Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson holds Youth Crime Prevention Summit

by Michael Davis of Dallas Progress

On Monday, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson held her 2nd Annual Youth Crime Reduction Summit. It took place at the Park South Family YMCA in South Dallas.

There were a series of panels and question and answer sessions. The first panel featured Captain Sheila Carter-Bass of the Dallas County Sheriff’s office, Omar Jahwar, founder of Vision Regeneration, an organization that provides counseling and mentoring services to four Dallas public schools; founding CEO of Mothers Against Teen Violence Joy Strickland; and Detective Monty Moncibais of the Dallas Police.

I'm glad I got to meet Ms. Strickland. While I didn't know him, I attended Morehouse at the same time that her son, fellow Morehouse student Charles "Chris" Lewis was killed. We lost several Morehouse Men during the time that I attended college to gun violence. I can think of at least four including Darnell "Smitty" Smith, a friend of mine from Atlantic City who was robbed, shot, and killed during the summer of 1995. Smitty had two or three more classes to go before he could graduate.

After the first panel, a stirring play was performed by teens advocating the ending of the cycle of teen violence.

You have to appreciate the value of a congresswoman that comes back to her district and skips vacation and immediately gets to work. As you know, last weekend she held a summit on DNA wrongful convictions that commanded national attention.

While I had to leave to prepare for a multi-neighborhood meeting, I appreciate my congresswoman for realizing that she is needed in her district as much as she is needed in Washington DC.