PANAMA CITY — Eleven killings during the past eight weeks propelled a group of almost 50 people forward in a march to take a stand against the surge of gun violence around Panama City.
Residents along the route from Glenwood Community Center to the A. D. Harris Learning Village trickled out of their homes Saturday morning to watch the mixture of concerned residents and law officers chant anti-violence messages and sing hymns of hope as they passed.
“We can’t afford to be complacent anymore,” said Janice Lucas, a spokeswoman for the event.
The march assembled a large core of stakeholders. An afternoon rally also had been scheduled, but was canceled because of concerns about security and the addition of more resources for a future event.
Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen spoke at the end of the march from the law enforcement side of the recent violence.
“If we’re not afraid to walk down this road, we should be brave enough to call and say someone is trying to sell dope to my child,” McKeithen said.
He repeated the importance of using public demonstrations as a springboard to following through with community efforts to curb violence, given that such events sometimes stir the pot.
McKeithen later described the collective struggle to identify personal and community circumstances that contributed to the recent shootings. He said stress had been mounting for residents and law officers as they look to one another for quick answers.
“It’s not going to get solved overnight” he said.
No one spoke more passionately than 29-year-old Jeremy Ponds. Born and raised in St. Andrews, Ponds serves on the executive committee of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Ponds returned to his hometown in light of the shootings to help comfort the families of the victims he knew growing up and spread the message that retaliation is not the answer.
“We were once upon a time a close-knit community. I never imagined growing up here we’d have these problems,” he said in an interview.
In his speech, he urged demonstrators to shift the mindset by using positive language and loving words to communicate about solutions.
“A majority of everyone here raised me,” he said as he motioned to the crowd.
Ponds said things have changed from the “old school” values, when parents and neighbors were not afraid to get into the business of children playing in the streets.
“I thank God that I was able to stay out of that type of trouble,” he said. “We need more mentorship and reaching out to these young people.”
John Haley, executive director of operational support services for the Bay District Schools, echoed Ponds’ point that young people lacking financial resources need other outlets for income besides selling drugs and other illegal activities.
Another prevailing theme was the need for more education on conflict resolution and anger management in public schools.
“We want to make sure we know from a school perspective what we need to do to keep our children safe,” Haley said.
Haley said brainstorming sessions already have taken place on how to build conflict resolution into the curriculum. One idea for consideration is to give violent offenders the option of conflict education before facing a blemished record and consequences from the administration.
Most of those involved in recent killings had been young adults in their 20s. Because most of them had not been out of high school more than a few years, Haley said the victims and their families still had ties to the school district. He hopes to see a new trend of constructive problem solving come out of all the attention the violence has received.
“This is a movement that’s got to be for the long-haul,” Ponds said.
Lucas said the march was a part of a “fast-growing organic response.”
“We wanted to give the people that are hurting a chance to come out and demonstrate a demand for peace,” she said.
“We need to have something for our youth to put their attention toward,” added Toni McGee of Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church.
With so many alarmed by the recent violence, McGee is helping form an informal network of residents called the Concerned Citizens of Bay County.
“It’s important to let the families of those who have been killed to know that we do care about them,” McGee said. “We’re here to give the citizens a voice.”
