Selma Remembers Murder Awareness Day
April 4th is National Murder Awareness Day, and members of the Citizens Against Violence (CAV) and the Selma Coalition Offering Peaceful Experiences (SCOPE) organizations arranged for a memorial service for families of victims.
They groups teamed up with local law enforcement and victims’ families to end “a senseless violence.”
Shannon Jackson is one of those family members. She lost her son Demius Jackson in 2011.
“It was like my world stopped at that point,” Jackson says. “I just couldn’t believe that. It was just a feeling… Just a bad dream. That no parents ever wants to get the phone call. And when I did I just immediately started praying.”
Demius was killed in Selma and his murder is still unsolved. His mother, however, does not call herself a victim.
“I feel that I am a survivor because, when you saw that you’re a victim, even though you are victimized… It’s like giving the person that caused harm to you the upper hand,” she says. And we have to let them know that, even though we went through something bad, that we are survivors.”
The meeting in Selma was held to offer comfort to the families and hopefully come up with a solution to the violent spree. Selma has had five murder in 2016 so far.
“We all know about violence,” says Barbara Brown, CAV and SCOPE President. “But we’re supposed to be sort of setting this day aside as a special kind of day to acknowledge our murder victims and the people that are left behind. And believe it or not, those are the most important people.”
Brown’s two sons were also murdered. She wants not only Selama to stand behind her cause, but the entire nation.
“And we’d like for America as a whole start working on these problems,” Brown. “It’s not just Selma. Not just Montgomery. Not just Alabama. We’d like to see this as a nationwide thing that’s going to take fire.”
The women and families ask that everyone who may see a violent crime to not be afraid to step forward about what they saw. Police say you can always call 911 anonymously.
