Midlands Voices: Common ground essential to stopping gang violence

The writer, of Omaha, is chairman of the Nebraska Legislature’s Judiciary Committee. He is a state senator representing District 20.

Last weekend, 12 people were shot in gang-related violence in Omaha. These terrible incidents continue a trend that has seen a violent rise in gun crime over the past decade.

Each shooting carries with it a massive human and financial cost to the individuals involved and to the community as a whole. Incarceration costs for juvenile offenders in Nebraska exceed $60,000 per year. Health care costs for gunshot wounds in Omaha are estimated at $5 million per year for the period from 2002 to 2006.

The human cost to the families of the victims and the shooters is immense. Fear of retaliation can grip a neighborhood plagued with gun violence. Gun and gang violence is not isolated in only one section of our city. However, the cycle of shooting and retaliation tends to follow high concentrations of poverty.

Poverty, combined with high dropout rates and very low youth employment, is exacerbated by a seemingly unlimited flow of illegal firearms and drugs. What is certain is that quick fixes are not possible.

However, if we as an entire community commit ourselves to stopping the violence, we can successfully break the cycle of fear and hopelessness.

Omaha is not unlike many major cities across the country. The good news is that over the past decade, many cities have successfully adopted innovative solutions to prevent violent crime before it starts.

For decades, the debate around gang violence and drugs focused on taking the side of either strict enforcement or fighting the root causes of violence. There did not seem to be a middle ground on the issue. Violence subsequently escalated in most major cities across the country throughout the postwar period.

However, by the late 1990s, law enforcement and community groups began to collaborate to develop strategies to intervene directly with potential shooters and gang members. The goal was to motivate them to seek alternatives to violence.

The new strategies represent a convergence of thinking on all sides of the issue of violence reduction. The successful programs have certain common themes, which center on collaboration between law enforcement and community groups.

First, law enforcement must be supportive. Second, role models who can connect with gang members must be recruited to send the message that there are acceptable alternatives to violence. Several major cities have seen significant reductions in violence and gang activity over the past decade by utilizing violence intervention strategies.

State government addressed these issues in the last legislative session. Legislative Bill 63 provides for tougher sentences for violent crime and graffiti, combined with the creation of the Office of Violence Prevention (OVP).

Grants will soon be awarded to organizations that work collaboratively within their communities to prevent violent crime. The OVP will work with the Nebraska Crime Commission, attorney general, community leaders and local law enforcement to coordinate community-based violence prevention plans and seek grants to help fund programs to stop gang violence.

The message from state government is clear: Violence and gang activity will not be condoned, and the State of Nebraska is willing to support collaborative community projects to help reach the goal of reducing violence.

In Omaha, community-based organizations and faith-based groups work closely with police to develop strategies to identify gangs and divert many of our youth from them. Trust between the police and citizens is being restored. Efforts are made to interrupt retaliatory shootings by approaching victims and victims’ families with help. Prayer vigils are held at shooting scenes.

Public awareness has been significantly heightened. Summer job programs are filled to capacity. Witnesses are beginning to come forward with needed information to find the shooters. Arrests are being made, and illegal guns are being confiscated. However, challenges remain.

Though homicides are down, shootings continue at an unacceptable level. As many as 3,000 youths have some gang affiliation. It is essential that we continue the collaboration that exists between the police and the community and work to bring the entire city together in a collective commitment to stop the shooting.

Fragmented approaches will not work. Our goal to expand educational opportunity and job creation will be significantly more difficult to achieve unless we find common ground on gang-related violence.