Panelists included Louisville Metro Police Chief Erika Shields, the Mayor’s Chief of Community Building Keith Talley, Games Changers’ Executive Director Christopher 2X, and the Pegasus Institute’s Executive Director Josh Crawford.
The Pegasus Institute conducts public policy research with an aim to improve the lives of Kentuckians.
That research shows between 1980 and 2014, Louisville averaged 54 homicides per year. Ten months into 2021, the city has already doubled that number this year
“It’s remarkably difficult to open a business in a neighborhood where children sleep in bathtubs or when children sleep under beds because they're afraid of stray bullets coming through their window at night. When the sun goes down and residents are afraid to walk to a corner convenience store for bread or milk, “ says panelist Josh Crawford. “It's very difficult to do economic opportunities and economic development in places like that. The people of those neighborhoods deserve better.”
The Pegasus Institute has created a “homicide clock” to show the seriousness of the gun violence problem. It shows that Louisville’s top three deadliest years have been since 2016.
Chief Shields says a shortage of officers and the availability of guns are part of the problem.
She says community members can do their part by keeping guns secured and not leaving them in unlocked cars.
“We are seeing all of these folks, many of them young kids with guns. they are not purchased legally, these were not procured legally,” said Shields.
Shields says there is a small percentage of people in Louisville who are highly involved in criminal activity.
“We are seeing all those individuals reach down into the younger ages, and they'll bring them into their fold because they know they send out the 13 14-year-old to break into your car and get the gun to sell the gun and that kid is caught and nothing is going to happen to him,” says Shields. “That's where you start to see this web where it's starting to get larger and larger.”
A reason Christopher 2X, another panelist and executive director of Game Changers, an outreach program for children as young as four believes early intervention is a crucial step to preventing gun violence.
“Even if these kids have never picked up a gun we believe that they've been subjected to so much of this negativity as it relates to violent crime, especially in these underserved communities. It is well worth putting your time and effort into them.
The panel says they have no plans of sitting on their hands and hoping for things to get better. Some solution ideas included group violence intervention, hyper-focusing on the small percentage of the community that is involved in criminal activity, and other evidence-based resources and methods.
"We have a group that is funded by Bloomberg for collaborative management for impact. The topic that we chose was gun violence in our community,” said Talley. “We're working hard and talking about other things, what additional things can we do to address this issue. We have a grant that we've gotten from every town USA which is another Bloomberg Philanthropies, and we're going to have a fellow for two years that's going to work with LMPD looking at gun violence looking and doing the statistical analysis that will help identify trends that will help us look at the data and make that data work for us.”
The floor was opened for questions from the community. Topics concerning the group violence intervention, cyber crimes, abandoned properties were discussed.
“I'm a firm optimist. I’m a firm believer in hope and I’m a firm believer in community and what I will say to you is every issue I have laid out tonight can be solved,’” says Shields. “None of this stuff is beyond any of us, but where we won't get there is if we're just divided and digging our heels”
The next town hall on public safety will be held in southeastern Jefferson County in November.
It is so imperative that we have the community's support because this problem goes beyond just any one neighborhood," said Shields.