City-wide Cease Fire and Gun Violence Plan Release
Inner-city gun violence in Cincinnati is out of control. Unfortunately, since the onset of Covid-19 as a world-wide pandemic, gun violence has been on the rise. While there are many causes for inner-city gun violence, including poverty, lack of jobs, cutbacks to or the absence of youth programming, decreased hours at community recreation centers etc., many of these causes have been exacerbated by the onset of the pandemic and the need to shut virtually everything down. Communities already suffering from the grips of poverty have been the hardest hit with job loss, lack of access to appropriate healthcare and household goods and groceries which suddenly were in high demand. All leading to a mini-pandemic of gun violence on the streets.
Inner-city gun violence affects everyone in the community. While the immediate family suffers the direct loss of a loved one, friends have been lost forever. Even classmates have had the very soul shaken when a fellow student is slain. It is well-known that many students do worse in school following the loss of a classmate due to gun violence. These could very well be the same students that were already struggling to succeed. Beyond that, we are all affected. Our city seems less safe. Certain neighborhoods become stigmatized and suburbanites become even more reluctant to come to the city, causing an overall economic impact. Finally, it puts a strain on our 1st responders who have to deal with this day in and day out with no end in sight.
The City of Cincinnati tracks gun-related incidents. It is also no surprise that the majority of gun-related incidents are west of I-71 with only a small percentage crossing the line. Sadly, this trend follows the poverty line.
Neighborhoods United Cincinnati (NUC) foresaw the need for a plan to address gun violence over a year ago when gun-related incident hit a peak in the summer of 2019. Representatives from the community, police, fire, and human services all came together spanning several meetings to put forth their best ideas on how to get a handle on gun violence going forward. During the meetings, two vivid examples were shared by grieving family members. First, Mary Walton shared the story of raising her grandson Eric Sheilds after losing her very own daughter to gun violence, only to have her grandson suffer the same demise. Dionne Partee, school principal at St. Joseph Catholic Church lost her son Greg Thompson. The plan will be released Friday 8/21 @ 3:00pm in front of City Hall mapping a path forward. In the meantime, nobody could have predicted the current spike in gun violence and NUC came to realize it will take an immediate community-wide action to quell the violence.
See you, Tuesday evening when NUC, along with the faith community, police, fire, and other community leaders will call for a city-wide cease fire. Everyone must be willing to promote this for the benefit of all involved. We need rec. centers open, places of worship to have to lights on and doors open as safe havens. Cease fire posters must be seen everywhere around the city. Everyone has to engage to save the lives of our youth.
Get involved ...
Date and Time
Tuesday Aug 18, 2020
6:00 PM - 7:00 PM EDT
Tuesday, Aug 18th at 6 pm
Location
Grant Park OTR
73 E. McMicken Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45202