Our region has a gun violence problem that threatens to undo all progress we’ve made on equity and economic development.
Public safety is a just expectation from every person. Our day-to-day existence is shaken to its core without the feeling of safety. Tragically, for many, this means the fear of losing a child, spouse or parent to violence that can trigger an endless cycle of emotional trauma and anxiety. It takes one instance of gun violence to unravel the survival of an entire family that has reverberations for generations of children.
That is entirely unacceptable. Every person deserves to grow up and live in a community without the fear of violence and subsequent trauma. We must recognize the historical disinvestment in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods. We must respond with investments to support after-school programs, job training, educational opportunities, homeownership programs and more. We must simultaneously recognize and enforce the importance of police officers as providers of an essential public service rooted in the uncompromising responsibility to be fair in their duties.
An all-or-nothing approach to a complex public policy concern can become a crisis, and it will lead to more precious lives lost to senseless and tragic acts of gun violence.
Bhavini Patel
Edgewood
The writer is an Edgewood Council member.