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Columbia residents attend public forum to discuss violence

Timothy Maylander
/
KBIA
The Mayor's Task Force on Community Violence held three public forums last week to discuss community violence and how to stop it.

             The Mayor’s Task Force on Community Violence held its second of three public forums this week at Progressive Missionary Baptist Church last night. The public forums, titled “Let’s Talk CoMo” are designed to be community listening sessions where members of the public can talk with task force members and prominent community leaders about violence and how to stop it. About 75 people attended. The task force is focusing on what they believe are the four pillars of public safety: prevention, intervention, enforcement and re-entry. Last night’s meeting saw four community organizers lead a discussion group on one of those pillars. Those leaders were Executive Director of Missouri’s Commission on Human Rights Dr. Alisa Warren, President of Missouri and Columbia’s NAACP chapters Mary Ratliff, Columbia Public Schools Superintendent Peter Stiepleman and Columbia Police Department Chief Ken Burton.

       Stiepleman said he was impressed with the suggestions and feedback he got from community members at the forum. Stiepleman, who spoke to the task force last year, said that the goal of the district is to continue efforts to increase access for economically disadvantaged youth.

       “You’re never going to be inspired unless you aspire, right? So it’s our job as a community, and certainly as a school district, to prioritize resources so that kids can do things, activities, programs that round out their core education: foreign language, music, art, athletics. These are all things that will keep a kid in school, engaged, around a positive peer pressure group. It’s what we need to do.”

       While Ratilff was encouraged by the number of people who showed up, she was concerned with the racial divide that plagues Columbia. Monday’s public forum was attended primarily by whites, but last night’s forum featured a predominantly black audience. She said in order for any progress to be made on solving violent crime in Columbia, more work needs to be done in bringing people of different cultural backgrounds together. 

       “I am convinced that for us to resolve this problem of violence, we have got to come together. The community has got to come together, Black and White community, if we’re going to make this thing work. And it’s important enough we got to make this thing work.”

       The task force has been meeting for over a year, and will present their final recommendations based on data they’ve been gathering this November. The task force has four meetings and two work sessions before those recommendations are due, all of which are open to the public. They are also hosting one more public forum tonight at 7p.m. in the Columbia National Guard Armory’s upstairs conference room. While the previous forums have been geared toward adults, tonight’s forum is youth only, ages 15-30. Dinner and entertainment will be provided.

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