Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/tag/targeting-gun-violence-project/page/5/)
JACKSONVILLE, Florida — In the decades after the civil rights era, Black communities in Jacksonville remained disproportionately impoverished, blighted and policed. Some activists would say this continues to present day. This was the world in which John grew up. Born in the 1970s, John’s childhood was characterized by instability, neglect and abuse. John (a pseudonym) had lived in two dozen homes by the time he moved out.
“Caution, Sir! I am eternally tired of hearing that word caution. It is nothing but the word of cowardice!” —John Brown
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.” —Abraham Lincoln
March on Washington, August 1963, 250,000 people.
Even when suspects are unarmed and not attacking anyone, officers are more likely to shoot Black, Native and Latinx people than white people — a grim reality receiving increasing attention. However, police also are much more likely to shoot unarmed, nonattacking young people than older people — a fact receiving little attention.
That’s the conclusion that emerges from our analysis of the Washington Post’s tabulation, considered the country’s most complete, of shootings of Americans by law enforcement officers in the six-year period from Jan. 1, 2015, through Jan. 13, 2021.
Our analysis of these tragic numbers confirms well-known findings that police are two to three times more likely to shoot Native and Black suspects. They are also 20% more likely to shoot Latinx suspects than white suspects.
The year 2020 will be remembered as a year of great upheaval in the United States, with so many lives and communities upended by the intersecting crises of COVID-19 and systemic racism. But of course, there is another crisis woven into the fabric of this incredibly challenging year — rising rates of gun violence in urban communities across the country.
This troubling trend is also being felt in Massachusetts, a state known for having one of the strongest packages of gun-related legislation in the country. While we do have more regulations on gun ownership in place than almost any other state, we still experience far too many losses and far too much trauma as a result of firearms. Every shooting results in a ripple effect of emotional pain for all the individuals involved in the shooting, for their families and also for their communities.
If we want to move the needle on gun violence, we must zero in on root causes and support the communities disparately impacted by this violence. We must focus on the trauma that surrounds gun violence, not just the guns themselves. And we must also push back on public officials that exacerbate the pain of gun violence through their words and policy recommendations.
JACKSONVILLE, Florida — Rosie Brooks has experienced both of a mother’s worst nightmares involving gun violence. Her son spent a decade behind bars for an accidental shooting in which a young woman was killed. Then, instead of a joyous reunion when he was released from prison in January 2018, it was a day of mourning. He went from behind bars to standing at his mother’s side at his sister’s funeral. Brooks’ daughter Sahara Barkley had been shot on New Year’s Day at a gas station.
There have been calls to declare gun violence a public health crisis. I would agree with this statement, which largely speaks to the rising prevalence of gun violence. However, calling it a public health crisis doesn’t convey the magnitude of gun violence. It seems like people name a thing a crisis to get things done, so there’s an oversaturation with the term.
Gun violence is different. Think of the brutality and immediacy of death that results from gun violence.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death for young people in the United States. More children and teens die by suicide than the next eight leading causes of death. Firearm suicide in particular is a growing crisis impacting young people: Every year nearly 3,000 young people die by firearm suicide. The rate of firearm suicide among youth ages 5 to 19 has increased 82% in the last decade. While suicide rates are increasing most among young people ages 10 to 19, researchers are noting a troubling trend of suicide among children as young as 5 years old.
The coronavirus pandemic has upended life as we know it, disrupting normal routines and cutting off access to many support networks.
The 2020 presidential election — which took place near the end of a tumultuous year that featured the rampant spread of a highly lethal pandemic, a disastrous economic recession and a long-overdue nationwide reckoning around systemic racism and police brutality — presented the country with a choice between two candidates with drastically different messages and visions for the nation. The election had historic levels of voter turnout, including among 18- to 29-year-olds and Joe Biden emerged as the clear winner with a victory that exceeded 300 electoral votes and a popular vote margin of victory of nearly 6 million (and growing).
Although public health experts have rightly been focused on the COVID-19 pandemic this year, America has been in the grips of another public health crisis for much longer — a gun violence epidemic that will continue to take lives long after we’re vaccinated unless bold steps are taken to curb the violence and address its underlying causes. Gun violence has continued unabated throughout the other crises of 2020 and acutely impacts Black, Indigenous and other communities of color.
In order to end the gun violence epidemic, the Biden-Harris administration must take a public health approach to solving the issue that not only corrects the harmful policies of the current administration but also goes significantly further to address the root causes of gun violence. Over the last four years, the Trump administration largely turned a blind eye to the issue of gun violence, except to encourage gun ownership and traffic in irrational and often racist fear-mongering. The administration eliminated funds for violence intervention programs in favor of law enforcement suppression and weakened the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also worked alongside the administration to block common-sense gun legislation, including expanded background checks, closing the Charleston loophole and so-called “red flag laws,” also known as extreme risk protection orders.
Firearm sales have increased exponentially during COVID-19. More guns in the home increase the risk of youth access to firearms. In Michigan alone, a suicide occurs every 13 hours, and access to firearms increases the likelihood of suicide completion by 85%. Unintentional shooting deaths by children increased by 30% nationally March through May of 2020 compared to the same time period averages for 2018 and 2019.
As a psychiatric nurse practitioner this raises grave concerns for mental health and the public health crisis of gun violence. Locally in Washtenaw County, Michigan, I am a survivor fellow with Everytown for Gun Safety working with the local chapter of Moms Demand Action to get out voter information about gun sense candidates who are willing to work toward common-sense gun laws such as red flag laws, which temporarily remove firearms from individuals in crisis, and background checks for all weapons.
After losing my son Jonah to firearm suicide in 2016, I speak with groups (temporarily online) about why safe storage bills, such as Ethan’s Law in Connecticut, are crucial in the fight against teen suicide. In a world where teens are more isolated and having to manage multiple stressors that are new to all of us, in homes that are increasingly saturated with guns, we have an escalation of the public health crisis of suicide as teenage suicides rise nationally.
MACON, Georgia — Bibb County District Attorney David Cooke first heard about school-justice partnerships five years ago on the other side of the country, at a juvenile justice conference in Phoenix. But the successful program that inspired him started only 70 miles away from Macon, in Clayton County.
Nearly two decades ago, the chief judge of Clayton County’s juvenile court pioneered an approach aimed at keeping children out of the criminal justice system and in school. His strategy was to address misconduct within the school system and replace exclusionary discipline — like expulsions and suspensions — with services children needed. The model he devised, called a school-justice partnership, recognized that underlying many school disciplinary problems are histories of trauma and unmet mental health needs — and that responding to children’s disciplinary problems by involving them with the juvenile justice system only increases their risk for further justice system involvement. Under Cooke’s leadership, the Bibb County School District’s school-justice partnership had a successful start during the 2018-19 school year.