Town hall turnout calls to end violence

Concerned citizens want voices heard, bloodshed to end. ‘Our communities are torn by violence, our families are destroyed by violence and our faith is tested by violence. It’s incumbent upon us to respond to the violence.’ Dr. J.R. Thicklin President of t

RIVIERA BEACH — Less than a week after two people were gunned down in separate shootings in Riviera Beach, more than 50 concerned citizens gathered for a town hall meeting Friday night to voice their concerns about the violence plaguing the city.

Those who attended the town hall were adamant the bloodshed must end and came to make their voices heard. Also in attendance were former and current local officials, law enforcement and community leaders.

Many in the crowd had been personally affec ted by violence. Jackie Harris is one of those people. His nephew, Kevin Humphrey, was shot to death Tuesday morning in Riviera Beach.

“We’re here because we don’t even know what to do,” he said. “I don’t want to see anybody else buried. I don’t want to see anybody else shot, paralyzed or hurt.”

Mayor Thomas Masters said the meeting was the first step in finding answers to solve the city’s problems.

“If we had the answer, we would fix it overnight,” he said. “But we can come up with pieces of the puzzle and put them together and do something.”

Dr. J.R. Thicklin, the presi dent of t he Pal m B e a c h County Clergy Alliance, said the community is key to stopping the violence.

“Our communities are torn by violence, our families are destroyed by violence and our faith is tested by vio -

lence,” he said. “It’s incumbent upon us to respond to the violence.”

Ralph Franklin, a retired major with the Riviera Beach Police Department, said one way to get criminals off the streets is residents stepping forward to communicate with the city’s police.

“It’s not what the police department can do for the community, it’s what the community can do for the police department,” he said. “We’ve got one of the best police departments in Palm Beach County; we’ve just got to communicate with them.”

Bryce Graham, a community activist, recommended a gun buy-back program as a way to clean up the city’s crime problem.

“Pe o p l e wi l l move f o r money. Let’s buy these guns back and get them off the streets,” Graham said.

Patricia Fedina said the answer is for more police to get out of their cars and into the streets. Fedina’s son, Tarrie Wilder, was slain in a shooting in Riviera Beach in 2015.

Interim Police Chief Mike Madden was at the meeting. He said the police have taken steps to increase their presence on Riviera’s streets.

“You want to see more police officers out of the car, and we hear you loud and clear,” he said. “We’ve implemented a program recently where officers do just that.”

The program involves a newly created community police force that will have officers walking the streets in neighborhoods across Riviera Beach, the chief said.

Madden also said that, in addition to more boots on the ground, the department is relying on technology to help stop crimes before they happen and to more quickly catch perpetrators.

“We have the tools in the places we need them where some of the violent crime is occurring,” he said.

O n e o f t h e t e c h n o l o - gies he described is called ShotSpotter, where a network of microphones placed around the c it y “li stens” for gunshots and provides police with precise information about the shots fired.

Ma d d e n s a i d i t h e l p s officers locate and arrive at the scenes of shootings quicker than ever, allowing law enforcement to more effectively gather valuable evidence and witness testimony.

However, Madden echoed Major Franklin when he said the best way to stop crime from happening is to collaborate as a community.

“We need to work together t o t r y t o p r e v e n t t h e s e crimes,” he said. “These are tragedies that are ruining families in our community. We want to be a part of the solution, we want to listen and hopefully, we can all make a difference.”

In Florida, as a general rule, parents are not responsible for the negligence of their children. However, they can become responsible if they themselves are negligent in the supervision of their children and, as a result, their children negligently injure someone.

An example of how a parent might become liable for a child’s conduct is the case of Seabrook v. Taylor. In that case, a 14-year-old boy got in a fight over a basketball game and the argument escalated to the point that the child went to his home and obtained a gun that his parents had left in an unlocked closet — freely accessible to the 14-year-old. The child shot two of his friends and a lawsuit was filed against the parents, alleging that they were negligent in allowing the minor to have access to the firearm. The jury awarded a sizable verdict against the parents based upon their own negligence.

A parent can also be responsible for the actions of their children when the parents sign to allow one of their children to obtain a driver’s license. By state statute, a minor under the age of 18 can obtain a driver’s license only if his or her parent signs an application for that license. By signing that application, the parents indicate their willingness to assume responsibility for the child’s negligence in driving a vehicle. The application requires that the parent represent that they will be financially responsible for any costs or damages arising from car accidents in which the minor is involved.

Lawyers who handle personal injury cases have to be aware of the law under a variety of possible fact situations. Lawyers who specialize in representing people who are injured as a result of automobile accidents, or other types of events that cause injury, need to be aware of the Florida statutes that apply to each situation and the case law that has interpreted those statutes. Lawyers who handle these types of cases do so on a contingent fee basis, charging a percentage of recovery rather than an hourly fee.

Theodore Babbitt is senior partner in the law firm of Babbitt & Johnson, P.A., and is a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, which is limited to the top 100 personal injury lawyers in the United States.