Crime

Gun violence a public health crisis in Birmingham, mayor says

THE BIRMINGHAM TIMES — Mayor Randall Woodfin on Thursday said bluntly that “gun violence in the City of Birmingham is a public health crisis.”

Published

6 years ago

March 3, 2019

Oakland Post

By Ameera Steward

Mayor Randall Woodfin on Thursday said bluntly that “gun violence in the City of Birmingham is a public health crisis.”

Woodfin made his statement as he unveiled the City of Birmingham’s PEACE Campaign to counteract violent crime.

The campaign is a coordinated effort between city, community and law enforcement to achieve change on multiple fronts. It includes an #IncreasePeace public service announcement campaign that features 30-second videos of mothers of gun violence victims telling their stories.

Surrounding the mayor were families who lost loved ones to violence, many of them wearing t-shirts with the phrase “Increase Peace”, including Woodfin’s mother, Cynthia Woodfin-Kellum.

“When facing a health crisis, we must keep three things in the front of our minds,” the mayor said, “we need respect and sympathy for those at risk, we need coordinated efforts with trusted institutions who can help us develop solutions; and we need dedicated trusted media outlets to keep residents informed of the work being done to safeguard them and empowered with important information to make the city safer.”

The mayor said everyone has a role to play and in a health crisis “we turn to our health professionals because they have the training and expertise to help us find solutions.”

Dr. Mark Wilson, Jefferson County health officer, cited grim statistics. Ninety percent of the homicides involved guns, 86 percent of the victims were black, and the vast majority were men. Homicide is the number one cause of death nationwide for black males between the age of 15 and 35, he said.

“In our public health work we try to prioritize those things that affect the health and well-being of the entire population,” he said. “We also seek to promote health equity, we see something that’s adversely affecting one group of people more than others such that it creates a health disparity and if that’s something that is preventable, we should make a special effort to address it.”

“Extremely Complex”

Wilson said, “violence is an extremely complex problem with deep roots, there are no simple solutions . . . [it] will require multipronged, multidisciplinary, multi-stakeholder approach. The field of public health emphasizes getting input from diverse sectors of the population…we need collective action…none of us can do this alone.”

He said there is a four-step approach to public health: define the problem; identify risk and protective factors; develop a strategy or multiple strategies and evaluate them as well as test them; and if something works try to adopt it.

“What really needs to drive us here and what does drive me, and the people in our health department, and the people you see up here, is the people. This is about people,” said Wilson. “If any of you think this is somebody else’s problem and not your problem, you’re wrong…it is a true fact that if we have one part of our community that’s suffering…it’s affecting all of us.”

Wilson also pointed out that the statistics are “just the tip of the iceberg.” There’s a much larger culture of violence that’s having an adverse effect and traumatizing people in the community “often starting at a very early age,” he said.

“Affects Us All”

Woodfin said he doesn’t want people to become desensitized to the murders.

“The violence can find its way on any of our doorsteps…we can be sitting in a classroom and it can find its way into a classroom, you can be…having a good time with your friend and it can find its way there,” said Woodfin. “This affects all of us …none of us have the luxury to be desensitized to it or only think because it’s affecting young black men that it’s OK, because it’s not.”

The mayor, surrounded by grieving families, pointed out that he is also among the families who lost a loved one to violence. He lost an older brother to a shooting death in 2012.

“The families you see…you see mothers, you see siblings, you see loved ones who have lost a son, who have lost a daughter, who lost a brother or a sister to gun violence,” said Woodfin. “I count myself among these families.”

From January 1 to January 31 of this year there were eight murders in the city, 18 felony assaults, over 800 gun-related calls, and police removed 145 guns from the streets, Woodfin said.

“Being a mother who has lost a child to gun violence in this city is devastating, and you see us standing here today, it’s not easy for us, it’s not easy to get up and stand up and talk about the loss of your child,” she said.Among the families present was Carolyn Johnson, mother of 20-year-old Rodreckus Johnson who was shot to death in his car on Nov. 22, 2003.

She added that she was determined to get out the message “to let everyone know that, yes, it was my house then . . . but it could be your house next.”

Woodfin also announced Stop the Bleed, which trains residents how to stop severe bleeding from a gunshot, knife wound or other major injury. Training will be facilitated by the University of Birmingham at Alabama. Classes begin at Birmingham recreation centers next month; visit birminghamal.gov/peace to sign up.

In the law-enforcement arena, Woodfin announced that Birmingham police will soon be assisted by Predictive Policing technology. “Pred Pol” will improve patrolling by using years of date to identify times and locations where specific crimes are more likely to occur. Also, a “Real Time Crime Center” will be established within the next year to help police monitor active crime scenes.

Visit birminghamal.gov/peace or text PEACE to 888-777 for more information.

For more on “Increase Peace” click here.

This article originally appeared in The Birmingham Times.

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Bo Tefu

California Assembly Passes Bill to Strengthen Penalties for Soliciting Minors

The revised version of Assembly Bill 379, authored by Assemblymember Maggy Krell (D-Sacramento), now allows prosecutors to file felony charges against adults who solicit sex from a 16 or 17-year-old, provided the accused is three or more years older than the minor. If the offender is within three years of the minor, the charge would remain a misdemeanor.

Published

6 days ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

The California State Assembly has agreed to amend a controversial bill that would increase penalties for adults who solicit sex from minors ages 16 or 17, following a wave of criticism from Republicans and concerns raised by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“From a prosecutor’s standpoint, this bill strengthens California law and gives us the felony hammer to prosecute the creeps that are preying on teenagers,” Krell said in a statement supporting the amended bill.

The new amendments also include provisions for a state grant program aimed at improving the prosecution of human trafficking and sex trafficking cases, as well as a support fund for survivors partially funded by increased fines on businesses that enable or fail to address human trafficking.

The bill faced significant opposition last week after the Assembly removed a provision that would have treated solicitation of 16 and 17-year-olds as a felony for all offenders.

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Activism

BOOK REVIEW: The Afterlife of Malcolm X

Betty Shabazz didn’t like to go to her husband’s speeches, but on that February night in 1965, he asked her to come with their daughters to the Audubon Ballroom in New York. Did Malcolm X sense that something bad would happen on that night? Surely. He was fully aware of the possibility, knowing that he’d been “a marked man” for months because of his very public break with the Nation of Islam.

Published

6 days ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Book Cover of the Afterlife of Malcolm X. Courtesy of Simon & Schuster.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: by Mark Whitaker, c.2025, Simon & Schuster, $30.99, 448 pages

Who will remember you in fifty years’ time?

A handful of friends – at least those who are still around – might recall you. Your offspring, grandkids, and greats, maybe people who stumble upon your tombstone. Think about it: who will remember you in 2075? And then read “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” by Mark Whitaker and learn about a legacy that still resonates a half-century later.

As the news of his murder spread around New York and around the world, his followers and admirers reacted in many ways. His friend, journalist Peter Goldman, was “hardly shocked” because he also knew that Malcolm’s life was in danger, but the arrest of three men accused of the crime didn’t add up. It ultimately became Goldman’s “obsession.”

Malcolm’s co-writer for The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Alex Haley, quietly finished the book he started with Malcolm, and a small upstart publishing house snatched it up. A diverse group of magazines got in line to run articles about Malcolm X’s life, finally sensing that White America “’needed his voice even more than Blacks did.’”

But though Malcolm X was gone, he continued to leave an impact.

He didn’t live long enough to see the official founding of the Black Panther Party, but he was influential on its beginning. He never knew of the first Kwanzaa, or the triumphs of a convert named Muhammad Ali.

Malcolm left his mark on music. He influenced at least three major athletes.

He was a “touchstone” for a president …

While it’s true that “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” is an eye-opening book, one that works as a great companion to the autobiography, it’s also a fact that it’s somewhat scattered. Is it a look at Malcolm’s life, his legacy, or is it a “murder mystery”?

Turns out, it’s all three, but the storylines are not smooth. There are twists and tangents and that may take some getting used-to. Just when you’re immersed, even absorbed in this book, to the point where you forget about your surroundings, author Mark Whitaker abruptly moves to a different part of the story. It may be jarring.

And yet, it’s a big part of this book, and it’s essential for readers to know the investigation’s outcome and what we know today. It doesn’t change Malcolm X’s legacy, but it adds another frame around it.

If you’ve read the autobiography, if you haven’t thought about Malcolm X in a while, or if you think you know all there is to know, then you owe it to yourself to find “The Afterlife of Malcolm X.”

For you, this is a book you won’t easily forget.

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Bay Area

Grand Jury: Richmond Police Short-staffed Amid Budget Cuts, Council Inaction

In recent years, RPD was described as severely understaffed in two independent reports, one by Raftelis Financial Consulting (2024) and another by Matrix Consulting Group (2023). Raftelis recommended the hiring of 27 more officers and Matrix recommended hiring 30. Despite these findings, “neither report has been fully discussed by the City Council in a public meeting,” the Grand Jury report notes.

Published

6 days ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

RPD headquarters. Courtesy image.

The Richmond Standard

A newly released Contra Costa County Civil Grand Jury report raised concerns about public safety in Richmond caused by an understaffed police department.

The Grand Jury ultimately recommended that the Richmond City Council reverse its actions to defund the Richmond Police Department, which remains below the approved level of 146 sworn officers with a current vacancy of 23 officers, according to the report.

In 2014, when the RPD under Chief Chris Magnus gained national recognition for implementing a community policing model that drove down crime, the department boasted 196 sworn officers.

Meanwhile, crime is on the rise. While homicides were down from 18 in 2021 to 11 in 2024, violent crimes overall jumped 22.6% in that time. Robbery and aggravated assault both increased by nearly 20%, with sexual assaults up 21%, according to the grand jury report’s findings.

Those numbers are likely higher since RPD’s limited staffing means police are unable to respond to all calls for service, according to RPD authorities.

The Grand Jury report noted a pivotal moment for the police department occurred in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.

Jumping aboard a national trend to defund police, the City Council, led by the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA), reallocated $3 million away from the RPD budget, leading to downsizing or elimination of RPD’s specialized investigative units.

The funds were redirected to support the YouthWORKS Program, unhoused services, the Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS), and a new alternative non-police community response team.

The latter strategy, known as the Community Crisis Response Program (CCRP), aims to reduce the number of calls to dispatch that require a law enforcement response. But the program has yet to be fully implemented and is being challenged by the RPD’s union, which takes issue with CCRP employees becoming members of SEIU Local 1021, a separate city union that routinely helps to elect RPA members to the City Council.

The Grand Jury recommends that the city use a portion of the $550 million Chevron settlement funds to hire and retain more officers. The City Council recently expressed interest in using those funds to address the city’s unfunded pension liabilities. To read the full, 10-page Grand Jury report, go to https://www.cc-courts.org/civil/docs/grandjury/2024-2025/2503/2503-DiminishingFundsandFewerOfficers.pdf?fbclid=IwY2xjawKR1AVleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFxeW1vUTFXNWNWazZCZmxIAR6FJYmFEfK098FXFhC4lvSCMSbHr5aEVno_sZqukzhZKI9iEvsu8kr_KoKX6g_aem_Xp15VG4_irpJqDWBcAI7-g