Guns And Kids

Kids News 5 News 5 Crime Solutions Task Force finds an alarming rise in crimes involving juveniles.

by Mel Showers

Published: Wed, November 19, 2008 - 11:10 pm CST

Juvenile Crime

A big challenge for The News 5 Crime Solutions Task Force this week was to try to find out what's being done to put a stop to the alarming rise in crimes involving juveniles in the area. During our research, we learned that so far this year, there have already been 125 gun crimes involving juveniles. It includes 4 murders and 31 robberies. Compare that with just two years ago in 2006 when there were fewer than 65 gun crimes involving juveniles and no murders. It has caused some people in the community to wonder if we should be afraid of our kids.
This past summer, two teenagers were arrested and charged with the murder of a man inside his van in Chickasaw. The boys are only 15 years old. In January, a teenager was charged with shooting and killing a 60 year old man inside his home in Theodore. The murder suspect is only 14 years old.
Juvenile court judge Edmond Naman says we are at war and teenagers should know, the court will deal severely with young criminals. He told News 5 "first and foremost this court is responsible for protecting the safety of this community and that we see as our number one goal... Very closely related to that is the safety of the children that we are dealing with, so we're trying to be proactive in many ways, trying to stop these crimes before they happen but, we also have to be reactive and we have to react tough when crime is presented to us."
Judge Naman and his staff have already held town hall meetings concerning juvenile crime in 3 different communities. In all, 14 communities have been targeted. He says, "you see, what ever your passion is, if you love children and you have a desire to help, if you decide, I will not let this next generation of children be lost. I will do whatever it is and whatever it takes."
Community members like Reverend Sherman Tate are already getting involved. He has taken on the commitment of being a positive influence in the lives of a number of young people. The youngsters all say they respect Reverend Tate because he cares, he provides tough love and because when he was a teenager, he found himself on the wrong side of life. Reverend Tate says, early on in my teenage years, I was living by myself, going back and forth to school... I started experimenting in drugs, robbing and ended up in and out of jail. when I was 14, I was put on probation and I encountered Dr. Michael Jackson, my probation officer. Who is now my pastor."
His pastor, Dr. Michael Jackson operates a program that assists parents in raising their children, it's called Effective Black Parenting and Reverend Tate has a mentoring program called Positive Impact. You can find out more about both programs by calling the Aimwell Baptist Church at 251-433-2183.

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