Calling for an end to violence against kids
Activists speak out Tuesday about violence against children at the SHAPE Community Center.
Activists and religious leaders from Houston’s African American community — along with family members of several children murdered in recent months — came together Tuesday to denounce the crime that has resulted in the death and injury of innocent children.
“Cease fire, stop the killing of our children,” local activist Deric Muhammad said. “Seeing a baby in a casket is not something that I am willing to get used to.”
Among the Houston children killed in recent months: Maleah Davis, a 4year-old found on the side of the road in Arkansas after she went missing in May; Kamren Jones, an 11-yearold, killed by gunfire in his home at night; and Ivory “TJ” West Jr., 2-year-old, shot to death in a garage while hanging out with his father.
Kenyatta Jones, father of Kamren Jones, said he had hoped his child’s death was an accident.
“That’s not the case,” he said. “It seems like it’s coming to be a problem in our city.”
In light of the deaths, Nation of Islam minister Abdul Haleem Muhammad said it was important for black community to unite to address violence.
“This is a press conference called by the community to say to the press and to the city and to all of those who say to us ‘And what about black on black crime?’ (That) we’re the ones that march when the police brutalize us,” he said. “We’re the ones that march and protest against educational apartheid. We’re the ones that fight for fair housing and fair jobs …. We’re the ones who are always out there on the front line.”
Christopher Cevilla, father of 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes who was shot and killed last year, asked for parents to step up and set a good example.
“I know that the youth is turning to this gang-banging, turning to the streets because when you really think about it, they’re turning to this because they lack the guidance in the homes,” he said. “So us as parents, we have to come together, stand together.”
Attorney Sadiyah Evangelista Karriem, a local activist and mother of seven, agrees.
“We have spent too much of our time going to funerals of children who have been slain, whether it’s been by gunfire, whether it’s by somebody’s boyfriend, somebody’s dad, somebody in the street,” she said. “And we’re tired of going to these funerals because when we look at your children, we are looking at our own children and we have a duty and a responsibility to make sure that our community is safe.”
Several children, who were attending a summer program at the S.H.A.P.E. Community Center, were present at the news conference. Abdul Haleem Muhammad took some time to address the children and remind them of how beloved they were to the community.
“You are the greatest generation,” he said. “You are the hope that our fore parents prayed for on the slave ship, in the plantation, when they were marching in the civil rights’ movement, the Black Panthers and all that.”