UPDATE: BUILD’s letter to Mayor Gorton following meeting

BUILD leaders are trying to prepare church members for the annual Nehemiah Action event on May 3rd at the Central Bank Center

UPDATE (3/23/22) – BUILD has released a letter to Mayor Linda Gorton Wednesday morning following Tuesday night’s meeting.

BUILD released the following letter:

Good Morning BUILD Leaders,

UPDATE (3/22/22) Interfaith leaders continued their efforts to end violence in Lexington, after BUILD, a group made up of several Lexington church congregations, held another rally Tuesday night to address key issues impacting the city.

BUILD leaders are trying to prepare church members for the annual Nehemiah Action event on May 3rd at the Central Bank Center. Once a year at Nehemiah Action, congregations come together to advocate for positive change in the community.

Their goal this year is to get 2,000 people to attend the 2022 event.

“We’re gonna get all these folks and all their friends down there and we’re gonna get some serious change for Lexington,” said Kabby Akers, a member of BUILD’s mental healthcare committee. “We’ve been successful in the past and we keep on going and be successful again.”

This year’s focus is violence, mental healthcare, and affordable housing. Those were the top three issues B.U.I.L.D committees heard after talking with people in the community. Following months of researching solutions, they hope to take their requests to city officials at the event.

“We heard over and over again that transportation, access to care, was a big gap. What are the gaps? They say housing for the mentally ill and transportation for the mentally ill,” Akers said.

The group also heard testimonials from people struggling to find affordable housing and who have dealt with violence.

One of their solutions to curb crime is through a Group Violence Intervention strategy or GVI.

“It requires work. Putting your feet to the ground and actually working with those individuals that are at risk or will be most likely to kill someone or to be killed. And we don’t want that to happen. We’re tired of the high crime rate in Lexington,” said BUILD board member Belinda Snead.

Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton has said she’s spoke to community leaders who believe that GVI is not the best fit for the city. Lexington’s police Chief Lawrence Weathers released a statement Tuesday about GVI, saying “GVI is one of many programs that address violent crime. It has not been proven to be the best. Intelligence-led policing concepts are at the forefront of evidence-based and proven crime prevention strategies. We share concerns of possible harm to the community associated with GVI. In deciding a strategy to address violent crime, we are seeking to do the least harm to the community. We are choosing to utilize proven techniques associated with intelligence gathering and intelligent investigation to develop and prosecute criminal activity. This has also been shown to dramatically decrease violent crime and at the same time reduce harm to the community.”

B.U.I.L.D says they will continue making their requests known to city leaders in hopes of improving the quality for the city.

UPDATE (3/18/22) – The Lexington-Fayette chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is responding to the BUILD group’s demands for Mayor Linda Gorton on reducing violence in the city.

The Lexington-Fayette chapter of the NAACP issued the following statement of support for ‘BUILD’ which stands for Building a United Interfaith Lexington through Direct-Action (B.U.I.L.D):

While Lexington has made some progress with policies like the permanent implementation of the Mayor’s Commission for Racial Justice and Equality and the effort for more community involvement with the addition of civilians to the Police Disciplinary Review Board, we still have a long way to go to enact change – policies, programs, and solutions to address the inequities in our communities and the violent deaths that continue to be a stain on the legacy of our city of Lexington and a constant burden and a reminder to those who are forced to bear witness to the frustrations and pains of violent death in our communities That change will only happen if city officials, law enforcement, and the entire community choose to work together, to sit at the table as equals, and promise to commit to building equitable solutions together to solve the inequities in our communities, which can be directly linked to gun violence and socioeconomic disparities. We are well past the time of simply doing nothing and must be committed to taking some direct actions to decrease the violence and address the root causes behind or related to the violence and violent deaths by seriously addressing the systemic issues of inequity in policies that negatively affect communities of color and socioeconomically challenged communities, addressing the over-policing of certain communities, building trust between communities and agencies,
and encouraging our community leaders and community members to invest more time, participation, and commitment to the community.

For the record, the statement from Mayor Gorton was correct. She did reach out to the NAACP to request counsel to discuss the possibility of the DVI strategy implementation while under the leadership of previous Lexington-Fayette NAACP president Rev. Dr. Jim Thurman, as she did with several other organizations and agencies. It is also true that there was some reticence among members of the group with whom she requested counsel that there could be a possibility of the strategy being manipulated to specifically target Black men, which could lead to community outrage and further increasing the tension and decreasing the trust between government, law enforcement, and the community. Mayor Gorton
indicated that her concerns were based on some concerns from the group counsel, as related to the implementation of the strategy and whether or not it would be the best solution given that some cities could not supply data to explain why the strategy failed and under what conditions. She acted out of concern based on that information and simply wants to get it right.

As far as our stance in support of B.U.I.L.D., on behalf of the Lexington-Fayette chapter 307 of the NAACP, I submit this statement of support for the record that we unequivocally support the mission of the 27-church coalition of B.U.I.L.D., as well as any other organization whose mission and intentions align with the mission, values, and goals of the NAACP. We unequivocally support the intentionality behind the Group Violence Intervention Strategy, with the understanding that it is our responsibility to always question and weigh the pros and cons as it may adversely affect the African American community and other marginalized groups because history has not been kind to us and has taught us that corrupt systems are a result of corrupt men and women who falsely purport equity, justice, freedom, and change
under the guise of selfish agendas while our marginalized communities and people of color continue to be considered collateral damage, understanding that questioning in no way translates to a lack of support. We simply understand how “identifying groups” with a community could lead to good intentions going awry. We would be doing a disservice to those we serve if we didn’t raise questions. We unequivocally support a DVI Strategy and any policy that serves to uplift and better our communities, create equitable systems of justice, address the underlying causes of violence and socioeconomic disparity, uplift our youth and introduce intervention strategies and community agencies to create
LEXINGTON-FAYETTE solutions that positively affect their future, and encourage a more involved, committed, responsible, empathetic, understanding, loving, and service-oriented community that is committed to taking a “I am my brother’s keeper” approach to stopping the violence and building a stronger community that fights to save everyone, especially if it decreases over-policing, build stronger relationships between the community, law enforcement, and social agencies to create a interdependent relationship of exchange, understanding, and trust in our community where “protect and serve” is more than a slogan, but a badge of honor and duty that affords all people and every community equal rights and protection under the law with the full respect that has too often been lacking.

For the record, The Lexington-Fayette NAACP chapter has reached out to the B.U.I.L.D. organization to ensure them that we fully support the organization’s mission. However, in my conversation with them, I did respectfully emphasize that B.U.I.L.D. must be committed change agents who are guided by committed actions and not just words when the cameras and lights are on. A representative of B.U.I.L.D. was in full agreement. There is a lot that our churches can do and should be doing in the community while we are all fighting for solutions to save lives and end the violence. Church leaders cannot be afraid of speaking the truth on all fronts and not just when it’s convenient or when the cameras are on,
because churches have also had a history of being complicit in racial injustice and socioeconomic disparity and have contributed to discouraged, disenfranchised, and divided communities who don’t always feel that the church is earnest, honest, or present when they are most downtrodden and in need.

For a DVI strategy to work, we all must pull our weight – government, law enforcement, politicians, and each community member and community leader. The clock is ticking and doing nothing is unacceptable. Our kids are dying while we wait. We shouldn’t be forced to continue collecting the tears of our mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers. If there is reticence with elements of the DVI strategy implementation,
let us all continue to respectfully engage and quickly arrive at a solution to end the rise in violent deaths. One life lost is one too many.

Whit Whitaker
President
Lexington-Fayette NAACP Branch 3097

ORIGINAL POST (3/15/22)

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – Gathering together for one reason, to end violence in Lexington. Coming together Tuesday evening outside the Lexington Government Center

The group ‘BUILD’ claims Mayor Linda Gorton has refused to implement the Gun Violence Intervention or GVI program recommended to her by the organization the National Network for Safe Community back in 2019.

The goal of the GVI program is to reduce homicides in cities.  Lexington recorded an all-time high last year with 37.  There have already been seven so far this year.

That strikes a nerve for BUILD member Cheryl Birch…she lost her son to gun violence in 2009.

“I didn’t get any justice and so now I’m trying to make it where another family doesn’t have to go through that.  Like I said, my family still lives through this every day.  Every time I hear of a homicide I know exactly what that mother and father is going through” said Birch.

Mayor Gorton says her reasoning for not implementing the program is that after speaking with police, the ACLU, NAACP, One Lexington and other activists….she found they all felt the GVI program would target the black community and damage the relationship between the government and police.

But, BUILD member Bryna Reed doesn’t agree, she says GVI is there to help.

“It doesn’t target them in a negative way, it targets them with resources.  It targets them with help and a way to turn away from anything that is going to put them down a path towards violence” said Reed.

License plate reader cameras is also a hot topic for the group, as they are going up in parts of the city to help reduce crime.

Mayor Gorton says shes consulted with the ACLU, Human Rights Commission and NAACP on the use of the cameras, and the groups agreed all concerns were addressed in the Lexington Police Departments policy outline.

But BUILD members say putting up cameras won’t make a difference.

“We’ve had a former Chief of Police who says you can’t stop crime, it just moves.  So, once folks know those cameras are there, they’re just going to pack-up and move to a different area so, that is not the solution to the problem” said Birch.

Mayor Gorton says she will continue to work with community partners to address homicides in the community and not let up on efforts to support those to choose a path of non-violence.

BUILD says it will continue pressing for change.

“We don’t know what family is going to be affected next” added Birch.

Here is a full look at Mayor Linda Gorton’s response to BUILD

“Dear Members of BUILD,

On March 8, 2022, I received via email a press release from B.U.I.L.D. demanding that I implement GVI in Lexington, KY. Out of respect for the church members who are part of B.U.I.L.D., many of whom I know, I am choosing to reply by addressing facts and the administration’s actions.

Group Violence Intervention (GVI) – As the elected official ultimately responsible for the decision to implement this or not, I take violent crime very seriously. I rely heavily on the experts who work in this environment. I have consulted with Police Chief Lawrence Weathers, law enforcement, the Director of One Lexington, street outreach workers, community activists, faith leaders, the ACLU, NAACP, and the Human Rights Commission. All expressed serious concerns about the targeting aspect of GVI, and the serious damage it could do to the relationship among government/law enforcement and communities of color.

In an effort to determine whether GVI is a tool that could be successful in Lexington, last year my administration researched some cities that use GVI to learn about whether their data shows a decrease in homicides. When we met with National Network for Safe Community (NNSC) representatives, they stated in a BUILD meeting in Fall 2021 that they were at a loss to explain why GVI wasn’t working in some cities.

The above two factors combined to make it clear that GVI is not the program Lexington should emphasize right now. There are many positive components of GVI that are similar to other violence prevention and intervention programs that I fully support, and have ensured that our team prioritizes.

There are many organizations that promote programs as the best models for addressing violence. GVI is one of them, and shares many similarities with other programs.

Numerous social and economic factors play a part in violence. Along with proactive, community-focused policing, we also focus on the upstream, root causes of violence. For example, every day we work to address affordable housing, homelessness, strengthening our workforce, youth programming, job training, substance use disorders, and rental assistance, just to name a few. This represents a significant increase in funding for our community violence intervention program.

Flock Cameras: My administration has consulted with the ACLU, Human Rights Commission and NAACP several times regarding the use of Flock cameras. They shared their concerns, agreed that these concerns were addressed in the policy outlined by the Lexington Police Department, and will continue to monitor the implementation and reach out if they have any issues. Flock looks at crime analysis data across the board to recommend placement of its cameras. For BUILD to make a statement about the mayor installing cameras in already “over-policed communities” without even knowing where the cameras are is problematic.

I will continue to work aggressively with our community partners to address homicides in our community.  We know that overall the larger category of violent crime in Lexington decreased 4% when you compare 2020 to 2021. We will not let up on our efforts to support people to choose a path of non-violence.

Sincerely,

Linda Gorton

Mayor”