Hard news to hear, again and again
Hard news to hear, again and again
Once again, a shooting in Charlottesville overshadows the news of the week, and the struggle to find solutions continues.
Once again, a shooting in Charlottesville overshadows the news of the week, this one in the early morning hours of March 18 on Elliewood Avenue, which claimed the life of 26-year-old Cody Brian Smith. Yesterday, police arrested 21-years old Lakori Brooks for the shooting, but have offered no further details. This one prompted an immediate response from UVA President Jim Ryan.
"This is hard news to hear, especially after the Nov.13 tragedy on Grounds," said Ryan in an email to the UVA community, referring to the shooting that claimed the life of three UVA football players and wounded two others, and noting the shooting was "part of a trend of increased gun violence" in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.
Indeed, it was hard news to hear that Eldridge “Skeeta” Smith had been shot and killed in January, right across from UVA Hospital. It’s been hard news to hear about each of the 13 people killed and 22 injured by gun violence since last September. It’s been hard news to hear about shots fired incidents, or constantly hear them yourself. It’s been hard news to hear the circular arguments after each shooting until the next one happens. It’s been hard news to keep hearing for generations now.
Earlier this month, UVA announced it was stepping up its Ambassador Program in collaboration with the Charlottesville Police, deploying unarmed "Ambassadors" in bright green vests on the Corner and in surrounding neighborhoods to “serve as a force multiplier for local law enforcement," according to UVA Police Chief Tim Longo. Longo also said he was meeting monthly with his fellow area chiefs in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, State Police representatives, and other law enforcement agencies to identify trends and come up with collective responses to threats.
New Charlottesville Police Chief Michael Kochis has been busy trying to better connect with community forums and with weekly “community walk and talks” in various neighborhoods. At Tonsler Park recently he floated the idea of a gun buyback program.
“If we get one gun off the street that shouldn’t be on the street, then that’s a success,” he told Hawes Spencer of the Daily Progress.
Some vocal local citizens on social media were quick to point out that there’s no evidence that such programs work and Spencer interviewed a criminal justice professor at VCU who characterized them as unproven and ineffective, given the sheer number of guns available in the U.S. and the disinclination of criminals to hand over thier guns.
Chief Kochis, for his part, said he’d heard of those critiques and said it was just one of a number of things he’d like to implement along with what he already has, such as focusing officer attention on gun-violence “hot spots,” developing specialized positions within the department and collaborating with the FBI.
And while the expert Spencer spoke to, William V. Pelfrey Jr., a criminal justice professor in the Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at VCU, didn’t have much hope for gun buyback programs, he did say something interesting: that the conversations the programs prompt are important.
“There’ll be pictures, there’ll be media, it’ll be on the local news and it will get people thinking about guns: how many there are in the U.S., how easy it is for a gun to get stolen or used improperly,” he said, “…and the more guns that are off the street, the less gun violence there will be.”
Early prevention
At a recent City budget session, Paola Covarrubias, a community organizer with The Charlottesville Public Housing Association of Residents (PHAR), specifically their new Youth Program which was started last year, made another important point, one that tends to get lost when there’s such a heavy emphasis on policing to address gun violence: that perhaps policing should be de-emphasized as a solution
While others from PHAR spoke at the budget session, asking the city to fund their housing and youth programs, Covarrubias spoke specifically about the youth program's relevance to the increased gun violence we've seen in Charlottesville.
"I don't believe policing is a solution," said Covarrubias, 24, the daughter of Mexican immigrants who grew up in Texas and graduated from UVA," many times it has been proven that rather than increasing policing it is a lot more beneficial for the community, especially for the youth, when more resources are available to help with preventative work. By providing funds to the youth program you are taking us in the right direction towards addressing violence in the community."
Indeed, too often this connection isn't emphasized enough or even made, despite decades of social psychology research proving that effective youth programs prevent violence. For example, a good story about the PHAR Youth program appeared in Charlottesville Tomorrow last year, but nowhere was there any connection made between the program and the prevention of teen violence. When shootings occur there’s typically a public desire for prompt arrests, not more funding for effective youth programs, but the truth is many of these shootings are years in the making, as opportunities to guide young people in a different direction are missed or neglected. And the impacts are enormous. Not only are young lives destroyed, but families, neighborhoods, and communities are also traumatized.
The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado has studied and reviewed an array of effective youth programs for over 30 years, including the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, which involves direct mentoring, the Nurse-Family Partnership Program, which works with pregnant mothers, and the Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care program, which focuses on youth who have already committed offenses, and others. The Center’s Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development program provides a database of scientifically proven interventions.
For example, one promising program recommended by the Center is Communities that Care, which strategically guides communities in the creation of a "shared community vision" for addressing child, adolescent, and early adult health and behavior problems. The program helps communities pull together resources and form focused coalitions to come up with long-term, preventive solutions to drug and alcohol abuse, delinquency, and violence.
While the Center has also developed effective initiatives and interventions designed to help people recognize red flags, protect themselves, and potentially stop gun-violence incidents before they occur, their research has led them to emphasize early prevention.
“We know that early socialization is key. Kids aren’t getting the care of love and discipline they need,” says the Center’s founder, Delbert Elliott, in a story published last year. Elliott had studied criminology and delinquency for decades before founding the center. “Violence prevention is about creating social systems—at home, at school, and in the community—that support the healthy development of our kids.”