy scout and I learned a lot of great and long lasting lessons through scouting.  Call me a nerd if you want, but a huge part of what a scout learns and does (before camping and fun stuff) is core values.  I still remember the pledge:  "A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverant."   It is and was a great youth development program--but has been marginalized and stigmatized by the mainstream in the 3 1/2 decades since my participation....

 TECHNOLOGY

Pensacola Police Chief Eric Randall said it ---and it resonated.  He is a technology guy.  I am, too.  And even if we do nothing to curb violence and violent community crime--technology will, eventually, end the days of the common criminal.  Cameras that are ubiquitous, high tech drones that can circle entire city quadrants and video the entire area for multiple days on end, along with other high-tech marvels we've not even seen yet will eventually lead to the  much easier resolution of murders and other crimes ---without the need for eyewitness corroboration.  We're getting there sooner than I thought.  According to Sheriff Simmons-we are already at a clearance rate of 68% for the 25 homocides in the county this year.  That is a big number.  We will soon need more prisons and jails--but technology, robots, drones, cameras, Intuitive AI modeling,  advanced DNA technology, even sentinal robots---and other high tech surveillance capabilities we don't even have yet will come online over the next several decades and we will have clearance rates for these violent crimes that are nearly 100%.  Meanwhile, citizens of means (who already largely self-segregate to gated, armed security protected enclaves of communities) will have new self-protection capabilities that will all but sheild them from the violence of the common criminal.  So if we do nothing, or if we do nothing meaningful and impactful but rather simply tweak at the margins--eventually technology will take care of the issue and clean up the mess  itself--leading to more and more incarceration particularly in pockets of our community where we already see geometrical growth in generational crime and dysfunction.

FATHERS and FAMILIES

Several panelists followed up my initial comments about the need to redouble our efforts at keeping families together and the dramatic disadvantage young men face when there is no father in the house.  One agreed and understood the need for that to be a priority.  Interestingly, two others appeared to downplay the importance of the father.  One said he was able to achieve great things and he only had a mother--no father.  Of course, like in his case apparently, there are strong mothers who step into the breach of a broken family and through hard work and sheer force of will are able to inspire/encourage/propel their children forward into lives of great productivity and away from crime. 

But those are the exceptions, sadly, and I'd suspect this individual knows that. The vast majority have it incredibly difficult and their children often find themselves entangled in the justice system.  And It is for this reason that the majority of those incarcerated come from broken homes.  Those intimately familiar with the justice system know this axiom of truth.  So of course it's a big topic, of course it is a tough nut to crack, of course it's not comfortable to speak about--but it is the 10,000 pound elephant in the room.  Why not be aspirational and say our long term goal is to educate the public on the absolute necessity of a two parent household to raise productive citizens?  Why can't we change our tax policy to stop punishing married couples?  Why can't we increase the child tax credit for two-parent families?  Why can't we admit that statistically speaking--kids do better and lead more productive lives in adulthood when they are raised in a two-parent family?  We can do it, but it won't be popular.  Why not? We've got to go to the source of the problem to cure the disease.  Treating symptoms alone will never cure the underlying ailment.

DID THIS HAPPEN ON PURPOSE?

One panelist said something that jolted me.  I listened intently to what he said. He intimated that the issues within his community felt like they were inflicted intentionally.  That seems an audacious, outrageous, and sinister comment for him to make---but is there some truth to his statement?  I think there is--because politicians from one party, in my humble opinion,  created this mess beginning in the early 1960's in their well-intended quest to end poverty.  Although a different panelist stated, nonchalantly, that fatherless families are "nothing new"--the growing and common phenomenon of no-father houses is actually is something "new" ---relatively speaking.  If you look at the out of wedlock birthrate statistics in America prior to 1960------you will find that a single mother raising a child was a rarity pre Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty.  Percentage wise, across all ethnicities, it was below 10 percent.  Those are cold hard facts so yes, within a couple of generations what was once uncommon is now up to 75% in some demographics.  This dramatic rise in out of wedlock birthrates in America--with inordinate impact on communities of color--has also led to devastating social outcomes including making America the leader, among developed countries, in the number of citizens incarcerated--where communities of color are also drastically over-represented.  Billions and billions of dollars have been spent attempting to fix poverty but instead have created a mess of many communities and a dependency class of those who stay in poverty, reliant on government programs, through the decades.  Maybe that panelist was right. And I'm not even going to delve into abortion and the massively disproportionate impact, percentage wise, this has had on communities of color...  Those "war on poverty" policies-- even as they have evolved--have decimated whole communities--disincentivizing work and fatherhood and families--- ruining families in the process.  I'm not sinister enough to believe the damage was done purposely--but these issues have been around forever and are known.  So why has nobody fixed these failed, expensive, community-destroyer Federal programs and initiatives---especially given the devastatingly negative outcomes they produced on the American family?  These programs never worked, should be rethought, revisited and reimagined with an emphasis on putting families back together, not rewarding those who father children and do not take responsibility for them.  When 4 out of 10 children in Escambia County live in a fatherless home--that is a disaster, an unmitigated disaster. And that number is much higher in pockets of the community where we are experiencing the most crime and gun violence.  So no--don't blame schools, don't blame teachers, and don't blame the cops who have to deal with the resultant social dysfunction of these statistics locally.   The Federal Government created this monster, we should demand that they fix it. 

JOB OPPORTUNITIES THAT ARE "EQUITABE?"

One question was asked of me, specifically, by an audience member about how the county can help the community with economic development.  And I answered the question:  We have incentivized, with EDATES and other economic development tools and resources, great companines like Navy Federal Credit Union and ST Aerospace, Circulogene, Pegasus Labs, Pall Company, and International Paper (among others) to locate or expand in Escambia County to provide jobs for our local citizens.  The manager of ST Aerospace is begging folks to come in and work, even offering training apprenticeships due to the difficulty in hiring.  Once trained it is lots of work, overtime, and nearing 6-figure money within the first two years.  I believe he would love to hire as many minority candidates as he could, he has lots of jobs to fill, and new companies signing up for their services once they have their next hangars built.  I've talked with this manager numerous times.  He needs people to come to work.  On this topic, another panelist said economic opportunities have to be "Equitable!" to some modest audience applause.  How about this: Navy Federal Credit Union hires thousands in our community and to their credit they value diversity and inclusion in their workforce--which is youthful and fully representative of the community from a racial composition makeup.  I happen to know of two college students (white) who were then-current military reservists and one (black) was a retired military member and one who was a 30-year veteran of the mortgage banking industry (white)--all of whom attempted to gain employment with NFCU locally and none of whom were hired (one of the two reservists and the retired Marine never even got interviews).  But many others---including a substantial number of minority applicants-- do get interviewed and hired there.  That's a great thing!  They have openings, too, right now in Pensacola Florida.  Is that equity?  Well, each person will have to make their own determination on that.  And when we talk about "equity" in hiring--what does that even mean when we have a 3.5% unemployment rate and companies all around town have hung "now-hiring" signs in their windows and cannot get anyone, of any color, to come to work?  I guess somebody has to give me a functional, cogent explanation for what "equity" in hiring is when we can't fill thousands of jobs already locally available to all---- and yet nobody, apparently, wants to work.

GOING FORWARD  

As I stated in my blog post from Sunday morning on this topic--which is far larger than just a "gun-violence issue"--- anything we do has to have stages and steps.  Short-term, mid-term, and long term.  I will be sending my ideas from each of these categories to the Sheriff over the next few weeks.  I hope other panelists do as well, and I hope at the end of this process--whatever comes out is actionable, fundable, and effective.  We will see.