Shootings spur call to action

Community members are trying to offer a way out for gang members.

“It’s like they’re trapped,” said Alvin Jackson, chairman of the Rome-Floyd County NAACP Political Action Committee, in referring to residents of South Rome, where the city’s second and third shooting deaths of the year occurred two weeks ago.

“If these shootings don’t open their eyes, nothing else will,” he added, speaking to the need for community leaders and police to respond to the violence and drug dealing which in his opinion has continued to fester over the years, and, as of late, has escalated.

Jackson described older residents Alvin Jackson afraid to come out of their homes or go on certain streets in the area, frightened that they or their children will be targeted by gang members or those with violent intentions. And they also fear the repercussions which could come from speaking to police or sharing names.

“When we hear of black lives matter, we really mean it,” he said, adding that he is deeply bothered by incidents of black-on-black crime because “their lives are important to me.”

The problem is clear to see, Jackson said, when large groups congregate on the streets, so much so that simply trying to navigate a vehicle through the crowd is undoable.

However, in looking at the statistics on Part I crimes, or crimes against persons, gathered by the Rome Police Department and shared in a Sunday Rome News-Tribune article, South Rome is no more violent than other areas of the city and had the lowest level of violent crimes from 2014 to 2016. Part I crimes include criminal homicide, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and larceny. This year through May, South Rome has had just 13 percent of the 1,026 Part I crimes in Rome, while East Rome has had 25 percent and West Rome has had 29 percent.

Since June is not finished, the department’s statistics for the month are not available, but even adding the shooting deaths of James Edward Parks, 31, and Randy Lamont Diamond, 44, in two incidents in South Rome on June 14 and June 17, the area’s numbers would still come in below East Rome’s and West Rome’s for this year.