Ministers from across the city addressed crime and prevention during a meeting at the True Vine E Missionary Baptist Church Thursday night.
Guests included Ivan Whitfield, Deputy Chief of the Pine Bluff Police Department, and Gerald Robinson, Jefferson County Sheriff.
The Rev. Leon Williams Sr., pastor of True Vine E, spoke to the reasons he felt compelled to get ministers and law enforcement together.
“After I saw the disaster in Colorado I was sad, but when it happened at Central Moloney it hit home,” Williams said, referring to the fatal shooting of a dozen people at Aurora, Colo., and the single homicide at Central Moloney in Jefferson Industrial Park on July 23.
“I thought, if that can happen so close…we had to do something,” Williams said.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The meeting was structured to allow the sheriff and the deputy chief to speak about problems and solutions they perceived and then the floor was opened up to the ministers in attendance.
Robinson focused on drugs and the emergence of prescription drug use and sales as a large contributor to the problem.
“It’s not just the cocaine and meth anymore. It’s prescription drugs, and that’s why the sheriffs office has, or is about to, start a permanent drug drop box program that will get these drugs out of the homes,” he said.
“The kids get into their grandparents’ medicine cabinet and get the drugs and then sell them on the street,” Robinson said.
Whitfield spoke on behalf of Police Chief Brenda Davis-Jones in saying that as an organization, the police department works on many youth programs to help curb the problem of crime in the city.
“We try to reach kids early with our basketball program and other programs that reach out to get kids talking to officers and becoming accustomed to the respect of the law,” he said.
Although some of the ministers had different thoughts on how to solve the problem, an overwhelming consensus was believed that the break down in families and the loss of religion were the main issues.
“We have to get out of the church, get out of the box and get on the street to reach people,” Williams said.
The sentiment was echoed by most of the participants of the meeting that religion had been lost and it is a fundamental necessity for a community to exist peacefully.
Robinson took the microphone again as some ministers debated the issues.
“You know your church members and they know someone who needs help, and so you (pastors) should reach out to your congregation and they can help with those that need it,” he said.
Robinson made a point using the famous saying of the character, McGruff the Crime dog.
“We should all take a bite out of crime, even if it means affecting only one person or one child,” he said.
“It wasn’t take on the whole thing, just a bite, and that’s what we have to do is not try to solve it all at once but just a bite at a time,” he said.