African American ministers and community leaders called Thursday for more
citywide attention to the devastating gun violence that is plaguing their
neighborhoods.
The group -- led by the Rev. Amos Brown -- met at the Third Baptist
Church in San Francisco's Western Addition. They said the city's four homicides
last weekend emphasize the need for more help -- especially since summer
generally brings a spike in violent crime.
They called on city leaders to create more summer jobs for youth, create
more employment opportunities for adults, devote real attention to the public
schools' truancy problem, dedicate more city funding to African American
nonprofit and community groups, and devote more energy to finding and arresting
suspects.
They also announced a rally Sunday featuring the Rev. Jesse Jackson,
founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. It is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Ella
Hill Hutch Community Center, 1050 McAllister Street.
"Black lives are not expendable," said Sharen Hewitt, director of the
Community Leadership Academy and Emergency Response project, based in
Visitacion Valley. "We are here to say, 'Enough is enough.' "
Butch Wing, national political coordinator with the Rainbow/PUSH
Coalition, attended the news conference Thursday and said Jackson wants to come
to San Francisco to raise awareness of gun violence in society at large.
"There's a numbness and an acceptance," Wing said, noting that those
living in the affected neighborhoods feel it acutely every day. "Families are
not numb to it. They feel the pain and anguish and also frustration -- the
gun violence continues and they're just another statistic."
This article appeared on page B - 7 of the San Francisco Chronicle
