WASHINGTON — We’ve been talking about it for what seems like decades, community gun violence across the District.
It’s a subject that’s sensitive to people who live in the D.C. community, dealing with the trauma associated with the bloodshed. This weekend, the city saw eight people get shot, one being a 7-year-old girl who is recovering. As incidents like this keep happening, it’s causing tension between community leaders.
A social media post from D.C. Commissioner Vince Van called out some community organizations after the violent weekend. He claims he didn’t see the outcry he expected from the community after a 7-year-old was shot. He’s flustered with the violence and what he calls lack of consistency in community uproar.
“We got to show that same energy to crime in our own communities. Everyone has to be held accountable,” Van said.
WUSA9 asked him why he’s calling out certain organizations
“If you want to claim to be a banner organization for Black lives within the District, you have to make sure that you are addressing critical issues outside of just the police brutality. Critical issues that are impacting, affecting Black lives here in the District,” Van added.
April Goggans with Black Lives Matter D.C. said last weekend, their attention was not on social media.
“We're in the middle of helping five families who've lost people over the last two weeks in D.C. Putting together, paying for funerals and burials and holding repasses, and taking off work to be able to do those things,” Goggans said.
They’re two leaders, with two very different approaches on how to combat the real issue: How do we get guns off our streets? And how do we protect the minds of the children living in these communities?
“We have to make sure we're finding organizations that help with mental health,” Van said.
“When there is more money for a summer crime initiative, then there is for kids to have mental health and social workers in their schools, there's a problem,” Goggans added.
Van believes the pandemic is exacerbating the challenges children living in these communities were already facing.
“One thing that people are not realizing is, school was a way for young people, especially in the cities to get away from the realities of what happens. When our babies were home for a year, and couldn't get away from it, we got to deal, with the mental health,” Van said.
Goggans said the shootings from the weekend took a toll on her personally, so, no, you didn’t see a barrage of post on their social media platforms, but that doesn’t mean their organization isn’t figuring out a way to fight the real enemy-- guns on the streets.