A.G. Gancarski
On Monday morning, Jacksonville’s mayor, sheriff, and state attorney, along with other stakeholders, came together in the City Hall rotunda for one purpose: to kick off Victims’ Rights Week.
The purpose, as one might expect: to safeguard the rights of victims of violent crime, a shared priority of stakeholders in government, such as the aforementioned, and outside, such as Ken Jefferson, the former Sheriff’s candidate and longtime board member of the Justice Coalition.
Before the media event began, FloridaPolitics.com talked to Jefferson, who deemed this observance “necessary because so many people are affected by violent crime,” a “reminder” that victims and their families are not neglected … even when cases go cold.
State Attorney Angela Corey, before the event, told FloridaPolitics.com that the pictures of victims, held up by family members in the back of the City Hall rotunda this year (as happens every year) will “break your heart.”
And every year, they do.
Corey, during her prepared remarks a little later on, noted that she started prosecuting “34 1/2 years ago as of yesterday,” and back then there wasn’t the kind of advocacy there is now.
“We know what you go through,” Corey said, directly addressing survivors. “The legal system can’t give you the comfort you need.”
However, Corey said her office, “will always work with law enforcement officers to solve these cases.”
Corey mentioned “leaders who put victims first over the rights of defendants,” and indeed, that is her office’s approach. A pursuit of justice that may not always make sense to some, but which resonates with voters.
Sheriff Mike Williams noted his office’s commitment to “clear cases, make arrests,” and “work with prosecutors,” noting that his office will always “work tirelessly to gain trust of victims.”
“We all share a commitment to make sure we are tending to the needs of those who need us the most,” Williams said.
Mayor Lenny Curry, in his brief remarks, noted that he was here “to support victims” and “be part of the healing process.”
After the program, Curry told FloridaPolitics.com that solving this issue requires dedicated resources and “takes time,” as Curry works to rebuild public safety by adding police officers and community service officers, and by boosting investment in at risk youth and re-entry programs.
Curry noted that will be a long-term commitment, requiring follow through “so we’re not dealing with the same problems 15 years from now.”
“The Jacksonville Journey worked,” said Curry, saying that the data was clear.
However, the most compelling speaker was not an office holder, but was Richard Collier, a promising Jacksonville Jaguar whose career was ended one night in a hail of gunfire as he sat in a car parked outside a Riverside apartment complex.
“I was once a victim of a terrible crime,” Collier said. “I was 24 [with] my whole life in front of me.”
He was “shot fourteen times” and “left for dead,” unconscious for three weeks.
“My left leg was amputated above my knee,” Collier said, and during that “real devastating time,” he was “asking God why.”
The physical healing came, slowly. The emotional scars were not thoroughly cauterized, even after the physical recovery.
“It open[s] up wounds when you have to go to trial,” Collier said, when “attorneys make it seem like you’re the one who did the wrong thing.”
“The city of Jacksonville really came together, showed me … I had advocates.”
And that commitment bore dividends for Collier.
“I’m still here, still alive eight years later,” Collier said. “Life goes on,” even if it is “hard for me every day getting in the chair.”
“You’re a victim,” Collier said, “but you can move forward.”
Former mayor and current councilman Tommy Hazouri, who in 1988 as mayor started the Mayor’s Victim Assistance Advisory Council by executive order, spoke as well.
“Richard Collier’s story was heard throughout Jacksonville,” Hazouri said, yet “some aren’t as fortunate as Mr. Collier.”
“The purpose of this is to give hope” to victims, Hazouri said, and stakeholders must come together to say “no more, no more, no more.”
“I see one of my friends back there who lost his son,” Hazouri observed.
Hazouri, whose current human trafficking bill falls into his career long quest to get justice for victims of crime, lauded a “great mayor, great sheriff, and a committed City Council” as energized stakeholders in this search for justice for victims: an important struggle, and one without end.
