By: Chris Pierre Louis
More than 100 local students and adults attended a three-day conference in Orlando where they received solutions to reduce juvenile crime.
The students, including several from Boca Raton and Delray Beach, attended the 28th National Conference on Preventing Crime in the Black Community at the Rosen Hotel and Convention Centre.
“The speakers really motivated me to be successful and strive higher,” said Geovani Martinez, a student at Atlantic High School in Delray Beach. “This was an experience in my life that I will never forget.”
The attorney general’s office established the conference in 1986 to build a healthy relationship between the black community and law enforcement and create a platform to share ideas that will reduce crime in the black community, said Robert Dodd, one of the chaperones on the trip. It was also intended to bring awareness and emphasize the need to stop juvenile crime, Dodd said.
“This conference is the perfect opportunity for law enforcement, local leaders, and members of the community to work together to share new ideas and strategies to prevent crime in our communities,” said Dodd of KOP Mentoring Network, formerly the Knights of Pythagoras Mentoring Network.
Among the speakers at the opening session were Attorney General Pam Bondi and Orlando Police Chief Paul Rooney.
Rooney told the story of a 17-year-old boy who police shot and killed last September in the Conway neighborhood.
The armed black teenager, a suspect in a burglary, had opened fire on two male victims before turning his weapon on the Orlando Police Department officers who fired back, Rooney told the crowd.
The positive decisions you make now can frame your lives and ensure your futures aren’t derailed by incarceration — or an early death like that 17-year-old boy, Rooney told the young people in attendance.
“I’m big on real life stories,” he said. “I’m hoping that they get it and see it and say ‘that’s not the road I want to go down. Gangs, drugs, robbery, whatever it may be. That’s just not the road I want to go down.’”
Jami Miah said he felt intimidated when he first saw the more than 400 students from around the state at the conference.
“I started thinking, ‘how am I going to become friends with everyone on this trip,’” the Carver Middle School senior said. But he soon overcame his fears as he attended the sessions and began learning the strategies for a crime-free neighborhood.
“I learned not to let small things such as bad music or hurtful friends control or [prevent] me from doing the right thing,” he said. “I also learned to be more independent and have a higher self esteem. I felt like my mind, body and spirit grew to my age potential.”
Law enforcement officials have long credited community involvement and partnerships bred through events such as the annual conference as well as NYPD youth education programs with having a direct impact on the drop in youth crime rates.
KOPMN works with students ages 7 to 17 in Delray Beach, Boynton Beach and Boca Raton to promote finishing high school, furthering their education and living a drug free life, said Dodd, a longtime volunteer mentor with KOPMN.
“For them, it’s inspiring, it’s educational, it’s informative,” said Dodd, who has been attending the conference for 15 years. “The people who put together this conference are trying to make sure that we can personally hit them as hard as possible so that they can understand that we’re here for them and we’re here to impact them… and they can see something else besides what they are used to.”
Showing black children and teenagers that their community cares, has a profoundly positive impact on their future, Dodd said
The trip was sponsored by the Urban League of Palm Beach County and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.