Cann Park and Jackson Park residents share concerns over increasing gun violence

The Cann/Jackson Park Neighborhood Association held an emergency meeting on July 11, at the First Nazareth Missionary Baptist Church, 1023 W. 44th St., to address recent shootings and homicides in the community, including the July 7 killing of a 16-year-old at 49th and Florance streets.

The Cann Park and Jackson Park neighborhoods sit adjacent to one another, bordered on the north by Victory Drive and Mills B Lane Boulevard on the south, and on the east by Montgomery Street and the west on Hopkins Street. Alfred E. Beach High School serves the area. Alongside residents in attendance were State Senator Derek Mallow; multiple Savannah Police Department (SPD) personnel, including Chief Lenny Gunther and Assistant Chief Robert Gavin; District 5 Alderwoman Estella Shabazz and District 2 Alderman Detric Leggett. Also at the event were Andre Pretorious, the Republican candidate for Chatham County District Attorney, and Savannah Fire Chief Elzie Kitchen. Savannah-native Amir-Jamal Touré, a professor of Africana Studies at Georgia Southern professor, also attended the event.

Leadership heard complaints from mostly older neighborhood residents. Some residents alleged that abandoned houses had become drug manufacturing sites. One resident suggested that police become more involved within the community. Another resident urged other residents to vote for school board members. Another resident, a teacher in Savannah, said the increase in crime in Savannah is partially due to more poverty, and more police presence would not help solve the problem.

SPD personnel suggested more community members use its app to report anonymous tips about crime and to submit complaints and compliments about SPD officers. SPD personnel also urged residents to sign up for its camera-reporting system. At KeepSavannahSafe.org residents can register their cameras. Gavin said, so far, 294 Savannah residents have registered their cameras with SPD.

“I say it over and over, the smaller we start making the world for people who are doing bad things, where every time they turn around, they're getting caught on camera, it makes the world a lot smaller,” said Gavin.

A 35-year-old resident who grew up in East Savannah said, “The criminalization of young people won't help the problem."

“The answer to me is the poverty in this city, and the country as a whole, has only gotten more desperate in my lifetime. These last three decades, people have only gotten more poor, and the price of everything has only gotten higher. So, the desire for people to live and the struggle to live has only gotten more fraught.”

Drew Favakeh is the public safety and courts reporter for Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at AFavakeh@Gannett.com.