F.A.S.T. (FAITH and ACTION for STRENGTH TOGETHER)
Hope to see you at the F.A.S.T. Assembly
Monday October 22, 7:00 P.M. at Holy Cross Church.
7851 54TH Avenue North
This is the first of the three big public actions for year four of F.A.S.T. All participating covenanted members will vote on the priority issue for the coming year.
At the caucus meeting on October 6th Drugs and Crime surfaced as the most dominant category. Some congregations will be newly covenanted on this night also.
If you are not a member of a church that is a part of FAST you are still welcome to participate. Only member congregations will vote on the priority issues.
In August last year several other church leaders organized a protest and rally. They took to the streets to march against the violence. The Times wrote:
another group set out from Bartlett Park. As they slowly marched to Wildwood Park for a rally, people prayed and chanted: “Stop the violence!”
The rallying cry was printed on white T-shirts that many marchers wore. They wanted to call attention to the cycle of black-on-black violence that organizers say has taken the lives of 85 young black men in St. Petersburg during the past five years. It is not the first rally aimed at ending violence in the city and probably won’t be the last.
But this was the last we heard from these congregations. The rally was impressive. People were talking about it for weeks. We were ready for action, for the next step. But then, nothing.
There have been many rallies that accomplished nothing except to give participants a chance to vent their frustration. This rally also
took the leadership role back from three mothers whose sons had been murdered. These women had taken to the streets and had an impact. The killings seemed to stop for a while while the mothers were out talking to the young people.
Some of the leaders of this action are now working to elect city council members who will protect the status quo. Those that play the game are rewarded. City council is in denial that a problem exists. As long as most homicides only kill black southside residents St. Pete seems to have little to worry about.
After most of a year went by the church leaders put together a big meeting in March that helped network social service programs. The goal was to keep kids busy in the summer by telling parents of available slots in summer programs. A positive step but not a very ambitious goal after all of the talk of “stop the killing.” The next generation is still being exposed to gangsters on the street corners as their role models.
Those church people listened to city hall. Residents would tell a different story if anyone wanted to listen.
There have been many rallies that accomplished nothing except to give participants a chance to vent their frustration.
Now we are back to “normal” with shooting and killing on a regular basis. The death toll has climbed from 85 to over 100 since the new mayor and council took office in 2001.
Bartlett Park Crime Watch has a program that is working. We had three or four killings a year during the two years before we started crime watch but this year we have had only one killing so far. We are willing to share our successful formula with all other neighborhoods. It’s no big secret. As Bill Maxwell likes to say in his Times column, black neighborhoods will suffer incredible amounts of crime as long as most residents “look the other way” when we observe street corner drug sales or see a thief go door to door selling stolen property. We are part of the problem but could easily become the solution. The drug holes operate in full view of all neighborhood residents. This way they maximize drug sales by making it easy for customers to make a connection. Why do we tolerate this? How long can we let this go on?
We have been asking residents to call and keep calling. We have increased calls and see a greater police presence as a result. We also educate residents on how to call. Some are foolish and confront criminals. We let the police do this. All we need to do is get an accurate description of the criminals and call immediately while the crime is in progress. If you can tell which one is holding the drugs or where drugs are hidden you have struck gold. This information will enable police to take the drugs off the street and hopefully make an arrest. The weak link here is the drug buyer who comes in from the nicer part of town. We get their tag number and a description of the person and vehicle and which direction they are heading. With a bit of luck the police can catch up to them and pull them over. With probable cause they will be searched and arrested. In any case we can discourage them from coming back and they will pick another neighborhood. These drug users supply the money that buys the guns, entices kids into a life of crime and destroys neighborhoods.
Another tactic in Bartlett Park is to take our meeting out to the streets where drugs are sold. Our block parties and meetings have let the residents know that we are out there. Many are too frightened to participate but a few dozen have been coming out to our events. The Wrice Process is based on physically taking back the drug hole from the criminals. We talk to our neighbors one on one and slowly we have picked up more people who call and report crime.
More on the Wrice Process here, here and here.
The members voted to focus this year's effort on drugs and crime. Sunday's report on Murder in 2007 showed that once again violent killings are concentrated in the southside drug holes. We need all the help that we can get. F.A.S.T. can help other neighborhoods duplicate the success we have had in Bartlett Park.
11/7/07 More: Mother’s love, mother’s anguish - Three mothers from St. Petersburg, Fla., watched their boys die, one by one. And now they beg for the violence to end.
Voices against violence rise in St. Petersburg
“R.I.P.” songs, Dana “Short Fuse” Harrington, and South House records
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