Mayor Dobies speaking to the congregation at Universalist Unitarian Church of East Liberty on July 14, 2019.
Good morning, and thank you for inviting me here today. It is nice to be surrounded by friends and, more specifically, by those whose faith allows them to dream of a brighter future for our community and those in it.
For years, I worked with members of this congregation to pass the non-discrimination ordinance and protect the LGBT community from discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations.
That work has helped to define and underscore who we are as a community; as a city: we hold tolerance and inclusion as our highest values. And we view diversity as a strength.
Since then, whether it has been condemning the bigoted remarks of a certain Sheriff, passing ban-the-box policies for returning citizens, or working to provide subsidized housing for the poor, we have continued to emphasize that simple fact: that a diverse city is a strong city.
But in the course of that work, we’ve also come to define how we express those values, and how to show that we are a compassionate city — that as leaders we must work for the least among us, give voice to the voiceless, and stand for those who cannot stand for themselves.
And in the city of Jackson, there are many, many people who need that support.
More than one in three people live under the federal poverty level in the City of Jackson. Even more are asset limited or income constrained per the Jackson County United Way.
Our city suffered greatly over the last few decades. Numerous plants moved elsewhere because of unfair trade policies. Nearly 40% of our population left the city.
Those 33,500 individuals who remained were stuck: stuck paying for city infrastructure that was built for 55,000 people — and doing so after a great recession.
Think about how much strain and stress that has not only caused the city, but those living in it.
A variety of factors have contributed to poverty that our community faces. There is no doubt that generational poverty exists in Jackson.
And we are working to address that poverty head on, through our work with the Financial Stability Network, investment in low income housing tax credit projects, and by pursuing a Housing First model through the city’s Poverty Council.
That poverty stems from a variety of problems: poor supply of stable and affordable housing, a lack of financial literacy, and access to a good paying job with good benefits. In sort: an access to opportunity.
It’s why I’ve been going door-to-door talking about access to opportunity for all and making that the mission of our work going forward.
And it’s why we’re taking steps to address the violence that we have in our community.
I believe that the crime and violence that exists within our community is inextricably tied to the poverty that exists in our city.
When people lack basic needs, when they lack access to jobs and opportunity, they will do what is necessary to survive.
When they lack supportive structures at home, and when the city is absent in acknowledging and supporting them, they will look for those support systems in local gangs.
And when we lack the will to reach out to these individuals with compassion and purposeful communication to lift them out of that environment, then we cannot be surprised when their frustration compounds to a point where they feel the only means of communication left is to pick up a gun and pull the trigger.
I believe that as much as we try to affect change in our environment, we are even more so shaped by it. Molded unknowingly or unwillingly by the circumstances into which we were born.
To me, every shooting is a cry for help.
For too many that are now ensnared in gun violence in our city, I believe this to be the case.
The environment in our city has made this problem. It is not the fault of any one person or singular decision, but it is our responsibility to fix it.
To not only end the violence, but address the underlying problem of poverty and the problems associated with it.
As city leaders, we’re among the first to get reports of a shooting. We hear the stories of the victims, see the fear from those affected and understand the damage such violence causes to our neighborhoods and the families they support.
In a time when state and federal policy has failed to address gun violence that now even permeates into our schools, it is incumbent upon local leaders to work to understand the problem and present solutions.
And we are doing just that.
Beyond advocating for more boots on the ground, and driving more resources into our police department — like new equipment and the body cameras recently adopted — we’ve restored an officer to the Jackson Narcotics Enforcement Team (JNET) and created and expanded a cadet program that are having a tangible effect.
In my State of the City speech earlier this year, I focused on gun violence — called “public health crisis” by the American Medical Association and the American Public Health Association.
I asked City Councilwoman Kelsey Heck to lead a Gun Violence Task Force. It’s one of the top issues affecting her ward.
Since that time we’ve worked on a dossier of policy changes, programs and projects to combat gun violence.
We’re organizing a five point plan that includes creating early intervention programming, directing private investment, empowering neighborhoods, prioritizing city investment and strengthening city policies.
I wanted to explain each of those a little bit more today to show the kind of work we are attempting as a city.
First, we want to create early intervention programming.
After first getting elected, we pursued a grant with the Jackson Community Foundation to work with John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York to study gun violence in Jackson.
Here’s what we found: in the last three years, anywhere between 50 to 70 percent of the violence that we see in our community — the gunshots that spill out into our neighborhoods — the bullets that hit our cars, our homes and sometimes other people — that violence is derived from the behavior of only 120 to 150 individuals.
Think about that: less than half of a percent of our population is causing 70% of the violence that we see.
John Jay College found that 120 to 150 individuals involved in violence are largely associated with group units — whether it be gangs, posses or other loosely organized family units.
Much of the violence that we see and hear is the spillover of these units fighting back and forth. Fighting over drugs. Answering insults and injury to each other, and demanding respect, by the use of a firearm.
Group violence intervention programming is a strategy of crime reduction based on years of research in communities across the country.
The National Network for Safe Communities, a project of John Jay College, works with local law enforcement, social service providers and community activists to reduce violence and improve public safety.
The first program of this kind was implemented as “Operation Ceasefire” in Boston in 1996 and the principles have continued to work in cities large and small — including our neighbors in Kalamazoo and Detroit.
In essence, group violence intervention programming uses various tools to compel these 120 to 150 individuals into a room, and then engages with them in a compassionate, yet firm way. It underscores the consequences of continuing on these paths: the likelihood that they will either end up dead or in prison.
The programming uses community leaders and influencers to convey those messages, and employs service agencies to connect those struggling individuals with the social services they may need to help escape from a life of violent crime: access to job opportunities, stable and safe housing, mental health services and counseling, or just a solid, reliable community mentor.
The National Network for Safe Communities is already working with the Jackson Police Department to conduct an initial problem analysis to identify the resources, stakeholders, and active groups and suggest steps to address the violent crime problem in Jackson.
It is critical that we support this work, which is why Councilman Heck and I proposed a funding increase to the JPD for the 2019–20 budget, specifically to implement Group Violence Intervention strategic programming.
We are currently working on grant opportunities to help fund a portion of that important work.
In addition to this investment, we are also going to work to drive private investment.
While we work to rebuild our city — and you can see some new buildings under construction in downtown Jackson — it is important to think strategically about how we can make those new facilities safer for the residents, and safer for the community in which they exist.
In early 2017, I helped to introduce an ordinance that would require certain new commercial buildings to have cameras installed on them to enhance safety and facilitate police investigation when crime occurs.
Project Greenlight is a public-private partnership that began with nine gas stations in troubled Detroit neighborhoods.
The businesses owners partnered with Detroit Police Department to share security camera feeds — allowing the police to tap into those feeds in real-time during emergency situations. This video feed helps give the police the tools and surveillance they need to proactively fight crime.
While Jackson’s local camera measure failed by a narrow vote, I look forward to re-introducing a similar measure in the coming months and to work with the business community to stand-up a similar program to Project Greenlight, while also respecting the privacy interests and constitutional rights of citizens.
The trust and cooperation of those citizens is important, and that’s why the third component of work that we are pursuing is in empowering our neighborhoods.
Successful cities have strong, connected, and empowered neighborhood associations.
These are places were neighbors come together to organize, undertake beautification projects, share information, and keep an eye out for one another’s property and safety.
In 2016 the city went through a Master Plan process, built with citizen input from the beginning — six different community workshops, digital engagement from the UofM Citizen Interaction Design Program, online surveys, feedback from stakeholders and the Planning Commission. The feedback from the citizens identified 30 different neighborhoods in our city.
Working with Councilmember Colleen Sullivan, I’ll introduce a Neighborhood Association Ordinance so we can encourage residents to formalize those neighborhoods with the city and, in doing so, use that structure to help the city delivering information faster and more holistically when there’s an issue or development that affects the residents within a given neighborhood.
It also creates a fund to pool city and foundation resources to provide grants to residents who want to take more control and ownership of problems in their neighborhood.
Organizing our neighborhoods and giving them the tools to take on some of the localized challenges will help build the networks and relationships necessary to navigate problems and also work to provide information to city police when such violence erupts.
When we invest in neighborhoods, we invest in ourselves.
And that’s what we will continue to do by prioritizing city investment. What I mean by that is using city resources and design in a way that helps to reduce crime in the first place.
Anyone that knows Frank’s Party Store knows that is was a location where illicit activity congregated. Drugs, prostitution, shootings and the like.
If anyone has driven by there recently, the look of the area has changed.
We did this by employing a strategy called Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. It relies on manipulating the built environment to create safer neighborhoods.
Look in the area surrounding Frank’s: a new intersection, bumpouts that slow traffic; raising the tree canopy to improve line of sight; installing new decorative lighting to not only enhance the beautification of the area but improve visibility; plantings, new trees and decorative fencing to show that people are maintaining this area and are watching.
While simple things like urban design don’t seem like they relate to crime and violence, they do.
It’s had an impact in more ways than one, and we will continue to investigate other hot spots for crime and make similar enhancements to the neighborhood.
We will also work to strengthen city policies and the enforcement of those policies.
One of the first policies I worked to enact back in 2012 was a revision to our Nuisance Abatement Ordinance.
The ordinance allows us to enforce on a property when there’s been a growing number of code violations — think multiple noise violations, trash violations, or domestic disturbances — and allows us to compel the owners to take corrective action to abate the nuisance. It also requires them to pay for associated costs.
In other words, if there was a nuisance abatement action filed against a property owner and the city prevailed, the city could obtain a court order that would force the property owner to pay the city for costs associated with the violation.
The fines are no longer specific to a certain city department either. A property owner in violation of the ordinance could be ordered to pay for the number of times the police have been called to a specific location, for housing inspections and even the cost to board up or clean a property.
In 2012, we reduced the number of violations that would qualify a property as a nuisance, and included the unlawful discharge of a firearm as a nuisance.
The city should increase the use of this tool to curb violence — and specifically gun violence — on the numerous properties in our community that have been havens for this type of activity.
The properties that harbor violent offenders should either help find a solution or pay costs associated with the city’s consistent response. Taxpayers should not keep fronting this bill alone. It’s a drain on critical police resources.
We need those property owners to step up and be a part of the solution.
Look, those are just some examples of the steps we are taking to address the gun violence plaguing our city. There are more policies, projects and programs in development.
The city will continue to address gun violence by these methods and others. But we cannot do it without the moral support and action of people like you.
There is a direct relationship between social action and evangelism. This church underscores that.
True worship is to work for justice and care for the poor and oppressed.
When people of faith put that faith into action, there is no limit to the good work that can be done.
Proactively addressing the cause of the risky criminal behavior of those folks and working to change that behavior will lower crime, reduce violence, minimize arrests and incarcerations, and help improve trust and transparency between our community and our law enforcement officers.
Far too many of our youth are ending up dead or in prison — we need to fundamentally shift the way we think about violence, offenders, and policing.
I always say that you can judge a community by how it treats the most vulnerable of its citizens.
Let us truly understand and embrace what those who engage in gun violence are: they are lost. They are vulnerable.
Instead of turning our backs on them, let us turn towards them.
Let us open our hearts and treat them with the compassion that they need to put down their weapons and improve not only their own lives, but our neighborhoods as well.
Let us enact the policies to reflect that drive. Join us in this important work.
Thank you for allowing me to be here today and to share a few thoughts on how we can build peace in our community.