JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It’s been a violent week in Jacksonville. We’ve had more than half a dozen shootings and one of them were fatal.
Local activists say this repetitive violence comes down to the community coming together, speaking up, and getting these murderers off the street.
A line of shootings in just one week here in Jacksonville.
Ben Frazier, President of the northside coalition of Jacksonville says there’s enough evidence to prove that there’s a rising tide of gun violence.
“You’ve got to call it like it is. We’ve got to do something different than what we’re doing now," said Frazier.
Frazier says to get rid of gun violence, city officials have to begin doing a better job at diagnosing and managing the problem that produces these crimes.
“To address the economic part of this picture. We’re going to continue to apply a band-aid over an open and massive wound," said Frazier.
Donald Foy, Jacksonville President of MAD DADS says the violence is starting to look like what it did at the end of 2020.
“Until the community gets more involved to break the code of silence and remove these individuals from the streets, we’re going to continue to have it happen," said Foy.
Foy says it starts with us. Speaking up and not staying silent on what may be causing the violence in these neighborhoods.
“What really needs to be done is more funding needs to be put in a community organization for them to reach out to the community where they would want to break the code of silence," said Foy.