Selena Taylor is the mother of a young man killed at La Familia Sports Pub on Pacific Highway September 26, 2021.
Hi, I am writing you today to (hopefully) respond a bit more clearly to your public comment last night. Just as you and Betty were speaking it dawned on me that this weekend is, to the day, the 50th anniversary of my sister's death in 1971. She was 17 and wonderful and her only problem was that she had a boyfriend who had already had -many- run-ins with the law before they met. The young man killed her. And at his trial, my parents became obsessed to learn that he had already been in 'the system' so many times. They could not understand -why- he had been able to continue after so many arrests and court appearances and so on. They felt let down by -everyone-. And they never got past that... the -unfairness-. It just nagged at them and over time it made them bitter. My takeaway from my sisters' death was that the problem had started -years- before. Perhaps if that young man had been given some other options, things might have gone differently. I don't say that out of any great sympathy for him. I'm just being practical. Clearly trying to arrest people and lock them up was ineffective. So since joining the City Council, my particular focus has been on youth programs and education. Des Moines has had areas associated with violent crime and much of it was at the middle and high school level. We implemented a program called Reach Out Des Moines that does just a few things: it encourages kids to show up for school and it provides them with activities after school and on weekends. Those very simple things have reduced teenage crime by as much as 75% in the most affected parts of Des Moines. My hope is that helping those kids -avoid- getting into that system will help prevent tragedies like you are going through now. Obviously we need to do a LOT more. So I applaud your ideas, which sound great. I think they will help move the needle and I would like to help in -any- way I can. In closing, all I was trying to say last night was that this is not a new problem. It's been going on -far- too long. And it will never make sense. But I think you will eventually find healing and grace. I want to thank you again for sharing a part of your story. It meant a lot to me and my colleagues. And I hope we can both find ways to use that energy to solve this problem. Below is my cell phone. Please call me -any- time if I can be of service. ---JC