Hundreds of victims of crime are expected to gather at the Florida State Capitol.
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — Hundreds of survivors of violent crime are scheduled to demonstrate at the Florida Capitol on Tuesday, urging legislators to approve legislation that would assist them in grieving and finding assistance.
Aswad Thomas was hit in the back with a bullet. His sports career had been shattered.
“I was shot in the back exiting a corner shop in my neighborhood in Hartford, Connecticut in 2009, soon after being the first guy in my family to attend college and on my way to play professional basketball abroad,” Thomas recalled.
Thomas has turned his sorrow into a rallying cry for better assistance for other gun violence survivors.
He aspires to create improvements in Tallahassee that will benefit tens of thousands of people. On Tuesday, he and 400 other crime survivors will gather at the Capitol for a demonstration.
“Families all around the state are in desperate need of assistance and healing. So we’ll be going to roughly 20 legislators,” Thomas added.
Nakesa Barnhill, a Jacksonville resident whose 2-year-old son, Amari, was slain by his father as a result of child abuse, will be among the survivors.
Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice is a nationwide network of crime survivors with over 8,000 members in Florida who are working together to build healing communities and influence public safety policies.
The purpose is to provide unpaid time off for survivors of violence to mourn and recover.
They seek to do the following via state legislation:
Families of murder victims should be given three days of unpaid leave.
To promote alternatives to jail, the state’s probation system should be improved.
Allow county-level sealing of arrest records that do not result in convictions.
“Our ultimate aim is to ensure that crime victims and survivors throughout the state have access to services and resources,” Thomas added.
According to Thomas, Florida needs additional public safety solutions since some of the most vulnerable neighbourhoods are not receiving the assistance they require. These state legislation, Thomas and others think, will aid victims in overcoming trauma, PTSD, and a life that has been irrevocably transformed as a result of violence.
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