Montgomery's spike in violent crime has caught statewide attention as policymakers, including state lawmakers, seek solutions.
Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey discussed those issues during an appearance on this week's broadcast of Alabama Public Television's "Capitol Journal."
He put the onus on parents, as gun violence is increasing among younger age groups. He also blamed the Alabama Legislature for not taking up a provision that would give mandatory prison time for crimes involving a gun and the backup in Montgomery's judiciary.
“Well, I think there's a lot of reasons that lead to the crime that we are seeing," Bailey explained. "You know, one of the major factors I believe is happening is that we don't have parents who are parenting anymore. And I'm not blaming it all on parents. There are parents that do everything they can. There's some single parents out there that do a wonderful job, and just their kids just turn out bad. I get that. But what I'm seeing is a lot of parents who are not putting in the effort to parent their kids. Maybe they don't know how. Maybe they weren't taught. I don't know the reason. But it's very easy sometimes to see why a child has turned out the way they have. One of the first things I do on a crime scene when I go out to a homicide is when I find out the name of the person who's been killed or the name of the person they suspect that did it, always pull up their social media. Before anybody else knows, these people were deceased or accused of a crime. One of the things I've noticed when I pull up the social media is that, especially among the perpetrators, you'll see them flashing gang signs or pictures with guns and doing things on social media that they shouldn't be doing."
"And then if their parents would just take a look at their social media, they would know that their child is into things that they shouldn't be into," he continued. "Things like parents not looking through their child's things in their rooms and looking for guns or drugs. Making sure you know who your children are hanging out with. Those things are not happening as they once were. And I see so many parents who will respond to a crime scene or come into court, and they're just tore up. I mean, they're devastated. They're crying. They're begging for mercy. And I just look at them and just shake my head. It's too late at that point. Way too late. If your child is deceased, it's obviously too late for them. If they're going to prison for the rest of their life, it's too late for them. And the time that you should have been involved and you should have cared was years earlier. And there's so many resources in Montgomery, the resources all across our state, that parents can take advantage of, but unfortunately, parents aren't doing that."
"So that's part of the problem," Bailey explained. "I think the legislature, to be honest with you, is also part of the problem. There's some good common sense gun laws that — you know, I've had a gun bill up for the legislature for the last three years that will not come out. And it's dealing with creating mandatory time for those who use guns and violent offenses. I think everybody can get behind that, but unfortunately, we can't get that passed. There's some federal laws that are very similar that make a difference, but unfortunately the feds do very little to help us in Alabama to prosecute these cases. They take some cases, but they're not doing a majority of the cases that need to be prosecuted. So that leaves it to state prosecutors."
"And then the third thing is we need judges to actually put these individuals behind bars when we do convict them of these violent offenses," he added. "And one thing that is happening, at least in Montgomery, is because there's a lot of attention being paid to the crime and the rising crime, and a lot of our“state officials live in Montgomery, or at least are here a majority of the time, is that we are starting to see people, what can we do to help? What resources can we provide? And it's about time because even though I point out that the criminals have become younger, the crime problem has been festering for a long time. I mean, you can go back and look at my comments 10 years ago. I told people that Montgomery was under siege with violent crime. This is not something that's just happened in the last year or two. So there's a lot of issues that need to be dealt with.”
Jeff Poor is the editor in chief of 1819 News and host of "The Jeff Poor Show," heard Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-noon on Mobile's FM Talk 106.5. To connect or comment, email jeff.poor@1819News.com or follow him on Twitter @jeff_poor.
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