Community meeting tonight

Neighbors will gather to discuss ways to curb the violence in their neighborhood.

No one has come up with an easy answer to halting the violence in a neighborhood where violence is all too prevalent, violence such as that which claimed the life of Tyrone King on Thursday.

King was gunned down durig an armed robbery at a home in the Hagins-Fewell neighborhood. He was only 18.

Two men, both 17, and a woman, 21, now are in custody in connection with the shooting. All three are charged with murder.

Residents in the predominantly black neighborhood are dismayed. They are tired of the crime and violence that erupt on their streets. And they are not willing to take it for granted, to accept it as an inevitable part of their lives.

Neighbors have banded together to join Community United For Change, made up of leaders from several Rock Hill neighborhoods, clergy, school officials and city officials with the Weed & Seed program, which provides money and organizational help in city neighborhoods with high crime rates. Neighbors have participated in cleanups of empty lots and abandoned homes, efforts to make their neighborhood less hospitable to drug dealers.

One resident, Sherman Porterfield, recently worked months to organize the Black Male Summit, which featured a variety of speakers talking about problems in the black community such as the high dropout rate, unemployment and violence. The summit lasted much of the morning on Sept. 26.

Spurred by King's death, Porterfield and his committee now have organized a �Call to Action� meeting for 6 tonight at Rock Hill Deliverance Church, 1041 Sylvia Circle. Organizers hope to attract ministers and members of the community � anyone who wants to talk about ways to curb the violence in the community.

The primary focus of the meeting will be black-on-black crime. But at a more fundamental level, these are simply concerned people gathering to seek ways to make their neighborhood safer, to live with less fear and less concern about the welfare of family and friends.

They already have the support of the city and its polcie force. On Monday afternoon, about 30 officers descended on the neighborhood and blocked road intersections to hand out fliers and information about how to combat crime and violence. The Community United for Change had coordinated this police blitz.

Residents know that a police presence alone cannot reverse the cycle of violence. Only a concerted and united effort by residents themselves � in cooperation with law enforcement agencies � can change the climate in the neighborhood.

We applaud Porterfield and others who helped stage tonight's �Call to Action� meeting and the residents who are dedicated to this effort. Working together, hard enough and long enough, they can make a difference.