Community meeting explores ways to combat violence

File photo: Pastor Eric Cummings, also of the Marion County School Board, leads people in prayer during a double fatal shooting Prayer Vigil held by War Cry 4 Peace for Abdul Hakeem Van Croskey, 24, and DÕamonta Harris, 30, on Southwest 5th Street in Ocala, Fla. on Monday, Jan. 2, 2022. Abdul Hakeem Van Croskey and DÕamonta Harris both died died during a shooting early New Year’s Day. Four other people were shot at the end of a large block party in the neighborhood. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2022.

Community leaders and members of the public worried about the rise in youth violence in the Ocala area recently heard of a unique program in Jacksonville that is showing a possible way forward.

The Jan. 26 community meeting at New Zion Missionary Baptist Church, sponsored by the Marion County Chapter of the NAACP, is the second one so far this year focused on youth and gang activity in the wake of a shooting incident on New Year’s Day in northwest Ocala that left two young men dead and four others injured.

Invited guest speaker Garland Scott, a clergy member and Community Outreach Manager with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, detailed a promising program focused on reducing gang-related violence that involves law enforcement, 30 or more Jacksonville pastors and others in the community.

Scott is the executive director of Operation Safe Passage. In the program, pastors get information about gang members at risk to recommit violent crimes from the State Attorney’s Office. The clergy members, accompanied by a team of officers wearing SWAT-like tactical gear, then schedule visits—sometimes 12 a week–to the homes of the gang members or their families.

Pastor Rocky Morris, director of operations for Operation Safe Passage and also a guest speaker, called the visits “custom notifications.”

Once contact is made, law enforcement leaves and the pastors and any community leaders offer support and social services, which might include job training or help with housing or school. The custom notifications have included instances of families with eight children allowing help to all and instances of mental health issues, which were addressed.

“We take it to them,” Scott said. He added that local governmental officials often accompany the pastors and have been visibly moved by the experience.

Scott told the audience about his upbringing in the Bronx, New York in a “dysfunctional family” and eventually becoming a debt collector for a gang who used violent force to collect. After he received death threats, he was sent by his family to Georgia and eventually he moved to Orange Park, south of Jacksonville.

His experiences help him relate to youngsters who need direction.

“You can’t get them to put the gun down if you don’t have something to put in their hands,” Scott said. He noted that a rescued youth typically takes about six months to reach “normalcy.”

Scott stated his group had been involved in about 850 of the “door knock” custom notifications. When no one is home, a letter is left, and the program has a “40% call back rate.”

More importantly, Scott claimed Operation Safe Passage has produced a 30% drop in measured violent crime.

Scott, who has been in the community 34 years and built up “the power of integrity” with the gang members, said gang activity is “generational” and closely tied to popular music that glorifies violence as well as social media activity, which can be monitored by law enforcement.

A related program, Operation Relocation, to date has helped 39 gang members move to safe areas. Three former gang members were lost when they returned to their original areas.

Ocala Mayor Kent Guinn, Ocala City Council member Ire Bethea and at least two members of the Ocala Police Department were at the meeting. When asked if he would participate in a custom notification, Guinn replied, “in a heartbeat.”

New Zion Missionary Baptist Church Pastor Rev. Eric Cummings, who is also a member of the Marion County School Board, urged involvement by the entire community and people speaking out about issues in their own neighborhoods.

“Culture is wrong (about non-involvement),’’ he said. “If you see something, say something.”

Cummings said local gangs tend to be “neighborhood” in nature and the firearms the gang members are using mostly have been stolen from cars.

Rev. Eric Lightsey of Ocala said a ”plan of action” is needed and the community, government and law enforcement should “work in harmony.”

Before Scott’s presentation, Cummings led a question-and-comment period for two hours.

Several attendees referred to past generations of youth who were monitored by adult neighbors and their activities were known. A woman explained how she helped her son pull away from gang involvement, and a local barber spoke of hiring a gang member as a barber in training.

One attendee said some “kids are out buying $600 PlayStation controllers but can’t read,” while another asked who should the public notify “when we see 13 and 14-year-olds playing basketball” during school hours.

Dennis McFatten, Safe Schools director for Marion County Public Schools, said getting children from some households to attend school was a “never-ending battle.”

“We can have the bus stop in front of the house and the children still won’t go,” he said.

At least one attendee remarked it comes down to a “parent-to-parent” situation.

Veronica Hudson, a State of Florida Juvenile Probation Officer, said youthful offenders today are different from those in past years because “they have no fear.”

A local educator spoke of the lack of involvement by some students’ parents even when tools like an iPhone app to connect with teachers are available, noting later, “If there’s no connection between parents and teachers, the students know that they will not be held accountable.’’

Cummings referred to a “five-pronged approach” to gun violence and proposed setting up a Gun Violence Task Force through the Marion County Children’s Alliance, both products of the first meeting held on Jan.11.

The five-pronged approach consists of ongoing support for youth prone toward gang involvement from: family, community (and immediate neighbors), church, school, local government / law enforcement.

“(We have) faith,’’ Cummings said. “Now we need action.”