Guest Opinion | Rick Cole: Park Shooting Should Lead to a Long-Term Strategy to Prevent Violence in our Community

The recent shooting death of Mickey Cooper in Washington Park continues a disturbing pattern of gun violence in Pasadena.

A spate of six shootings in a single week occurred last October. The October before, 13-year-old Iran Moreno was fatally shot by a stray bullet while playing video games in his room. Just a month before that, Jamal Patterson was killed sitting in a car outside his mother’s home. A total of six people died in 73 shooting incidents in 2021 and seven died in 2020.

After each high-profile crime, there’s a predictable flurry of news coverage. Police patrols are stepped up and sometimes rewards are offered to help track down the shooters. There is no shortage of good intentions at City Hall. Yet the shootings continue.

Easy access to guns is embedded in our society and there are no simple solutions on offer. Yet we dare not accept these frightening tragedies as inevitable.

I was Mayor of Pasadena in 1993 when three youngsters were brutally gunned down as they went “trick or treating” on Halloween. It was a searing reminder of how fragile life can be on our streets – and it led to a genuine community mobilization to address the roots of senseless violence. A powerful combination of community-based policing and programs focused on youth made an impact. Five years later, killings of youth under 25 were cut by more than 90%.

No one has the whole answer to the current violence. Many pin the blame on a single cause: guns, poverty, poor education, gangs, family dysfunction, the glorification of violence in games and entertainment. Many urge favored solutions: more cops, tougher gun laws, gang intervention programs, jobs, more social spending, prayer. The debate flares up in the wake of the latest shooting, then fades until the next headline.

What’s lacking today is a sustained focus on achieving results in our community. Too many write off the shootings as a “Northwest problem” instead of a Pasadena problem. What we need is a new strategic mobilization on every aspect of this challenge.

That’s the original meaning of the often-used phrase “The Pasadena Way.” It embraced a comprehensive vision of safety, including positive intervention in the lives of youth. Former Police Chief Bernard Melekian advocated “an absolute commitment to the belief that a mistake by a young person should not result in them being placed into the criminal justice system. To do otherwise often sets off a chain of events that becomes a self-fulfilling negative prophecy. The concept of no more dead children also includes no more thrown-away children.”

A safer Pasadena should be everyone’s goal. Pasadena has the resources. We can all do our part. What’s needed is the vision and leadership. Let’s save lives by making a long-term commitment to a comprehensive strategy that aims to prevent violence, not merely react to it.

Rick Cole is a former Pasadena Mayor and currently serves on the Planning Commission. He is also a candidate for City Council in District 2. His views are his own.