Lucille Puckett first launched her anti-violence organization nearly 5 years ago after her son was shot and critically injured in their front yard. “I been out here on the ground since 2010, or even before, and yet was overlooked,” Puckett said. For years, she’s been on the front lines of the fight against violent crime in the city assisting victim’s families a crime scene. “If you see someone in a “Take Back Our H.O.O.D.S.” shirt you know that it's safe to come up and talk to them and give information.”
Recently, however, it’s become very apparent she needs to take the advice written on her groups’ red and black shirts to “Take Back Our H.O.O.D.S.”. H.O.O.D.S is an acronym for “Help Our Own D*** Selves.” “Moma say, sweep on your own doorstep before you go out, so that's what's I'm doing in this community,” Puckett explained.
Innocent children, 5 and 7-years-old, were caught in crossfire in Puckett’s own community just weeks ago. “Literally maybe 3 blocks this way to the left and up 2 blocks,” she demonstrated while walking through her community. They were shootings just feet from her home near I-85 and Freedom Drive. “A home right within a hundred feet of me was shot into 3 days in a row,” Puckett added.
Days after the shootings, she was front and center at a community meeting, pressing CMPD’s top brass to do more to stop senseless crime. “I want them to really commit to this community and the organizations in this community that's doing the work.”
In looking to step up its fight against crime in the Beatties Ford Rd. and LaSalle St. corridor the city advertised for organizations interested in receiving financial backing so Puckett applied for the $364,000 grant. She was denied. She admits she does not have all the qualifications the city requested. “They come with this reasoning about my organization was not a 501c3,” she said.
Instead, city staff recently informed councilmembers they opted to bring on a group that specializes in a data driven approach to preventing crime, called the “Cure Violence” model. Charlotte city councilman Larken Egleston who is chair of the council’s safety committee explained what that model means. “We wanted someone who had that specific experience around the “Violence Interrupter” model and in this case the organization YAP [Youth Advocacy Program] actually had experience implementing the Cure Violence model specifically in other communities,” Egleston explained.
“Violence Interrupters” are people paid to go into high-crime areas and build trust while also de-escalating potential violence before it happens. But Egleston says they still need people like Puckett to help in the fight against senseless crime. She says the passion and dedication she's exhibited in helping to end the violence should have been enough. “They try to make people feel that they are including them but at the end of the day they already know what they wanted to do,” Puckett added.
We asked Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings about some anti-crime groups feeling like they are stonewalled from city funding that will help expand their efforts. “That’s something that goes to city council, goes through whatever type of grant it is, how they apply for those grants, and those are things that we have helped in the past and will continue to help organizations to fill out the applications,” Chief Jennings said. “There's a limited amount of funds that are out there so there is competition that goes along with these grants, but at least if you get your name in the hat that at least gives you the opportunity to at least get some funding.”
The city council is in the middle of important budget talks. Crime funding, and how it fares in the next fiscal year, is one of the topics expected to be at the center of pointed debate.
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