MIAMI – Community leaders are looking for answers after multiple shootings in Miami killed two people and injured four others.
"A lot of them are dying from shootings," said Cherrie Grace, who works on the obituary page for The Miami Times. "I have a son that's around that age, too. It kind of bothers me a little bit when I see them here. But what can you do?"
From Saturday to Monday, two people were killed and four others were injured in five different shootings.
"It's the same people, the same pastors (who) call a press conference when there's a shooting," said Tangela Sears, a community activist. "Does that actually cure the problem in our community? No."
"It's often is a top-down philosophy instead of a bottom up," said Kevin McNeir a senior editor at The Miami Times. "Some ministers, there were some politicians that were more interested, I'd say, in promoting their own agenda than promoting the agenda of those who are really hurting."
"We as a community have to learn how to hold those in our community responsible," added Sears. "They (politicians) are reelected due to popularity. We like them."
"Our young people are frustrated. They are unemployable," said McNeir. "Now, some parents are complicit because they know their children are selling drugs or they know they are in a gang or whatever and they look the other way."
Sears and McNeir described a cycle of poverty, lackadaisical parenting, and youths devaluing their own lives. Sears said the criminals often plead their way out of jail time.
"These guys with guns, they've learned the loopholes," said Sears. "They are just as sharp as the prosecutors and it becomes a revolving door."
"It's parents that have to be accountable and children that have to be accountable and business leaders have to be accountable," said McNeir. "It takes a village."