To the editor:

Allow me to use this opportunity to express my utter shock and dismay.

On Oct. 7, 2019, while observing Facebook that morning, I saw my son and several young black men and women in a post from the newspaper in a story in relation to deaths due to gun violence in our small town of Natchez.

Our crime rate is at an all-time high and rising, dating to 2014, which is sad and depressing.

Most of these violent, gruesome killings are not solved. I know, because I’m a mother who has been seeking justice and closure since Dec. 17, 2018, when my son, Don E. Owens, was kill in Natchez. Another son of mine was shot on Aug. 19, 2019, and suffered non-life threatening injuries.

No one has been arrested or held accountable in either case. I hold every one in a role of leadership in Natchez accountable for getting these criminals off the streets here.
Those murderers walk among us every day as if they are in control. Some of the criminals who commit these gruesome killings are repeat, habitual offenders who do not deserve to walk the streets of Natchez among us, but they do without fear of any consequence whatsoever.

Anytime you go to a store or nail shop and people are openly discussing who it is committing these crimes, but nothing happens to the criminals, that’s a community shame.

We as a community must get together and make a change in Natchez. If you see something, you should be able to say something without fear of retaliation toward you or your family members, but these criminals have many here living in a community now where the citizens fear for their lives.

We must rise up and make a change. We as a community need to get out to the polls and vote. Remove some of our elected officials who don’t have our best interest at heart, who know who are committing these crimes but won’t help solve our violence problem, either out of fear or profit. They show no concern because it is not their child or family members who are being killed.

When it hits their home than what? Then, they will go above and beyond and take every measure necessary to remove these criminals from the streets of Natchez.
I just don’t just want justice for my children, but this whole community deserves the same. We have a lot of hurting mothers and families in this community who want justice.

As a grieving mother, citizen, taxpayer and a voter, this is my civic right.

I’m asking everyone to get out and vote to make a change and let these elected officials know that we have had enough.

Our children are being murdered in the streets of this small town of Natchez with no one being held accountable.

On Saturday, I will be doing a walk for our young men and women who have been murdered. It will start on the Bluff at 3:30 p.m. and I will walk the sidewalks maybe a block or two in honor of our love ones.

Everyone is cordially invited. You may wear a t-shirt of your love ones or bring candles, balloons, pictures, or poster boards to keep their memories alive.
They will never be forgotten and their deaths will not be in vain if we work to make right the wrongs that are happening here in Natchez.

Rebecca Owens
Natchez