KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — Tuesday, Wood TV 8 reported that Kalamazoo-area pastors and other community leaders held an anti-gun violence rally at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park.
The “Speak Up, STOP Gun Violence” event was held in response to an uptick of shootings within the city recently.
“As pastors, leaders, and residents who love the City of Kalamazoo, we can no longer keep silent; we must speak up,” Dr. Addis Moore of the Northside Ministerial Alliance said in a statement. “We speak up and come against the forces of evil that are at work in many of our young black youth through gun violence. We can’t afford to lose any more lives. Every life is precious and needed.”
Dr. Moore said that the rally was not about what police should be doing, but about what the community should be doing.
In the last few days alone, Kalamazoo has seen at least three different shootings, one of which claimed the life of a 30-year-old Vine neighborhood resident, and another of which injured a 17-year-old male in the Northside area.
For the Northside shooting in particular, Vice Mayor Patrese Griffin said that she could hear it taking place outside her house right as a virtual City meeting was getting started.
“Right before this meeting started, I thought I heard gunshots, and I did,” Griffin said. “While we’re on this meeting right now, there were just shots going off in the back of me.”
Kalamazoo Mayor David Anderson also spoke of the incident.
“We have a gun crisis in Kalamazoo,” Anderson said. “We cannot accept this in our community. Every resident has the right to expect that no matter what neighborhood they call home, it will be a safe place for them and their families. The tragic, senseless and horrific deaths and shootings are devastating events for the entire community. All of us experience the riptide of this trauma – everyone suffers, no one is unscathed.”
According to KDPS Chief Karianne Thomas, as of Monday, 41 people have been shot so far this year and 8 have been murdered, which is an 81% increase since last year.
She adds that violence has been escalating this summer.
“Just since June 1st, 23 have been shot and four people have died,” Chief Thomas explained.
Dr. Moore told Wood TV 8 that Kalamazoo citizens must speak up to help promote change.
“We want the entire community to not just to know but to lend their voices because we’re actually saying speak up,” Moore said. “We want everybody to say something because we think that evilness, actually, it thrives in silence. If we don’t say anything, we give evil permission to continue to grow.”
A video of the rally can be viewed at this link.
