Recycled desperation and despair plus easy access to guns and drugs in lower-income areas create a pathway for youth to join gangs, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Friday.
"Plants close, jobs leaving, guns and drugs coming in create an urban hell," Mr. Jackson said during a meeting with the Chattanooga Times Free Press editorial board.
The civil rights leader visited Chattanooga this week to speak at AT&T's annual meeting Friday about creating employment opportunities for minorities.
A "growing desperation" in U.S. cities combined with higher levels of unemployment among minorities affects not just adults but also the nation's youths, Mr. Jackson said.
Just hours after Mr. Jackson spoke Thursday night at Olivet Baptist Church, Chattanooga recorded its 32nd shooting since the start of the year. A man was stripped, robbed and shot in the face with a shotgun while walking through an alley at Cypress Street Courts about 2 a.m., police said.
Overall crime in the city has decreased by 28 percent since 2001, Chattanooga police report. But interim Police Chief Mark Rawlston has said juvenile crime is on the rise in recent years, which includes gang activity.
Reached by phone Friday, Chief Rawlston agreed with some of Mr. Jackson's comments.
"If you don't have economic opportunities and you don't have education, people make the wrong choices," the chief said. "It's not solely a law enforcement problem, it's a community problem."
Also reached by phone Friday, Robert Schreane, chairman of the North Brainerd Community Council, said that job creation, especially summer jobs for young people, is key to keeping juveniles busy and away from street crime.
He said he's talking with church leaders and others about finding grant money to sponsor athletic and educational programs for youth in the city.
Hugh Reece, a community outreach specialist with the Hamilton County Coalition, said jobs, programs and education all are necessary to fight gangs and youth crime, but without police in the neighborhoods, none of it will work.
"I just want them to increase the number of law enforcement officers out on the street," Mr. Reece said. "To me, if there's a larger presence of law enforcement that would deter what's going on."
Assistant Police Chief Mike Williams, who heads uniformed services for the department, said there have been key partnerships between police and communities that have improved neighborhood safety. The Highland Park area, the former MLK Weed and Seed program, now under the Hamilton County Coalition, and the East Chattanooga Weed and Seed are examples of combined efforts, he said.
Police can't do everything, but they can create the space for people to work, he said.
"Until people not only feel safe but are safe, they're not going to get out and get involved in community activities," he said.
When residents and community leaders talk with police, sharing problems and concerns, they build trust that helps both parties, he said.
Adding to existing problems for low-income areas is easy access to guns, Mr. Jackson said.
He advocated a ban on assault weapons, saying the U.S. government stops the source of weapons for insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan and should view inner-city gun crime similarly.
"Kids in the ghetto don't make semiautomatic weapons," he said. "We've got to do something culturally about the easy access to guns and drugs."
Chief Rawlston said there are "plenty of laws on the books to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Those laws haven't been effective."
The chief said he would like to see people convicted of gun crimes, even the unlawful carrying of a weapon, receive jail time.
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