Roy Exum
It wasn’t lost on me for a minute that when bully expert Paul Coughlin was here earlier in the week, there was another group that also needed to hear him speak. Coughlin told our educators, our pastors and our citizens that all it takes to stop a bully is the courage to confront one. Over the weekend I recognized courage when Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher, in an open video, told gang members in Chattanooga they will be caught and prosecuted.
"If you are a member of a gang, listen to me; we will pursue anyone that aims to harm our community,” the chief said. “We have talented officers and partners with very special skills and you will receive their full attention."
I was so impressed I dropped Fletcher an email, telling him how much I appreciated his message and its vow. Early Sunday morning he wrote me back a sincere but painful email: “My people and I are as offended and tired of this violence as is the community. I attended a prayer walk yesterday with many of my officers in response to Monday's murder. As I was driving away from the vigil I drove up on a double shooting in the middle of the street,” it read.
“My people continue to serve and work and fight the violence as hard as they can even when it seems to be insurmountable - maybe BECAUSE it seems insurmountable,” he added. “I am proud of them beyond words. I know you know this: chronic exposure to this endless violence takes a toll on my people as much as anyone. And they do it for $20 an hour. They are my heroes.”
Heroes indeed! Before churches finished morning services, a five-year-old boy called 911 to say his mother and her boyfriend had been killed “by a dude” and that the child was all alone. By Monday night a tape of the child’s call had gone viral and soon became a headline on every news website in the nation.
On Tuesday, Marquel Beech, 26, was shot on McCallie Avenue and then came yesterday when a daylight flurry of bullets on Wednesday morning caused several cars to crash, snarling and endangering hundreds of people on Brainerd Road. The shooter(s) drove from the scene. About the same time, an unrelated shooting was taking place on Tunnel Boulevard.
How do we stop such madness! The same way we stop a bully and it is roundly believed if any witness could gather his or her courage and tell police what they saw and shared any information they had, we could drastically reduce gang-related absurdity. Unbelievably, gang shootings are black-on-black and the black community acts like this doesn’t ever happen. Where is the NAACP, the Urban League? To say “that isn’t what we do” or “that isn’t our mission” is to be an accomplice!
Fear of retaliation is so prevalent not even the victims will cooperate with the police department or the sheriff’s office and, due to that lack of courage, our police chief leaves a prayer walk last Saturday for a murder victim to literally drive into a shoot-out 15 minutes later. This isn’t the wild, wild west!
Bullying, now a priority in Chattanooga with a new emphasis at every school in our community, is not as serious as murder but until the good people in our black community band together and cooperate with our police, we will have unlimited shooting and tragic sorrow continue in our city. And what makes it even worse is that many good people see relatives or friends die because the good people would rather remain silent than soon cry tears for their neighbors and loved ones. It makes no sense at all.
It may be Chattanooga’s gang activity has reached the level of “Operation Bite Back.” That is what a task force in Mississippi was called after a girl was gang-raped and burned alive in tiny Panola County in December of 2014. This is a quiet, rural area in northwest Mississippi but evil found its way there. It involved seven law enforcement agencies and three different SWAT teams. Agents listened to over 20,000 telephone calls and studied gangs like the Black Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, and Sipp Mob.
After 10 months of hand-in-hand investigations, a concerted raid at 4:30 in the morning late last fall collared 17 different gang members with some association in the gruesome murder. When the gangsters were behind bars, the calls started and, as the number of people who were, or knew, witnesses grew, it enabled the county district attorney to say, “This is not over by any stretch of the imagination."
Mustering up courage is not hard when you realize it is the right thing to do. Not even the coldest heart can bear hearing that five-year-old voice say “I am all alone.” Can you imagine the mind image that child will carry as the last time he saw his mother?
If you know anything about Saturday’s gunfight in the street, the double murder on Sunday morning, the shootings on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week, I pray you’ll have the courage to call the Chattanooga Police Department or the Hamilton County District Attorney’s office.
If we’ll work together, I’ll guarantee you we will save lives.
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“Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6
royexum@aol.com