City and religious leaders to stand together against gang violence
The City of Coachella and the community’s religious leaders are starting an initiative called “Securing a Safer Coachella.”
Their aim is to help stop gang and gun violence in the city with community involvement.
City officials are looking for more people who witness crimes to come forward and report what they saw to the Sheriff’s Department.
“What we are looking to do is to get the community support, we can’t solve crimes if people don’t tell us what’s happening out there, our police department needs that help to be able to get the folks who commit these crimes,” said Assistant to the City Manager, Jacob Alvarez.
People we talked to who live in Coachella agree this is a problem.
“They are scared to talk because they might do something to them or the family,” said Perlave Reduzco of Coachella. According to Reduzco, her brother was involved in gangs in the city until he had a child and gave up the gang life.
“People are afraid to talk because they don’t feel protected by cops anyways, and everyone’s just going to know who this person is who came forward. It’s just not safe to come forward with anything right now,” said Coachella resident Luis Tovar.
According to the city officials, people who witness crimes are more likely to tell a priest or religious leader then police about what they saw.
“It’s happened before where they talk to the priest, then the priest then engages them with our police department, so that helps with stemming some of the crime or finding who perpetrated some of the crime,” said Alvarez.
“Our lord no longer suffers and dies but too many of our young men and women do suffer and die unjustly and without cause because of living in violence, hatred, fear, revenge, and in some cases a gang mentality,” said Father Guy of Our Lady of Soledad, Coachella.
“We stand together of all different faiths and religions because we are all brothers and sisters of the same God. Wecome together for peaceful solutions to our difficulties. We also need justice for those who have suffered and died,” said Guy.
Other than having witnesses come forward, people have other ideas on how to stop gangs in Coachella and it starts with giving kids things to do.
“A lot of the times they don’t have another outlet, they don’t have somewhere to go, somewhere to learn, and somewhere to meet other people, and maybe sometimes that’s what they need,” said Marsha Beezley. She dropped off her teenage son at the fire department as part of a program to learn how to get involved in a career in emergency response.
The “Securing a Safer Coachella” meeting will be on Friday, April 3, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. in the City Hall’s Council Chambers located at 1515 Sixth Street, Coachella, CA 92236.
