On Oct. 12, community members in Palmetto, Bradenton and Sarasota gathered at Sutton Park in Palmetto, Fla., for the first annual “Stop the Violence” event. Organized by Troy and Nakiya Griffin of Vice Gripp Ent. & Promotions, the event featured a raffle, cookout and live DJ.
From early in the afternoon until 9 at night, community members discussed the violence that is rampant in the three cities just south of Tampa Bay and what steps could be taken to end it. Sixty people attended, listening to songs, poems and a sermon delivered by Pastor Paula Cooke, who traveled from Trenton, N.J., to be there.
Liberation News asked Troy and Nakiya Griffin why they decided to organize the event.
“What inspired us to do this,” said Troy, “was, both of us, coming from our background and what we’ve been through in the streets, it motivated us. Because all this killing and shooting of the youth and just everybody period, we felt like we had to make a change within ourselves. I’ve been to prison four times and I got a reputation out in the streets too, but I know if I can change—and I know a lot of people that look up to me and see me change—I feel like if I save one life or one person, we can all put the guns down and come together.”
Nakiya emphasized the need for community programs beyond school to keep youth on the right track and to give those who are struggling a second chance.
“I feel as though the youth have nothing to do,” she said. “They tried school and didn’t succeed, so what’s left? I feel like there needs to be programs for the kids, period. More activities in the community that will keep them busy, keep them focused, keep their minds busy. A lot of them try football, some kind of sports, and for some reason they didn’t succeed. So we’re going to try to make programs for success after graduation but when they haven’t made it into college. Because sometimes they couldn’t get their grades up at the time, or they graduated but for some reason their SAT wasn’t high enough or whatever it may be. So we want to make some program that can help them, build highlights for these guys, maybe give them a second chance.”
Programs and activities for youth
Sharina Mitchell, who has four daughters, echoed Nakiya’s call for more accessible programs and activities for youth.
“Violence in the community is outrageous in Manatee County and Sarasota,” said Sharina. “We gotta do something about it. They killing each other, teenagers killing teenagers. I guess it’s about gangs, or about girls and boyfriends. I think we need more free activities they can go to instead of charging so much, like football, basketball. They charging too much money. If you got single parents, or one parent working and the other one don’t work, you can’t send kids to no recreation because you can’t afford it.”
Nakiya Griffin also spoke to Liberation News about losing one of her own children and how it shaped her thinking about what needs to be done. She believes the community should provide youth with opportunities to change their lives.
“I have thirteen children. I lost one in prison, and that really has changed something in me. He did some things that he shouldn’t have and he’s paying for those things. That right there was enough for me. He was smart—he is smart. He messed up and he just thought it was over, so he chose an alternate life, when it shouldn’t be that way—one mistake and it’s over. It should be a second chance, it should be community programs that can help children or young adults that have messed up once and have a desire to go back to school. It’s like they just shut them out completely and that’s where I believe the violence comes in. You can’t get a job because of your record, that type of thing. We need programs for that reason,” asserted Nakiya.
Mr. and Mrs. Griffin addressed other issues affecting Black, Brown and working-class communities in the area, including the prevalence of gun shops and liquor stores, mass incarceration and police brutality.
“Like I said, it’s always been that we got all the liquor stores in the Black neighborhoods, all the gun shops in the Black neighborhoods,” said Troy. “It plays a major effect to our kids. You really go out and look and there’s not too many gun shops and liquor bars in the white community. I feel like if we can cut back on these liquor stores and gun shops in the Black community, we can ease our kids away from that. But when you got a liquor store right here, where it’s easy to get because they want money, so they sell it to them, and they selling guns under the table, and the kids are watching all these TVs and the music, dudes supposed to be cool on TV, these things affect the community and the young minds.”
Current sentencing laws and crowded prisons
Nakiya spoke to Liberation News about the injustice of current sentencing laws and the crowded prison system.
“I feel as though the prisons are overcrowded with people, like Troy just went to prison for driving without a license. That’s ridiculous,” said Nakiya. “They gave him two years for driving with a suspended license. Minor things like that, that is way over-sentencing. Violent crimes, I can see that, but drug dealers are getting more time than the people who kill and rape children. I know someone who just got 50 years for selling drugs, but you can go murder somebody and get seven. Within a thousand feet of the church or schools makes the punishment harsher. You get three years for carrying a gun, but you get 10 years for selling dope.”
Police violence was also a major issue on people’s mind. Fae Collins, a local high school student, didn’t hold back when she spoke to Liberation News about harassment, racial profiling and unequal treatment by law enforcement.
“The police, they go around using their authority for their ego, not for what’s right and what’s wrong,” said Fae. “They feel like they can just hit people and use aggressive violence with people and I don’t feel like that’s right. I seen the police beat a man for no reason. I seen the police arrest somebody after they got shot. I seen the police doing a whole bunch of stuff that they should not be doing. They’ll be like ‘Put your hands behind your back’ and they don’t even have probable cause. You can be walking down the street, just a black tank top on, black shoes and all that, and they talk to you aggressive just because they think you doing something. They don’t know what’s really going on, so I feel like it’s fuck the police. They green as hell. They all on the East side when West side drug dealers be way much bigger, having bank, white people!””
Police brutality
Troy told Liberation News his thoughts on police brutality. In 1999, Troy stayed two cells down from Frank Valdes, who was beaten to death by prison guards at Florida State Prison. Valdes’ murder resulted in the landmark court case Valdes v. Crosby, which deals with the constitutional rights of prisoners.
“There’s been a lot of issues with the police. We’re going to have to be done with that also, not only street violence, but police violence. I feel like they got the more leeway, they feel like they can just up their guns and shoot or harass you, period. I feel like that’s not a bad thing to have officers get tested for drugs and background checks and mental capacity tests. When I was in prison, I was two cells down from Frank Valdez that they killed, inside FSP, I was there. This was the Frank Valdez case that made everything switch up, I was two cells down from him. The Feds came in and set their trailers up and went around and found out that there was almost 500 officers that had major backgrounds from assaults to gun charges. It was a code they had. They was hiring people with criminal backgrounds.”
The first annual “Stop the Violence” event was held in memory of Kenya Cox, Kerry Ducre, Brent Coleman, Krystal Johnson, Damarius Brinson, Stacy William III, Teria’le Rawks, Calvin Barnes, Trayon Golf, Mike Yarn, Joe Lawson, Cornell Harris, J-baby, Cory Kendrick and others who lost their lives to violence in the area.
