P.E.A.C.E. – Proper Education Always Corrects Errors

Editor’sNote: This is a reprint of an article that ran in 2009, however, it is stillappropriate at this time. Peaceand blessings to all, particularly the family and supporters of Mr. FloydMiller and the West Texas Tribune’s readership. For nearly a year now, Fraternal Order of X-Offenders, Inc. has had the opportunity to be a part of the West Texas Tribune Family viasharing our wisdom, knowledge and understanding regarding the causes, effectsand solution to deter, decrease and ultimately to prevent the pathology ofcriminality and delinquency throughout this nation. Asmany of you may know or may not know, FOXO Inc. is a non-profit 501C Grassroots Organization created by X-Offenders to prevent, deter and decreasethe prevalence of crime, drugs, violence and gang activity through research,program development and training. {{more}} FOXO’sresearch is designed to evaluate social pathologies within our communities froma social, psychological, economical, political, cultural/spiritual andhistorical perspective. We identify anddevelop effective strategies and national partnership to assess and accessfunding sources to enhance our collective capacity to deter, decrease, andprevent the proliferation of crime, drugs, and violence in the community. Our mission encompasses serving to developand build capacity in community based and faith based organizations as well asacademic institutions; to enhance the quality of life for all stake holders, atrisk youth and families. FOXOdata indicates that the leading cause of death among African American malesages 15 to 34 is homicide. The data alsoindicates that between 1976 and 2004, 100% of the Black murder victims werekilled by 94% Black offenders. Inprevious articles, we have written about issues such as the history of 1.)Crime in America, 2.) The Economics ofPoverty, 3.) The Race to Incarceration, 4.) The Perpetual Prison, IndustrialComplex, 5.) The War on Drugs, 6.) The Core-Relationship between Crime, Drugs,and Violence, 7.) The Inter-Connection of Issues such as Power, Politics,Crimes, Racism, Classcism, Elitism and/or The Inter-Dynamics of Racism,Classcism and the Majority Incarceration Rate of Poor and Black Minority Peopleof Color, 8.) Re-Thinking, Re-Shaping, Re-Evaluating, Re-Entry, 9.) CommunityRe-Entry, 10.) Blackon Black Crimes, 11.) Breaking the Cycle of Inter-Generational Dynamics ofParental Criminality and Child Delinquency, and12.) Proper Education Always Corrects Errors.  Manypeople believe that communities that have high rates of homicides also havehigh rates of other crimes. Researchindicates that the following indicators are very prevalent in communities thathave high rates of crimes, drugs, violence and gang activities are: high ratesof poverty, high rates of out of wedlock births, high rates of teenagepregnancies, high rates of single female households, high incarceration ratesof Black Males, high school drop-out rates, high unemployment rates, high ratesof repeated offenders, high concentration of returning releasees from jails andprisons, high rates of people on parole/probation, high rates of substanceusers/abusers meaning sellers, buyers and stick-up artists, etc. Pleasebe advised readers, that the primary purpose of this one year anniversaryarticle is to challenge us to acknowledge that “time dictates the agenda” for us to move fromdis-unity towards community “our community is our responsibility” topromote peace.WhoBenefits?            Cities such as Detroit,Philadelphia, Washington, DC and Baltimore, with large Black populationexperience the nation’s highest rates of murder and violent crimes. This high murder rate is predominantly ablack pandemic. FOXO’s research ofBureau Justice Statistics, indicates that between 1976 and 2005, blacks, while13% of the population committed more than 52 % of the nation’s homicides,blacks also were more than 46 % of the homicide victims. Ninety-four percent of black homicide victimshad a black person as their murderer.             Blacks are not only the primaryvictims of homicide, but blacks also suffer high rates of all other seriousviolent crimes as both the victims and perpetrators which is nothing short oftwo edges of the same self-homicide, self-genocide, self-destructive sword.   FOXO’S COMMUNITY CRIMEPREVENTION INITIATIVE Statementof NeedsRethinking,Reshaping, Re-Evaluating Community Crime Prevention Initiative.  CommunityCrime Prevention Initiative is a community advocacy support andstrengths-based, customized mediation and behavior modification process aimedat helping people meet their communities’ unmet needs both within and outsideof formal human services systems, while they remain in their neighborhoods andhomes, whenever possible. To appreciatethe potential fruit from this process, the collective community must addressthe root . FOXO’s CognitiveReconstruction is teaching people new ways of thinking that will influence theirthinking and/or teaching people new ways of thinking that will influence and/orcontrol their behavior that promotes pro-social skills vs. anti-socialskills.             Themethodology that FOXO uses is derived from its National DVD Training thataddresses the Psychology of Sociology and Criminality. The premise is that everyone in the communityis a stakeholder within the community and they should take personalresponsibility and personal accountability for everyone else needs assessment,risk assessment and criminogenic assessment in their community so that the community’sprotected factors are maximized while the community risk factors are minimizedto ensure and promote community public safety. Tara Andrews, Esquire, is challenging all summit attendees to evolve from individual spectators to become collective participators in the FOXO’s Community Crime Prevention Movement.  Tara Andrews is the recipient of an award for the Up and Coming of Who’s Who in 100s Black America among many other awards.  She is a humble servant, ordained minister, multiple advanced degrees who loves building the capacity of raw talent.  She has been the Executive/Deputy Director of local, state wide and national organizations.  She is an avid advocate for policy reform that affects disengaged, disconnected and disenfranchised populations, particularly young people.  FOXO’s indebtness to Tara Andrews, Esquire is much wider than words could ever specify.