Operation Brownsville, an initiative from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office to address gun violence in the Brownsville area, concluded Thursday night with a roundtable discussion and a rundown of its efforts.
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The community-wide program started in April and included neighborhood clean ups, community meetings, and more police presence. Residents also had access to Florida Licensing on Wheels (FLOW) Bus for a few weekends where dozens of driver’s licenses and identification cards were issued.
Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons said the program began as a way to understand why gun violence was occurring in the neighborhood and what resources are available to help residents.
But some residents who spoke at the meeting said the program didn’t go far enough to address the root cause of violence: poverty.
“Every metric we have shows that ‘broken windows policing’ does not prevent crime, and that crime rates actually only fall when people's needs are getting met. And our people have a lot of needs,” said Sarah Brummet, referring to the theory that visible signs of crime encourages more crime. “We need truly affordable housing, robust youth programming, quality and abundant public transportation options. We need sidewalks, and we need higher wages. We need things like community cooling centers. Right now, we're in a historic heat wave and violence spikes when there's heat waves. Our community needs to be thinking critically about what to actually invest in that can actually make a difference.”
Brummet, and a handful of other speakers, also took issue with Sheriff Simmonscomments on recent back-to-back homicides as “black on black crime.”
“I don't want to hear on my news anything about black on black crime when we know that crime is actually an issue of proximity, not an issue of particular races,” she said. “At the end of the day, what we need is to stop over-policing our communities and invest not in meeting the needs of the developers, but meeting the needs of the people who have lived there for decades.”
“Because a significant proportion of black people have been systematically housed in overcrowded, segregated slum areas, it only makes sense that victims of street crime will more than likely be of the same race of the offender when that is the case,” added Jasmine Brown. “I understand we're listening to the community come up with these solutions and steps have been made, but no amount of Band-Aids will prevent wounds that will continue to be made in this community.”
Simmons responded to the comments saying the facts of the cases were irrefutable.
“We've had 13 homicides this year alone. 13 homicides,” said the Sheriff. “Eleven of those homicides, the victims were black. And in all of those homicides, the suspects were black. The facts are the facts. And if we continue to deny them, we're not getting anywhere.”
RELATED: Escambia Sheriff begins addressing gun violence with Operation Brownsville
The Sheriff also responded to public comments about over-policing. He said Operation Brownsville was the first time in about 50 years that such an initiative from various organizations has come together.
Escambia County District 3 Commissioner Lumon May, said he was proud of the work done over the last couple of months and highlighted other wins outside of Operation Brownsville including funding for more streetlights and sidewalks, a summer youth intern program which led to about 20 full-time jobs, $68,000 in new roofs or roof repairs, a free yoga program for seniors that went from a class of seven to 40, free meal programs, and $30 million towards a new central transportation system. A new library is also in the works at the old Masonic Lodge.
“There’s not one holistic program,” said May. “We can only do it block by block, house by house, child by child. We did more than I expected. I think we’ve done great, but there is more we can do.”
Deshaun McKenzie, a teacher in Escambia County, said he gets a chill down his spine when he sees news articles about teenagers being arrested for gun violence.
“I have to go look and see if it’s one of my kids,” he said.
Like other speakers, he also stressed the need to look at ways to reduce poverty such as fixing the public transportation system, adding more sidewalks so people can safely walk to work, and addressing the lack of jobs that pay a living wage. All of these were part of Commissioner May’s report.
“Until we make a conscious effort to invest our city budget, our county budget, invest state funds in specific ways that will alleviate poverty and things that will incentivize folks to have jobs that are regulated, we will continue to see unregulated business, which leads to unregulated violence,” McKenzie said.
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When it comes to addressing the affordable housing crisis that affects not just Pensacola, but the country, that’s a harder problem solve in the short-term. Commissioner May said seven homes are in the construction phase now.
“We can’t do it all in one day, and as I’ve often say, we didn’t get in this problem overnight, and we won’t get out of it overnight,” he said.
Mental health was also a keyword during Thursday night’s discussion. ECSO and 211 have put together a resource guide for families which includes information on mental health services, after school programs, mentoring, substance abuse disorder treatment and more.
Hassan Hills, founder of the new nonprofit Youths Left Behind Corp., said stakeholders in their neighborhoods should be reaching out to young people.
“We, as a people that live in these communities, we need to start getting out and about and getting in front of these young black men that are experiencing these types of violent crimes,” said Hills. “A lot of them are hurt from tragedy. A lot of them are dealing with mental health (issues). A lot of them are dealing with not having a father inside their home since they've been growing up. If we can bring the resources directly to them and give them a way of education and empowerment and put them on a path to success, I think that'll be the next step that we need to go to, to make things better for our community.”
Whether everyone in the room agreed or not, Sheriff Simmons said he was encouraged that the comments in the room where consistent with what they’ve heard in the community. People want to see change.
Whether or not they’re centered on gun violence, the roundtable discussions will continue.
“We can have a roundtable on education. We can have one on clergy. We can have one on gentrification, we can have one on homelessness, and we can, and probably should, have one on fentanyl,” said Sheriff Simmons. “I appreciate what you guys have done. I appreciate you being here. I do not want you to bail on us now. I want you to continue with what you're doing.”
