Thought's on the Gun Violence Reduction Task Force Meeting

Are guns the problem?  Or--is it crime, drugs, societal breakdown, breakdown of the family, un-diagnosed mental health issues, rank social dysfunction, and a culture of violence in some pockets of the community that leads to  and manifests itself as the "gun-violence" we've seen in Escambia County?

Yesterday evening from 5:30-7:00 PM Sheriff Chip Simmons hosted the final Brownsville Gun Violence Reduction Task Force Meeting at the Brownsville Community Center.

About 100 citizens attended, as well as locally elected and appointed officials to include three county commissioners (myself included), the county administrator, a city councilman, our state senator, one of our two state representatives, multiple representatives from the school board- to include the Superintendent and one school board member- as well as others associated with the court system and the media.

The objective:  To hear public input and for each stakeholder to report in on the specifics of what his/her organization has done and is doing to improve safety in the Brownsville community.

My counterpart, Commissioner Lumon May, kicked the discussion off by listing a huge amount of projects and initiatives the county had undertaken in Brownsville.  Stormwater infrastructure, sidewalks, community centers, sports leagues (tennis and basketball) a new library in Brownsville, the youth employment program, the construction of affordable homes, and a host of other programs.

Similarly-the newly appointed interim superintendent of schools discussed some initiatives he will be bringing back, to include peer-to peer mentoring and conflict resolution strategies.  He also reported that he will be a partner to the Sheriff in creating a safe atmosphere in schools.

Interestingly--a majority of public speakers chastised the sheriff and law enforcement in particular--saying they felt "Brownsville was being over policed" and multiple speakers pushed back on the Sheriff for saying the violence and murders thus far this year has been chiefly "black on black."   After a number of speakers expressed dismay that the sheriff would use this term--he (Sheriff Simmons) gave the stark facts.  "There have been thirteen murders in the county this year.  All thirteen perpetrators were black, as were 11 of the 13 victims.  These are the facts and I am not going to hide this" he stated to the room which was silent upon hearing this enlightening, factual statistic.

I spoke and thanked the stat for funding mental health facilities in the community and I focused on mental health (undiagnosed, untreated) as a big factor in the violence we see.  I also discussed some of the economic development initiatives the county has undertaken to create more jobs here.  Finally, I ended my comments explaining how the county is approving new residential development so that the extra supply will help to ease the housing affordability issue we are seeing area wide.

The meeting ended on a note of optimism with several speakers giving praise for the group's efforts and work.  One young man in particular keyed into what I said about mental health shortcomings in the community leading to the violence.  He gave his own story-- a violent recovering addict who is changing and celebrating 8 years of sobriety while also giving back and mentoring folks in the community where he now lives (Jacksonville).  His story was compelling.

We will have more of these sorts of roundtables going forward.  Potential next topics were enunciated by the Sheriff:

Fentanyl crisis

The Clergy's role in community issues

Gentrification

School issues

So look for community action and meetings to come on these topics.

Multiple Phased Approach Needed to Curb Gun Violence Locally....

 

Yesterday evening, 11 locally elected representatives and one local pastor as well as the Pensacola Police Chief met at the Brownsville Community Center for the second Sheriff’s Roundtable on Gun Violence.  The event had about 50 citizens from the area in attendance, as well as multiple media outlets and various office staffers.

About a dozen speakers addressed the panel.  Various ideas/topics were broached.  The overall theme from the citizens was that areas of poverty produce the violence—so anything that the local governments can provide to such areas will help stem the tide of the gun violence we have seen.  Jobs, infrastructure, more programs for youth, and more police patrols were some suggested solutions.  In a nutshell—more services and money invested is what most of the speakers wanted to see.

After public forum concluded--each of the panelists spoke and described recent actions their respective organizations have taken to assist with this problem.  The group ended the discussion after about an hour and forty minutes, settling in on the idea that the entire panel would descend on one neighborhood and bring all the available services from each represented entity to this one area in a “blitz” of the neighborhood --for lack of a better term.  I fully support this, although we will see if such an initiative carries over and has staying power long term to help curb gun violence.  It will take events like this combined with much more, to turn the tide.

For my part, I offered specific, tangible ideas I would fund, and ideas for which I would advocate, built from the comments I made at the initial meeting where I described the current violence (as well as other social ills we see) as a symptom of a much larger issue—the complete breakdown of the American Family, acute in areas where we see extreme levels of violence and crime.  No families, no fathers, no religion, cultural acceptance of dysfunctional conduct, and NO guidance for too many youths growing up in the cesspool of a cultural meltdown with such children being “raised” by the entertainment industry’s products promoting the glorification of violence and antisocial behavior. 

I believe the issue is massive and will take a holistic, wide ranging set of  short-term, medium term, and long range approaches to turn.  It will take decades.  It takes families, and it takes fathers.

In Pensacola, as in other cities, we see a significant amount of gun violence that manifests from areas of generational social dysfunction and poverty.

Sheriff Chip Simmons has sponsored  community roundtables to allow us (local leaders) to brainstorm practical solutions.  At the first such roundtable meeting heldlate last year—a large and diverse group of community leaders, pastors, law enforcement personnel, school district leaders, and other elected officials got together to discuss the problem with an eye toward solutions.

And the sheriff was direct in asking for ideas and tangible solutions that could be implemented by each participant within his/her individual sphere of influence.

Yesterday as we met again, we interacted with one another and the members of the community that came to the event to have their voices heard.  I left my suggestions, below, with the Sheriff,----- and I described a few to the panel.

No easy, fast solutions exist short of martial law in some crime-ridden areas and the construction of more jail space—but if we have the courage to identify the real root causes and begin to work on these big issues that drive the dysfunction—we will see improvement over time.

But it takes decades to fix what has taken decades to unravel and devolve.   My proposed, initial list of suggestions below:

 

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. 

On "Real News with Rick Outzen" this Morning at 7:10

I'll be on the area's best and most highly rated morning drive news program, Real News with Rick Outzen, later this morning at 7:10

Rick Outzen, host of the area's best and highest rated, most informative and timely morning drive radio show,  "Real News with Rick Outzen" on AM 1370 wCOA, has asked me to come on later this morning at 7:10 to discuss the upcoming sheriff's roundtable on gun violence in the area.

We will talk about this post from my blog yesterday on the topic I am sure--- and we may also talk other topics like consolidation and/or charter government for the county and my feeling on these topics.

Should be in interesting conversation.

Tune in at 7:10 for the show, and I'll post the podcast here later today once Rick publishes it.

Thoughts on the Roundtable......

Needed:  Honest, courageous, and productive conversations at the roundtable on Tuesday....

Sheriff Chip Simmons has empaneled a group of community leaders to hold a round table discussion this Tuesday regarding a deadly double-shooting in District 1 two weeks back. I applaud his leadership in taking this bull by the horns.  The conversation will be about the levels of violence in the community as well--not just this particular shooting.  I am honored to have been invited to participate, and I look forward to Tuesday.

In the lead up to the event, I have given three media interviews on this topic, after having been asked my opinion on what, if anything, should be done to focus on the violence in our community that leads to these tragic events like the murder that happened in Bellview.  Two of the pieces have subsequently been published and I believe the third will be published this week in the lead up to the roundtable. 

The violence, the gun crimes, and the gangs+drugs issues we see growing in our community are symptoms of a bigger problem that few are willing to discuss: The loss of the family unit in growing pockets of our community.  This dissolution of the in-tact family unit leaves many young men with no strong role model and disciplinarian in the house to deal with issues that invariably arise in child rearing through formative years.

The single biggest predictor of whether or not a young man in America will become entangled in the criminal justice system is whether or not a father was/is in the home where such a young man is/was raised.  But to some, such discussions are verboten for political correctness' sake.

Imagine, as my friend Tom Danheisser posited in his hard-hitting, prescient op-ed on this topic last year, if we were trying to cure lung cancer but we could not talk about cigarette smoking?  He knows what I know and he has seen it in his courtroom as has my brother in his courtroom:  Fatherless families produce children who are at a much higher risk of committing crimes, being prosecuted, and ultimately ending up in prison.  (And lending creedence to the media's reticence to discuss root causes of the crimes, drugs, and gangs issues in Pensacola/Escambia County that produce the carnage we see locally--I'm told the Dannheisser op-ed was also sent to the PNJ last year in May of 2021--but their editorial team refused to print it.  Too much truth I suppose.....)

So this conversation Tuesday has to have a few guideposts if it is to be successful:

1.  We must realize the long term solution will take decades.

2.  We must realize the problem is not the police.

3.  We must have the courage to speak truth and use irreputable facts and figures to buffet our positions.

4.  We must realize no matter what we do we cannot and will not be able to save every young person from descending into a life of crime.

From my perspective, in order to actually accomplish a worthwhile outcome and trajectory toward