Tough love, citywide cameras would reduce youth crime in Selma, officials say

Tough love, tougher court sentences and more cameras could be the key to reducing youth crime in Selma, according to speakers at a recent communitywide symposium on crime and violence.

Law enforcement leaders came together at the meeting convened by Jannie Thomas, city councilman in Ward 7, the Selma ward most wracked by violence.

Dallas County Sheriff Mike Granthum said law enforcement officers need the community’s help, especially parents. He discussed how a young person can get pulled into a life of crime.

“Thefts are gonna start and (then) next thing you know, he’s gonna be toting that gun to school or walking the street with the gun,” Granthum said. “And you’re enabling him. Tough love is hard but do it.”

District Judge Vernetta Perkins Walker, who adjudicates juvenile crime cases in Dallas County, agreed.

“There’s a difference between adult laws and juvenile laws,” Perkins said. “(Juvenile defendants) know the punishment you can get under a juvenile law is different than the punishment that you get under adult law. Juvenile law is supposed to be rehabilitation.”

She said she is frustrated by parents who come into her courtroom and defend their child’s criminal behavior. As a result, she sees repeat offenders who have fired dozens of rounds into Selma’s neighborhoods.

Thomas said that juvenile crime upsets her because she often knows the victims and the criminals.

“These are babies that I have been around in my neighborhood right now facing charges,” Thomas said. “This got to stop, y’all. I can’t see another one of them boys that I’ve known [dead]. I can’t take it!”

Some are so immature that they don’t understand the gravity of their crime. “They don’t even know what they done did,” Thomas said. “They done killed somebody.”

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Thomas said, “I have worked my butt off trying to save them, but when you’ve got this in your neighborhood, you gotta keep the fight, keep fighting. We’ve got to come together.”

There is good news. Selma Police Chief Kenta Fulford said that the surveillance cameras are working. “The cameras are not spying on anyone, but it is assisting us with solving some of the crimes that are taking place in the city,” Fulford said.

Fulford said he will ask the Selma City Council to add two more surveillance in each ward.

Fulford said Selma police officers will be on bike patrols in wards this summer. “We’re not going to miss a spot,” Fulford said. “We’re going to have details out where we will be hitting some houses and making some arrests. So, don’t get angry if we write some tickets.”

Selma Police Det. Javonte Benjamin said that the city has already seen five homicides this year. He said the patrol division is understaffed; the city is slotted for 12 patrolmen, but the city only has three or four on the streets at a time. He said there is a shortage of police officers throughout Alabama.

SPD has 10 new patrol vehicles, which boosted department morale, according to Benjamin.

City Councilwoman Christie Thomas said her constituents “are really excited” to see police patrolling their neighborhoods.

Expanding the crime stoppers program and a gun buyback program could also help. Montgomery holds three buybacks a year, according to a representative of the program.

Cindy Owens, a former foot soldier and community leader, said she is fighting against youth violence by talking to children about nonviolence.

Selma City Council President Billy Young moderated the meeting, and Pastor Coley C. Chestnut Sr. of Fresh Anointing House of Worship gave the invocation.