On Christmas night, former State Rep. Betty Thompson and her 17-year-old grandson arrived at a St. Louis nightclub five minutes after two teens were shot and killed and several others wounded.
Her own son Tyrone Thompson, a former police officer and nonviolence advocate, was shot and killed by two young men on June 5, 2010.
At a candlelight service for homicide victims on New Year’s Eve, Betty Thompson gave a passionate speech to about 200 community members and leaders at El-Bethel Church of God in Christ, 4020 Page Blvd.
“The young man who killed my son and others – his parents said they couldn’t handle this young man,” Thompson said. “At a very early age, the father said they had to give him to the streets. A lot of us are giving up and giving our kids to the streets. We can’t afford to give our kids to the streets. It takes a village to raise a child, and we all have to be a part of the village.”
This was the 19th year that the Families Advocating Safe Streets has held a vigil on New Year’s Eve to read all the names of the year’s homicide victims in St. Louis City and County, commemorate their lives and pray for the families.
As of Dec. 15, 143 people were lost to violence in St. Louis City in 2010. Of those, 123 were black and 114 were black males.
In St. Louis County in 2010, 29 people were lost to violence, and 23 were black males. Most were younger than 35.
In 19 years, there has never been a year that the mayor of St. Louis City and police chiefs of St. Louis City and County did not attend, said Jeanette Culpepper, the group’s founder. This year the service’s speakers included Fourth Ward Alderman Sam Moore, Mayor Francis G. Slay, Chief of Police of St. Louis Metropolitan department Dan Isom, Chief of Police of St. Louis County department Tim Fitch, Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce and several members of the clergy.
Though meant to provide support to the mourning families, the service was also an opportunity to look at the most pressing issue facing America today – violence against each other, said the event’s emcee, James Clark, vice president of community outreach at Better Family Life.
“The trouble that we face today is much greater than segregation,” Clark said. “The problems that we face today are much more personal than Jim Crow. The problem that we face today, family, is each other.”
Several speakers called for more focused action on the youth.
Chief Isom said sadly, the number of homicides in St. Louis City this year was not much different than last year. Though the police department works to hold the criminals accountable, the community cannot arrest its way out of the problem, he said.
“We’ve got to do something to change the hearts and the minds of these young people in the community,” Isom said. “We arrest a lot of people. It’s not for a lack of putting people away. When you listen to these young people, there’s a hopelessness. The only solution is to change this attitude.”
Thompson announced that she and her family will open the Tyrone Thompson Nonviolence Institute this January. It will be a partnership between St. Louis Public Schools and St. Louis Community College to teach the youth about nonviolence in the public elementary and middle schools.
Chief Fitch announced that the county police department has added a juvenile resource officer to all of the seven precincts.
“We recognized that we didn’t have was an officer specifically assigned to work with juvenile problems in our community,” Fitch said.
The goal is to try to reach middle-school students in particular. “If we don’t get to them then, it’s too late,” Fitch said. Many speakers echo this statement.
Fitch said at the funeral in Wellston for Ranisha Cole, 17, who was shot and killed on Christmas night, there were 25 police officers assigned to the funeral.
“Isn’t that a shame?” Fitch said. “We got to get to these young people.”
In 1986, Rev. E.G. Shields, pastor at Mt. Beluah M.B. Church and president of the St. Louis Clergy Coalition, lost a daughter to violence, right before Christmas.
Shields now walks the streets side by side James Clark and others to pass out job applications to youth on Saturday mornings. The volunteers, part of the Put Down the Pistols program, try to enroll the youth in job training programs at Better Family Life’s MET Center.
“Because my young people call me ‘old school,’ I just have to go old school,” Shields said. “The children who have perpetrated the violence in the streets – they don’t come from Mars. They come from down the street. We must address the young people.”
