A.G. Gancarski
Violent crime has spiked in Jacksonville. Sheriff John Rutherford announced a reinstatement of the Operation Ceasefire plan late Tuesday to combat the menace, even as camps of black preachers have issued their own recommendations in recent days. Where does the Mayor stand on this issue?
At the Legends Center on Soutel Drive on Jacksonville’s Northside on Wednesday morning, the Mayor unveiled his plans to address what looks like another Summer of Violence in the Bold New City of the South in what was a fiery address that brimmed with personal narrative and emphatic cadences that would be at home in any Sunday Baptist pulpit.
At least part of that plan, he said, involves working with new Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the Department of Justice for what he described as “technical assistance” and developing “best practices” when dealing with the “gang violence” that has wreaked havoc on Jacksonville.
The press conference offered an update on Brown Administration initiatives on reopening and extending hours at Community Centers, expanding the Summer Urban Parks Initiative to provide adult-supervised recreation activities for eight weeks at ten parks in “high-crime neighborhoods,” continuing Summer Night Lights at various city facilities, a program which includes everything from entrepreneurship training to self-esteem classes, as well as continuing initiatives such as Neighborhood Accountability Boards.
However, the real impact of the event on Wednesday, which found the mayor flanked by some of the same preachers who had effectively endorsed him at yesterday’s media event on the Northside, as well as by Councilman Reggie Brown and aspirant Councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman, was one in which Brown delivered an emotional appeal that came off like a slightly more authoritarian, definitely more Southern version of Barack Obama. At many points during the address, he seemed to be channeling the moment when Obama said that his “main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. You know, if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”
Brown started his address with a quote of Martin Luther King: “What are we doing for others?”
This served as a lead in to an incontrovertible contention.
“Every day, you turn on the news, and it seems like someone has been shot or killed,” the Mayor said.
“I cannot stand by and watch” this violent crime epidemic.
The Mayor soon enough tied Jacksonville’s epidemic of violent crime into the larger national tableau.
“What’s happening in Baltimore could happen in Jacksonville,” he said, adding that he was “not going to tolerate violence in the city” and that there should be “no more acts of violence in the city.”
Just as the black pastors did at the event at the First Timothy Church on Tuesday, Brown laid blame at the feet of John Rutherford, saying that “the sheriff has the responsibility to deal with crime,” saying that 40% of the city’s General Fund and 52% of city employees work for the Sheriff’s Office.
While Rutherford is responsible for enforcement, Brown said that his team has “been working for four years on prevention and intervention,” including the “Learn to Earn Program,” the summer jobs program, the Youth Advisory Council, which ensures that “55 kids from all over the city” have a “seat at the table.”
He also lauded his own Renew Jax initiative, a $40M public-private partnership targeted to “struggling neighborhoods,” and his Community Empowerment Days, the next of which will be on Saturday at Hilltop, located at the corner of 45th and Moncrief.
As well, Brown signaled his commitment to “civil citation” initiatives, to give youthful lawbreakers a “second chance.”
But all of that could have been handled in a press release: today was about ensuring that the media and the public were aware of his passion on the issue, as he said he had been in the worst neighborhoods “without press or cameras,” and that he had a message for the criminal element: “You do the crime, you’re going to pay the time.”
He spoke of his address at last week’s Save Our Sons rally to 650 kids.
“I said to them [that] I’m just like them,” raised by “two strong women with a PHD in common sense,” that he “worked hard at Winn-Dixie [as a youth], 40 to 50 hours a week to be somebody.” He added, a bit later on, that his dad was “missing in action” and that “my pastor was like my dad… my role model, my hero,” and without that singular presence, his life could have gone very differently.
Adding that it’s “all about the family,” the “single mom with 2, 3, or 4 kids,” making sure she has support, Brown said that “if you take off the mayor title, I’m a father and husband.” As well, he is a “man of faith” who “knows God.”
“When you see that young kid,” he added, “that could be my son.”
The Mayor circled back to the main theme of the address: taking a stand against “crime and violence.”
“Crime and violence is not accepted in Jacksonville. Enough is enough,” Brown thundered. “We’re not going to let you destroy our community.”
However, “if you need help, we’re going to be there for you.”
During the reporter q&a, Brown expanded on certain points. He agrees with Rutherford regarding the reinstitution of Operation Ceasefire; however, he rejected the contention that the Sheriff’s office is starved for resources, saying that Rutherford “is an elected official” and that he can “use the $400M budget the way he sees fit,” including reallocating resources out of administration and back on the beat.
“When you have $400M, there may be opportunities,” he added. “There’s enough money right now to reallocate resources and put officers back on the street.”
Regarding gangs, Brown suggested that the secret is “getting to young people early,” when they’re 3-5 years old.
Meanwhile, on the often broached subject of the Jacksonville Journey, the Mayor said that the Journey “is just a group of people that sits on a board and oversees funding,” and that the “Council was opposed to the Journey.” Brown also highlighted the fact that every budget he proposed was higher than what Council ratified.
This event obviously was intended to resolve any doubt that people had in the mayor’s willingness to combat Jacksonville’s crime epidemic at its root, but questions remain. Critics will say that the Sheriff’s budget has been eaten alive by the unresolved pension crisis and its unfunded liabilities. They will also say, as Ben Frazier, a local independent black journalist did after the event, that this was driven by the polls.
“It’s a couple of weeks before the election,” Frazier, who has written about crime more than anyone in the city, declaimed.
In a email, Lenny Curry campaign spokesperson Brian Hughes commented, casting aspersions on the recent evolution of Brown’s messaging on the crime issue:
“For over two years Brown has denied a crime problem while citing claims of lower rates due to non-violent statistics. When violence spirals out of control and blood is running in the streets every single day, he suddenly wakes up 20 days before an election to say he gets it. His solutions? Celebrate 90 kids in the Learn to Earn program while thousands of children in Jacksonville are at risk of violence.
“Brown claims he’s raised funding for cops when he knows those dollars are lost to pension requirements because he’s failed to solve that challenge. And, finally, as always, Brown blames others and asks for others to solve problems for him. This time by asking feds to intervene where he failed as it relates to gangs.
“Working families are worse off under Brown. Their neighborhoods are less safe, and the economic development he promised them he instead has given to millionaires and billionaires for secret deals downtown.”
