Panel addresses crime trend

BY RICK NEALE
FLORIDA TODAY

Witnesses watched when Tony "T.C." Isom Jr., 25, was fatally shot in December on Saxon Street in south Melbourne.

But almost a full year later, his murder remains unsolved. And Isom's heartbroken family members and longtime girlfriend, Crystal Broadway, cannot understand why.

"There were people on the street that day who won't say anything. It's kids he grew up with, and played ball with, and they saw what happened -- and they won't say anything," Broadway told the audience during Saturday's South Melbourne Crime Conference. "It frustrates us to no end.

"I wonder what the problem is, and I don't know how to fix it. Because I don't have the answers."

The daylong roundtable at Stone Middle -- a couple blocks from Saxon Street -- was triggered by a rash of shootings and violence. A panel of nationally recognized speakers called for an end to community apathy and the start of a church-led crime-fighting campaign.

"Unsolved murders. Unsolved mysteries. Families impacted. Lives that have been torn apart. Weeping mothers. Weeping children," said J.R. Thicklin, senior pastor of Kingdom Harvest Ministries of West Palm Beach.

"How much longer can we keep going when one generation after another accepts violence as a way of life?"

Late last year, the Melbourne police community relations council established a 12-member committee -- including Brevard County Commissioner Helen Voltz and City Councilwoman Kathy Meehan -- that met every week for months, brainstorming crime-fighting strategies. Saturday's conference was the result.

Leonard Ross, longtime president of the city's Martin Luther King Jr. coalition, said the event hearkened back to the south Melbourne anti-drug marches of the early 1990s. That's when groups of activists confronted and chased off dealers from street corners, chanting, "Up with hope, down with dope!"

Willie Kimmons, a Daytona Beach educational consultant who grew up poor with 26 siblings in a Tennessee shotgun house, urged parents in the audience to "have a physical presence at that schoolhouse." He emphasized discipline while raising children -- he said he has performed six eulogies of black males under age 18 in Volusia County since January.

"Thank God for the butt-whuppings. Thank God for the butt-whuppings, he said. "Because otherwise, I'd be in the cemetery or the jailhouse."

The keynote speaker was Shawn Jackson of the Georgia-based consulting firm The Jaxsun Group. Dressed in black hip-hop gear, speaking in intermittent slang, he educated attendees -- or "fossils," he quipped -- on the music's appeal, imagery and cultural impact on young people.

"To some of you, hip-hop is a foreign language. And you need to learn it," Jackson said.

About 80 adults attended the conference. Delores Pryce, executive director of the Melbourne Police Athletic League, called for the next step: a youth summit in early next year.

"We've got to go out in the streets. We have to pull our kids back," Pryce said. "I'm tired of putting juveniles in jail. I'm tired of wrestling them on the ground and putting them in handcuffs. I'm tired of going to juvenile court."

Contact Neale at 242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com.

SOUTH MELBOURNE CRIME CONFERENCE

On Saturday, October 27^th, the Melbourne Police Community Relations Council Ad-Hoc Committee, in collaboration with Brevard County Commissioner Helen Voltz, will be hosting the South Melbourne Crime Conference.  We invite all South Melbourne area citizens interested in making their neighborhoods safer to Stone Middle School from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm for this FREE conference.  Attendees will also receive a FREE lunch, however you must RSVP by October 22^nd to (321)952-6302 to receive your FREE lunch.

The conference will focus on ways to help eliminate crime and make our neighborhoods a safer place to live.  Speaking at the conference will be:  Keynote Speaker Shawn Jackson, President of The Jaxsun Group, the nation’s leading training organization in improving and understanding youth, young adult, and adult relations and whose presentation deals with the influence rap and hip-hop music & culture has on American youth; Dr. Willie J. Kimmons, a Nationally recognized consultant, speaker, and author of 5 books; Lewis Williams, who provides customized workshops to help review purpose and renew focus; Pastor J.R. Thicklin, Senior Pastor and Teacher of Kingdom Harvest Ministries, located in West Palm Beach; and Col. Dean Renfrow, former Oregon State Police Officer who now works for Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Brown’s Amer-I-Can Program.

The Melbourne Police Community Relations Council Ad-Hoc Committee, which consists of Yvonne Minus, Leonard Ross, Carl Finerson, James Minus, Joseph McNeil, Bennie Hopkins Sr., Melbourne Councilwoman Kathy Meehan, Jan Conrad, and Commissioner Helen Voltz, is a grassroots group of committed community leaders determined to impact change.  Over the past eight months, they have gathered frequently to discuss strategies and seek answers in a collective effort to eradicate the root causes of violence and drugs that are cancerous to our young people.  In addition, through a collaborative effort with State Representative Mitch Needelman’s office, Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Brown’s program titled AMER-I-CAN is being implemented in four Brevard County schools this fall.

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