By Eric Gaertner | Muskegon Chronicle
Chronicle illustration/Linda DeVoogd
MUSKEGON COUNTY — The countdown to summer in Muskegon County has taken on a new significance this year.
After a summer of violence in 2010 that left four people dead and a resident referring to the area as the “wild, wild west,” community leaders, government officials and local organizations have used the winter months to seek ways to prevent a repeat of the gunplay when the mercury rises.
Multiple shooting incidents over a one-month period between July and August, including a brazen afternoon shootout in Muskegon, sparked community outrage. Police raised their visibility, urban leaders and residents held community vigils. That was followed by an outbreak of shootings in November that included another fatal shooting.
The focus now is on long-term initiatives and a renewed sense of hope that a similar wave of violence can be averted this summer. Multiple groups are working on programs to provide area youth with alternatives to gangs and violence.
The groups are comprised of representatives of various government departments and community organizations — plus a clarion call to the community at large — in hopes of changing the culture that many said is spawning a sense of hopelessness in youth.
Several initiatives are on the drawing board:
• A three-year, anti-gang strategy proposed by the Muskegon County Prosecutor’s Office, local law enforcement, faith-based and community organizations, and the NAACP;
• Robert Woodson Sr. and his “Violence-Free Zone” initiative coming into the community to help establish youth advisers to work with other young people. Woodson is being brought in by Muskegon County Strengthening Communities Committee, which includes representatives of the Muskegon County Board, the Community Foundation For Muskegon County and several other community organizations;
• Muskegon County Sheriff’s Office implementing computer software to track gang activity across police jurisdictions and grant-funded overtime pay for special sheriff’s patrols in response to heightened gang activity.
• Neighborhood associations working to address the violence within their borders and improving relations with police; and,
• A county commissioner calling on residents to work together — young and old — to solve the community’s problems.
The various initiatives appear to be joining forces to stop the violence.
Melvin Lars, president of the Muskegon NAACP and a retired high school principal, said the coordinated effort among the groups and community members is key. He pointed out that the programs being developed through consultant Robert Woodson and community stakeholders are focused on providing local youth with a “more positive outlook” and a “feeling of hope” about their futures.
Everyone needs to get involved and work together, Lars said, or “we will have more of the same. Not splinter here, splinter there, because that is counterproductive.”
County Commissioner Anthony Longmire, who represents several precincts in the city of Muskegon, said he wants to work with law enforcement and others, but said he believes a more grassroots effort is going to be pivotal.
“If we have another summer like last year, we’re going to need everybody short of God himself coming down,” Longmire said.
Longmire said he favors direct interaction with the teens and young adults involved in the violence or caught up in gangs, which would help identify the causes and dictate a response. He pointed out that Muskegon County residents who know these young people and their families can address the problem.
“Do I have the magic potion? No,” Longmire said. “It’s going to take more than a passive ideology, especially from the outside.”
Last summer’s outburst of violence in the Muskegon metropolitan area resulted in seven shooting incidents in one month’s time — from late July to late August. Four people were killed. In November, another five shootings took place as gang violence erupted again.
Local law enforcement have identified seven gangs operating in Muskegon and Muskegon Heights. They have blamed much of the surge in violence last year on gang-affiliated actions.
Muskegon County Prosecutor Tony Tague, whose office is seeking a three-year, $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Comprehensive Anti-Gang Strategies to mainly fund and coordinate community-based and faith-based programs.
The anti-gang strategies grant is focused on setting up programs that focus on quality-of-life issues — family, education, employment — in hopes of deterring area youth from gang activities. Tague said the program is being designed “to reach out to persons who might be in jeopardy.”
If the grant is awarded, the initiative would hire a multistrategy gang coordinator, implement and enhance after-school, family-development, health and other programs, and engage the services of Western Michigan University to evaluate the impact of the programs.
Tague said the evaluation of the programs will be rated less on crime statistics and more on quality-of-life issues. Tague said that although Muskegon County’s per-capita homicide rate is lower than other urban areas in the state, “one homicide is too many, in my mind.”
The county’s grant application, in explaining the need, is expected to point to the county’s relatively high unemployment rate, low rate of residents with college degrees and high poverty rate. “Most are living without hope and individuals without hope are more likely to become involved with gangs,” the preliminary application states.
Judy Kell, the county’s grant coordinator, said the primary focus of the proposed program is strategies designed to produce lifestyle changes that will be permanent when the grant money runs out. The proposed program includes summer employment opportunities as a carrot for youth, Kell said.
Chronicle file photo Crime scene tape blocks off the area along Dyson Street where a shooting occurred during daylight hours in August.
The county’s grant application would be hurt by the proposed cuts to the federal government’s budget, but if successful, the grant would make the various programs operational by 2012.
The other initiative, Woodson’s Washington, D.C.,-based "Violence Free Zones," is expected to begin this summer. The county is using some of the $17,000 remaining in the Strengthening Communities Grant to bring Woodson to the community to perform assessments and prepare for implementation of his mentor-based programs.
Woodson’s initiative empowers youth advisers from within the communities. Youth advisers tend to have the students’ trust and confidences because they have faced and overcome the same challenges, according to program organizers. It works to identify local organizations that are already effective and give them training and assistance to strengthen their service.
The urban school districts and city governments are expected to be part of the initiatives. Most of the shootings took place within the cities of Muskegon and Muskegon Heights and the corresponding school districts.
Muskegon Heights Public Schools Superintendent Dana Bryant confirmed that school officials have noticed an acceleration in the gang problem over the last eight months, and said the limited opportunities for young people in the community is an issue.
Bryant said “meaningful after-school programming” would be well received. School districts can only do so much, he said.
Muskegon Heights Councilwoman Bonnie McGlothin and other city representatives recently attended a meeting about the initiative proposed by the prosecutor’s office. McGlothin said her only concern is that the program be sustainable, unlike some previous initiatives that fizzled out after the funding dried up.
“It seems to be that it is going to be an interesting program,” McGlothin said.
Lars said members of the NAACP hope the initiative will be supported by the community and produce results.
“When it starts to get close to home, we have a tendency to stand more firm,” Lars said.
Longmire, who grew up in the city of Muskegon before becoming a county commissioner, said he found it frustrating with one shooting, then becoming worse as one seemed to try to outdo the other.
“We know a lot of these kids growing up, know their families,” Longmire said. “We’re a pretty close-knit community.
“You’re out here packing heat in the middle of the day. You have the audacity to do that.”
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