A.G. Gancarski
Mayors come and go, but the bloodtide on Jacksonville streets continues.
This weekend, yet another child was caught in the line of fire.
Seven-year-old Tashawn Gallon was gunned down in Durkeeville Sunday night. Per the Florida Times-Union, he died hours after being shot in a drive-by.
“Last night a 7 yr. old was killed in a drive-by shooting in our city. We must come together as a community and stop this senseless violence to give our kids a sense of hope and peace,” Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry tweeted Monday.
1. Last night a 7 yr old was killed in a drive by shooting in our city. We must come together as a community and stop this senseless violence to give our kids a sense of hope and peace.
— Lenny Curry (@lennycurry) February 19, 2018
2 This happened Less than 2 miles from City Hall, Within 2 miles of our government and churches and schools and FSCJ and fire houses and sheriff substations, all institutions designed to help keep a community safe and allow kids the security to grow and learn how to make choices
— Lenny Curry (@lennycurry) February 19, 2018
Durkeeville, a rough neighborhood for decades now, is on the periphery of downtown Jacksonville.
“This happened less than 2 miles from City Hall, Within 2 miles of our government and churches and schools and FSCJ and firehouses and sheriff substations, all institutions designed to help keep a community safe and allow kids the security to grow and learn how to make choices and follow dreams,” Curry continued.
“In the shadow of all that opportunity and assistance, a 7 yr. old had life stolen by someone so hopeless and directionless that they didn’t hesitate to recklessly turn our streets into a war zone. We have to break through to these young people. We have to find a way to make them recognize there is so much more for them than they can imagine if they choose to believe in hope and peace.”
Small children being shot: a running theme in Jacksonville homicides, and something that Curry has all too routinely had to address during his two and a half years in office.
After a November 2016 shooting of an infant, Curry addressed the problem with similar urgency.
“When you have a child shot and killed,” Curry said, that “wakes the community up.”
“When this happened,” Curry continued, “there were other shootings happening in the city … and the night before, and the night before that.”
2016 also saw the shooting of toddler Aiden McClendon, which Curry described as the toughest thing he ever had to deal with as mayor.
Jacksonville saw 142 murders in 2017. That was one murder short of the record set in 2008.
Curry ran for office on a platform that included stopping the violent crime in Jacksonville streets.
In 2015, Curry’s campaign rhetoric was fiery.
He claimed that since Brown’s election, “murder and crime” have spiked, and we’re now “even seeing kids dying on the street.” Brown’s “inability to manage a budget” led to “fewer cops [and a] spike in crime and the murder rate.”
Brown, said Curry, “demonstrated that he was not serious about [reducing] crime over the last four years.”
By the end of that campaign, Brown was talking tough, saying in a May news conference to gangbangers that “we are not going to tolerate it anymore. You do the crime, you are going to pay the time.”
He had also requested help from the Justice Department.
Curry prioritized restoring the “Jacksonville Journey” as a candidate. Since he has been in office, the mayor reorganized youth programs under the aegis of the Kids Hope Alliance.
What’s clear, however, is that campaign rhetoric and policy follow-through haven’t caused the murder rate to abate.
