PB event to target violence

Trayvon Martin’s father to attend

PINE BLUFF -- A day-long anti-violence conference is planned Friday in Pine Bluff, featuring the late Trayvon Martin's father as its keynote speaker.

Tracy Martin lost his son in 2012, when George Zimmerman shot and killed him during a struggle. Zimmerman was tried and acquitted in the killing, arguing that he shot the teen in self-defense.

The Friday event, sponsored by the Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, begins at 7:30 a.m. with a breakfast at the Pine Bluff Convention Center. Other events include a "Peace March at Lunch" at 11 a.m. to be led by DuShun Scarbrough, executive director of the MLK Jr. Commission, and Tracy Martin.

The march will travel from the convention center to Pine Bluff City Hall, about three blocks away. At City Hall, Martin will give an address.

Scarbrough said she expects this event will be one of the biggest the commission has ever hosted.

"As a state agency, the mission of the Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission is to reach youth from all regions of the state," Scarbrough said. "We have had great success in holding our past nine Nonviolence Youth Summits, which have each garnered the attendance of hundreds of youth."

Past conferences have been in West Memphis, Little Rock, Hope, Harrison, Forrest City, El Dorado, Helena-West Helena and Harrison. Pine Bluff last hosted the event in 2010.

The conference comes at a time when Pine Bluff police have said crime in the city is significantly down. April statistics provided by the police department showed violent crime has gone down in the first four months of the year, compared to 2013.

From April 2013 to April of this year, there were 90 fewer reported crimes, with 516 last year and 426 this year. However, homicides increased by one, from two in April 2013 to three as of this April.

Residential burglaries dropped from 72 in April 2013 to 57 this year. Commercial burglaries were down by one, from 19 to 18.

Reported thefts were down to 131, compared with 180 in April 2013. Aggravated assaults were down from 36 to 34 this year.

Some city officials feel that the MLK Jr. Commission has painted Pine Bluff as a crime-ridden city in its advertisements for the event, some of which include images of crime-scene tape and a graphic featuring a handgun, stating "stop the violence."

Alderman Bill Brumett, who sponsored a recently passed resolution to spend $175,000 on an image campaign, called the advertising "a disappointment."

"This is something we have been trying to deal with for a while, and it just gives the wrong impression about who we are and where we are as a city," he said.

The commission cites the 2013 FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics, which Forbes Magazine used to rank Pine Bluff as one of the 10 most dangerous cities in the United States, in its news release for Friday's conference.

Those statistics not only include Pine Bluff and Jefferson County crimes, but also Cleveland and Lincoln counties as well. The tri-county area makes up Pine Bluff's metropolitan statistical area.

In a 2013 interview, Larry Salinfer, a criminologist at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, said such statistics are often misunderstood and can be deceptive.

"Crime rates could vary so much from year to year depending on how police count crimes, or there may have been an increase or decrease that is out of the norm that skews the rate," Salinger said.

It's also a bad idea for the public to form its judgment of a city from its ranking in such a report, he said.

"If people based where they wanted to go on crime, there are a lot of places they wouldn't go," he said. "You really need to look at a lot of different things in terms of quality of life to decide whether the city is more dangerous than another."

Pine Bluff resident Teresa Oliver, 40, said she has never felt unsafe in the 10 years she has lived in the city, but she added that she can understand how the perception of high crime could keep some people away.

"I know some of my friends in other parts of the state tell me that they are worried about coming to Pine Bluff and all that, but I tell them it's fine," Oliver said.

"I am glad the city is trying to do something to improve the image. This is a good place to live, but it has problems, just like any city. I've never felt like I was in danger, though. This is my home now, and I feel safe."

State Desk on 05/12/2014

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