BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ― No one wants to get rid of the violence in the streets of Birmingham, Alabama, more than the residents themselves.
In 2015, the city was dubbed the nation’s third most violent of its size, according to the FBI. That undesirable ranking came just behind Detroit and St. Louis, the latter then still in upheaval after the shooting of Michael Brown. Fast forward to 2017, and so far Birmingham appears to have averaged 8.8 homicides per month ― that’s one every 3.4 days.
The fifth stop of HuffPost’s Listen To America bus tour was in the city, where we held a panel dedicated to this issue, entitled “Overcoming and Surviving Inner-City Violence in Birmingham.” We encouraged locals to come out and express their feelings on how to address problems in the city’s streets ― and come out they did.
They brought thoughtful questions and made impassioned speeches on people they’ve lost, and proposed more than a few ways to turn things around for the home they love.
The event was held at the historic 16th Street Baptist Church on Sept. 19, just days after the 64th anniversary of white supremacists murdering four girls in the church’s basement. WBRC Anchor Sarah Verser moderated the panel, which included District Attorney Danny Carr, Birmingham Police Deputy Chief Henry Irby, Birmingham Violence Reduction Initiative manager Jarralynne Agee, and community activist Carolyn Johnson.
“This is a problem that is the result of a combination of things, including environment ― that’s home life, poverty, unemployment, lack of education ― but we’re here to push past excuses of what’s not been done, to what we have the power to do as a community together,” Verser began. “Each of us hold some part of what it would take to really stem this in Birmingham.”
Agee fielded the first question on what people in Birmingham can do right now to combat the problem.
“If you watch the news, read the news, you might get the idea that Birmingham is the Wild, Wild West or that there’s mayhem all over the city,” Agee said. “But that’s not true at all. A very small percent of our community is committing a large percent of the crime.”
Agee went on to say that the most high-risk group in the city to watch ― those who both commit and are victims of crime ― are boys and men of color, ages 16 to 24. Additionally, the women who love those men ― that’s mothers, grandmothers, sisters ― are also often co-victims of these crimes and need to be protected. So, how do we prevent it?
Agee suggested empathy was where the community could start to make change ― showing these individuals, who have possibly experienced trauma in their youth, that they are understood and cared for, which could shift their ways of thinking away from violence.
“Tomorrow’s shooters are last year’s victims,” Agee said.
Empathy can be taught at home, but it can also be taught in schools at a young age. David Levine, an educator and author of Teaching Empathy, told NPR empathy training is effective because “when someone feels that sense of emotional safety in their classrooms and their hallways, the feeling that teachers and other adults really care about them, that will enable them to focus and do better academically.”
Attendees also heard from Carr, who talked about the loss of his brother and how “violence found him.”
“The violence will find you. The question is, how do we isolate and protect our youths?” he said.
As the discussions continued, the tension built, punctuated by the rising voices of Birmingham’s passionate community members. They included many mothers, as well as an engineer, a barber, a preacher, a military veteran, and others who make the city thrive and only want it to be better.
“There has been too much talk about the violent crime in this city,” said local Keith Williams. “But when are we going to sit down in a group and discuss why there is violent crime?”
Johnson, Agee and Verser proposed that attendees make a list of people who’d like to gather together to do just that, and nearly a dozen people signed up.
A.J. Johnson, another attendee, suggested the solutions can’t be discuss without addressing parenting, saying “you can never have strong children when you have weak parents.”
“Parenting is our No. 1 problem in this city,” he said. “We are our worst enemy at large.”
“We have to change the culture,” he added. “We have to stop being afraid to talk to these young people.”
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