© 2024 KRCU Public Radio
90.9 Cape Girardeau | 88.9-HD Ste. Genevieve | 88.7 Poplar Bluff
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Community Group Seeks Explanation For Violence

Marine Perot
/
KRCU
The next group meeting will be held on August 23rd at 11 am in Mount Moriah Church.

Cape Leaders Alliance held a meeting on Saturday August 9th at Mount Moriah church in downtown Cape Girardeau to discuss the recent rise of violence in the city.

The meeting aimed at discussing the current issues in the community and finding solutions to bring change. Cape Leaders Alliance tried to open a dialogue about why this increase of violence is happening and to figure out how to help the community.

Shelly Moore, the secretary of Cape Leaders Alliance and Ward 2 city councilwoman, moderated the discussion. She has been living in Cape Girardeau for 48 years and said she has never seen such condense demonstrations of violence with back to back homicides.

If the reason for why violence is rising in the city remains obscure, some seem to think that the violence has increased because the youth “has nothing to do.”

“The kids don’t have anywhere to go and these are kids, young men and young women, that are going through the stresses of life, and maybe they don’t know where to go and what to do, and maybe we as leaders have dropped the ball and we are not communicating with them where they would be able to find their way,” said Moore.

Citizens present at the meeting complained about how dysfunctional the community is and needs to be more proactive, and Moore thinks what the community needs is unity.

“We need to find a way to reach the youth, we need to find a way to reach the adults, we need to show that we can change things if we all work together,” said Moore during the meeting.

Cape Leaders Alliance has existed for about three years and works within the community to improve its situation, without only focusing on the crime issues.

“It’s a group of community people that have an ache in their heart to see change in the community,” explained Moore

The group decided to organize a cleanup on September 20th of several streets to be determined. It will also be for them the occasion to raise awareness about their organization and register voters.

The next group meeting will be held on August 23rd at 11 am in Mount Moriah Church.

Marine Perot was a KRCU reporter for KRCU in 2014.