You should post this to the AP group in Next Door. Sent you an invite
On Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 11:35 AM, Educating for Justice < j...@educatingforjustice.org> wrote: > ** > > > This was published in last week¹s TriCity News in case you missed it. > > Peace, JWK > > Strategies to stop the shootings in Asbury Park > > By Jim Keady > > [triCity note: Keady is a former Asbury Councilman, who was the high > vote-getter on the A-Team council ticket in May. That slate has a pending > legal challenge to the election results which could change the outcome if > successful.] > > In his August 22nd Publisher¹s Message, Dan Jacobson delivered a perfect > example of why his publication to date has been absolutely useless in > serving the Asbury Park community with regard to stopping the escalating > and > ongoing violence in our city. He spent 1000 words offering nothing of > import > to the much-needed discussion on what should be the number one issue for > every Asbury Park resident and business owner ‹ stopping the shootings and > murders. I could go on with regard Mr. Jacobson¹s failings on this matter, > but what is more important is laying out a course of action to address the > problem. > > I offer the following list of actions that the Asbury Park City Council > should take immediately. I am limiting my focus to the City Council for two > reasons: first, they need to lead our community on this issue; second, > there > is not another stakeholder in the City that can marshal resources in the > way > that our duly elected officials can if they make it a priority. > > 1. Put ³Stopping the Shootings² on the City Council agenda. Literally, put > it on the agenda of the Executive Session, Workshop Session, and the > Regular > Public Meeting and make it the number one agenda item at every meeting. If > it is on the agenda, week in and week out, it will begin to get the > attention it deserves. If the governing body regularly met and discussed > this issue half as much they discussed the waterfront redevelopment, we > would begin to see real action flow from the dais. > > 2. Do NOT form another giant committee to discuss the issue to death. It > is not rocket science that needs to be employed to solve this problem it > takes leadership, action and follow through. Name a small committee, maybe > 5 > people, and set them to work in concert with the governing body to get to > the goal of ZERO SHOOTINGS. > > 3. Direct our Police Chief to implement the High Point Initiative > (www.nij.gov/journals/262/high-point-intervention.htm) in our city. > > 4. Re-deploy the Special I and Special II police officers from the > boardwalk and downtown areas. There is no need to have a dozen special > officers walking these beats and no officers walking the Prospect Ave > basketball courts, Washington Avenue, DeWitt Avenue, Bangs Avenue, etc. > > 5. Now that the Prosecutor¹s Office has thrown down the gauntlet [TriCity > note: the acting Monmouth County Prosecutor this week said that the city > police have to increase their presence and activity on the west side of the > city] the Council should request help through their office to flood the > Westside with a police presence. > > 6. Publicly request direct help from the Governor to bring the State > Police and/or the National Guard into the city until the killings have > stopped for at least one year. This is a state of emergency. We have had 6 > people murdered and more than 70 shootings in the past 15 months. I can > tell > you that if this were happening in Belmar (the town I grew up in) or Spring > Lake or Deal, every resource would be delivered to stop it. The elected > leaders of Asbury Park must demand the same for our city. > > 7. Exhaust the Community Development Fund and immediately invest in staff > and 24-hour programming at the Westside Community Center and the Boys and > Girls Club. > > 8. Hire a full-time grant writer that can be accessed by all non-profits > and churches in the city utilize Community Development Funds for this. > The > sole focus of this grant writer will be to secure funding for both > immediate > violence prevention programs and programs that are geared towards getting > at > the root causes that are driving kids to gangs and lives of violence. > > 9. Reallocate all Federal Community Development Block Grant Funding to job > creation initiatives for youth and young adults in Asbury Park. This should > be done by bringing Youth Build (https://youthbuild.org/) to Asbury Park > and > funding it with the CDBG money. > > 10. Immediately bring in the following programs to Asbury Park and have > them run through the City, through the schools or through non-profits. The > Amer-I-Can program (www.amer-i-can.org) and the Getting Out and Staying > Out > program (www.gosonyc.org). > > 11. The Mayor and Council should utilize their bully pulpit and go to every > church in Asbury Park and speak on this issue. They need to challenge > residents with the following truth. Our churches, our families and our City > Government have failed on this matter to date. This must change. The City > can step up its game by doing the actions listed above. The churches must > now pull their weight. They need to stop worrying about saving souls from > eternal damnation and start worrying about saving the lives of our kids. > Every church should be offering daily programming for at-risk kids and > young > adults. They get their non-profit status and their tax breaks with the > understanding that they will meet community needs that the government > cannot > meet. It¹s time they started delivering. > > The Mayor and Council also need to share, with our predominantly black > Churches in particular, that the majority of these crimes are young black > men shooting other young black men. These are our kids, our brothers, our > uncles, our fathers, our nephews... The blame for their ongoing criminal > activity lays squarely with each of us. These are not alien monsters who > just dropped into Asbury Park and are wreaking havoc on our community. We > ALL have to be responsible for what is being done and we have to stand up > to > these young men, offer them tough love [even if this means turning in or > ³snitching² on a relative], and an opportunity to live life in a much > different direction. > > 12. If by chance there is another murder of one of our residents, the > entire governing body should be at the funeral. As far as I could see, none > of them were at Tyrell Howard¹s funeral on Saturday. This speaks volumes to > the community about the perceived level of commitment and concern that our > elected officials have for these murdered residents and their friends and > families. > > The Council should immediately get to work on the items above. This is by > no means an exhaustive list and I hope it serves as a springboard for > discussion and more importantly ACTION. > > Peace, > > Jim Keady > > -- > Jim Keady, Director > Educating for Justice, Inc. > j...@educatingforjustice.org > 732.988.7322 > www.educatingforjustice.org > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > >
