Fighting Charlotte Crime for the Future
CHARLOTTE, NC — Charlotte is fighting against violent gun crime, and looking to the future to win the battle.
CMPD is ready to launch a new initiative utilizing social media as a weapon to put kids at risk on a positive path.
“The children are closest to the problem,” says CMPD community partner Cedric Dean. “And those that are closest to the problem, are closest to the solution.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police helped divert 760 youths from the justice system in 2017. Chief Kerr Putney says it’s about helping young people avoid making the wrong choices, choices that can run a life, creating a circle of incarceration.
“If we’re not careful, we create a cycle that continues to put a lot of young men, black men in particular, and Latinos, behind bars,” says CMPD Chief Kerr Putney.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is teaming with Cedric Dean, a former convict who first went to jail at 16, to launch the “Straight Up” initiative through the Community Empowerment Initiative.
The plan is to use social media to spread positive information, connect families to needed social services and combat the many negative influences kids are exposed to.
“They’re doing a lot of cyber gang banging,” says Dean. “They’re following the wrong people on Facebook. So we’re going to create a community where they can follow us to college, to careers that they need to go to.”
“I can remember the days of your parents would be like, ‘No, you getting ready to go be involved in this!’,” says Charlotte activist Shaun Corbett.
Charlotte activist Shaun Corbett says parents, and concerned adults, need to do more to move kids towards positive outcomes.
Corbett’s Cops and Barbers organization is offering full scholarships to young men and women to become barbers, local business owners and future role models.
But finding candidates has been surprisingly hard.
“We created this based on listening to what the communities had to say,” says Corbett. “There’s no programs. There’s no opportunities. There’s no chances. But then when I create one, nobody’s showing up.”
“The only way we’re going to be able to save the children is through the parents,” adds Dean.
CMPD will launch the “Straight Up” program in the Lakewood and Hidden Valley communities.
if you’d like more information on the cops and barbers scholarship program, visit: http://copsandbarbersworldwide.com/
Or call (984) 464-0317
