With school letting out in the next few weeks, community leaders are looking at ways to resolve the city”s gang problems.
Local elected officials, community members and religious leaders met Tuesday at the Columbus Police Department, in hopes of starting a conversation that eventually will lead to long-term solutions to gang-related crime.
A vandalism incident Saturday night at Propst Park, as well as two recent shooting incidents at the Grey Goose and the Columbus Fairgrounds likely were gang-related, Columbus Police Chief St. John said.
“Many of these guys who spend time at these clubs and the fairground are involved with gangs,” he noted. “We are still looking into the vandalism incident.”
“We are looking to show the community that we want to be proactive about deterring the gang situation in Columbus,” said Ward 5 Councilman Kabir Karriem.
Karriem requested the meeting with St. John and others to discuss gang problems and other crime issues in Columbus. He said the gang situation will become a hot topic once school dismisses for the summer.
“We want to have a commitment from everyone here that is present that we are going to do something about this situation. We do not plan to have the answers today, but we want to start working to make a commitment,” he said, noting there are two other parts to this plan.
He also wants to put together a strategy to combat the problems and develop a timetable for all of this to come together.
Hitting the streets
St. John said his department is making efforts to get more men patrolling “the hotter spots,” including areas around nightclubs such as the Grey Goose on 22nd Street North.
“We are going to be more street level,” he said.
Additionally, St. John wants more statistical data to track gang activity in the city.
“There needs to be more data available,” Lowndes County District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks said. Brooks was interested in tracking which crimes are gang-related and which aren”t.
Columbus Mayor Robert Smith also requested more data on gang-related crime when St. John presents his report to the City Council. Specifically, he asked St. John if it can be determined how many burglaries are committed by gang members and how many are not. The chief hopes to install a computer software program that can give that kind of specific information.
In response to a question from former Ward 5 City Councilman Kamal Karriem, Kabir Karriem”s brother, St. John said there are officers in the department trained to recognize gang symbols and activities of gang members.
Long-term solutions
Suppressing the gang problem is not going to be enough, said Mississippi University for Women Campus Police Chief Kennedy Meaders.
“There needs to be a long-term project to deter this. The suppression is a short-term project,” he said.
The Rev. Rayford Evins of Southside Missionary Baptist Church and Pastor R.J. Matthews of Kingdom Vision International Church were also present for the meeting.
Both spoke about gang members who have been incarcerated and have completed their sentencing.
“The whole objective is for them to get into re-entry. We are starting a program in our church where we will work with them. This is something that could be beneficial to the community,” Matthews said.
“Our part as pastors is to reconnect with these young men once they return to society. There has to be a level of dialogue between all sides involved, especially the churches,” Evins said.
Allen Baswell was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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