After a summer of violence throughout Minneapolis, some neighborhoods have been hit harder than others. The city's northside has struggled with violence as numerous businesses have closed, leaving it looking like a ghost town.
Rev. Jerry McAfee joined News Talk 830 WCCO's Mike Max to discuss what efforts are being taken to stop violence on the city's north side and educate others on what is going on.
"It's a real fear. Let's be real about that," McAfee said. "People aren't getting shot around here because it's not real."
McAfee said one thing that has led to the increase of violence is the induction of teenagers who don't even know what they are doing.
He shared that many of them commit these crimes while intoxicated and using narcotics.
"A young man that I was extremely close to his family, a month or two ago, was killed at that Skyline grocery store on Glenwood," McAfee said. "If you see the pictures of one of the 16 or 17-year-olds that was involved in the shooting, who is now looking at life without the possibility of parole, you know that some older person put that gun in his hand with the promise of whatever."
McAfee shared that he can see younger generations being taken advantage of and that he recently did a funeral of a 12-year-old killed by a 17-year-old.
This is not something that began one day out of the blue. Instead, McAfee shared that the community has seen this coming for some time now.
"We have been trying to get people to listen for years on what's here now," he said. "Not much was done to try and help us deal with it, and so now it's here, we're in the midst of it, and we're fighting every day to try and get our own people to see the value of each other."
What McAfee sees as heartbreaking is the number of kids who have seen this happen before.
"If you could see all of the kids out here at this funeral right now, it will break your heart," McAfee said. "For many of them, this is not their first time."
When it comes to how McAfee will get his point across that change is needed in his community, he had a plan for his next sermon.
"For this one, I have my secretary going to get me a fifth of Hennessy, some beer, and some reefer, and I am going to put it on top of a thing so they can all see," McAfee said. "I am going to draw contrast between a medically induced pleasure versus a Bible induced pleasure and the effects of it. That despite of the reality of the tragedies that we deal with, our help comes from the lord."
McAfee is continuing to invest in his community by helping people in tough spots get clean and get jobs. The only thing he asks of his community is to continue to educate themselves about what is going on in the city.
