One Body of Change

There is a tremendous amount of work going on in our communities designed to improve the lives of our children and our families. This work is saving lives every day. However, there is the fact that our efforts are undermined by criminal organizations which have billions of dollars, thousands of foot soldiers, and no respect for human life. Our education system is failing our children leaving them unprepared to compete in a world that requires increasing technical skills.

Our children are bombarded with confusing messages from all sides as our political leaders battle for power and social media rages with hatred and anger.

It is our responsibility to create a safe and stable world grounded in justice and equality. This means we must:

1. Immediately engage our education system to demand change
2. We must get the message out to our children that there is hope and a meaningful place for them in our nation.
3. We must work with corporate America to establish access to opportunity.
4. We must establish a community-law enforcement process that involves a partnership whereby the community takes more responsibility for how their community is policed. We must arrive at an agreed upon communication process between law-enforcement and police. This involves a shared culture of interaction where the police are trained to approach the issue of control and investigation as a process that has clear procedures. The community must accept that officers have a right to safety, and respect-this means our citizens have an obligation to not escalate satiations just as officers have a duty to not abuse their authority.
5. We must develop a process of intentional incarceration. This means that we must incarcerate with a clear understanding of what the goal of incarceration is. For those individuals for which incarceration is a necessity then re-entry and habilitation must begin from the point of entry into the system. For those facing long term incarceration we must establish a safe and humane mechanism for their removal from society.
6. We must establish a set of values that makes it clear that violence is unacceptable. We must establish values that make it clear that:
   1. Everyone is responsible for their choices
   2. That we have the ability to influence the outcomes for our lives by:
      1. Delaying pregnancy until economically able to manage
      2. Do not get involved with crime
      3. Do not use drugs
      4. Get an education

Suicide

The rate of suicide in Colorado remained the same between 2018 and 2019, but the number of lives lost each year in the state has been slowly increasing since 2013. The most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that in 2018, Colorado had one of the 10 highest age-adjusted suicide death rates in the nation, at 21.9 deaths per 100,000 people. Higher-than-national rates of death by suicide have been a consistent trend in Colorado, along with other mountain states like Montana and Wyoming.

Suicide is a troubling public health issue that leaves a lasting impact on families and communities. Between 1999 and 2019, the suicide death rate increased 33% There were nearly 46,000 deaths by suicide in 2020, making it the 12th-leading cause of death in the United States. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), that same year 12.2million adults seriously thought about suicide, 3.2 million made a plan and 1.2 million attempted suicide in the past year.

Drug Overdose

Nearly 92,000 persons in the U.S. died from drug-involved overdose in 2020, including illicit drugs and prescription opioids. Preventable drug overdose deaths increased 34.4% in 2020, from 62,172 in 2019. In 2020, 83,558 people died from preventable drug overdoses – an increase of 649% since 1999. These deaths represent 91% of the total 91,799 drug overdose deaths in the United States, which also include suicide, homicide, and undetermined intents.

Colorado Health Institute (CHI) based on data from the Colorado Department Public Health & Environment (CDPHE) show that 1,477 Coloradans died of drug overdoses in 2020 — the most overdose deaths ever recorded in the state and a 38% increase from 2019.

Homicide is the least frequently occurring violent crime. In 2019, 218 homicides were reported in Colorado; since 2008, deaths ranged from 129 to 222 per year. In 2019, three quarters of the victims were men, and the majority (57 percent) ranged in ages from 18-44. 2019 218 homicides Between 2010 to 2019, the rate of aggravated assaults dropped to its lowest level in 2014 at 186.4 offenses per 100,000 residents, and then rose steadily reaching 246.1 offenses per 100,000 residents in 2019.

New statewide data on Colorado’s crime rates puts hard numbers to what many in law enforcement have been saying for the past 14 months: Crime in almost all categories started going up before the pandemic and continues to rapidly rise.

Violent crime, which counts homicides, aggravated assaults, sex assaults and robberies, is up 17 percent between 2019 and 2021. Murder is up 47 percent in those two years.

Property crime is up 20 percent and auto theft is up 86 percent between 2019 and 2021, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

A one-year analysis done by the FBI between 2019-2020 found Colorado had the fourth-highest increase in all crimes in the country just below Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Utah.

Ninety-six people died in Denver homicides last year, the highest number recorded since 1981.

The Third Cross Goals Homicide

Create community awareness regarding the growing threat of random gang violence that is directed to all people regardless of race. Create a system of community-based intervention that has a focus on prevention, early intervention with high risk situations and uses law-enforcement only for the most dangerous cases.

To work to organize communities to focus law- enforcement as a community partnership but to reduce the overall focus of law-enforcement as the primary response. To focus the criminal justice system on those who represent the greatest threat.

To reduce the glamorization of gangs in music and media. To call out and condemn those who profit from the culture of crime and disorder.

To increase the communities understanding of threats management.

To reduce incarceration. To reduce the rate of incarceration through the development of prevention. To accomplish both by creating a community-based enforcement process.

Intervention and Prevention of Violence Using a Social Ecological Model of Intervention

What we do at the Third Cross:

• We work to promote policies and procedures related to the use of force
• Criminal Justice initiatives
  1. Law Enforcement Prisons
  2. Drug Policy
  3. Child Abuse
  4. Domestic Violence
• Assisting communities with threat management
• Develop a system for Assisting men in crisis
• Assisting in raising resources for community projects
• Raising awareness of the scope and cost of violence
• Reconciliation and coordination are the core values

Michael A Lindsey

Agape Christian Church

2501 California Street

Denver, CO 80205

Phone: 720-939-7176

Spiritual Advisors:

Pastor Robert Woolfolk

Mrs. Eddie May Woolfolk