When will the killing of our young Black children in Miami-Dade stop? | Opinion

I am writing this column with a heavy heart. Again. I just can’t seem to get the picture of the smiling little Elijah LaFrance out of my mind. The little boy was shot last Saturday by drive-by shooters on the day he and his family and friends celebrated his fourth birthday.

He was 3.

He became the third child in nine months to be killed in a shooting incident in Miami-Dade.

According to news reports, it was about 8 p.m. on April 24, when a gunman armed with a semi-automatic rifle, drove by the rented house where Elijah’s party was just winding down. Elijah, no doubt still basking in the aftermath of all the attention he received on his special day, stood in the doorway while his family members cleaned up after the party. Suddenly, there were gunshots — 60 of them. There was nowhere to hide, and Elijah’s young body took some of the bullets. He died. A young woman, 21, also was shot, but she survived.

Detective Kevin Thelwell, the lead investigator in the shooting called the shooters “cowards to take the life of a 3-year-old…” He is right. But nowadays, it seems that taking the life of a child is a badge of honor to cowards like the ones who keep on killing our children.

In January, Chassidy Saunders, 6, was also killed in a drive-by shooting. Chassidy was known to her family and friends as the “Tik Tok Princess” because of her happy dancing videos. Two others were injured in the same shooting, but recovered.

And in July 2020, Alana Washington, 7, was shot during a drive-by shooting. She lived two days before dying of the gunshot wounds. A 1-year-old toddler was also injured at the time, but survived.

What’s going one here?

Why are some Blacks killing off our children and other Black young adults, while others of us “see nothing and say nothing” as the shooters simply drive away and reload their weapons for the next victims? Why cry out for justice whenever there is an unjust killing of a Black by a police officer, when there seems to be little concern when criminal-minded Blacks shoot up our neighborhoods, turning them into killing grounds for our young children?

Some of our children are being shot down even before they enter kindergarten. Where is the outrage? Where are the peaceful protesters, demanding justice for children like Elijan and Chassidy and Alana?

When will the killing stop?

I have lived through many things in my lifetime. I never thought I’d live to see the day when little children can’t even enjoy a game of hide-and-seek in their own yards, or can’t run and play at their own birthday parties. It is more than enough to make you sick.

My heart goes out to the loved ones of the little children whose lives were cut off way too soon. I grieve with them as they mourn for their babies. When the shooters aimed their semi-automatic weapons at their human targets, it didn’t matter to them that their bullets could find their way into the tiny body of a child. It didn’t matter that perhaps the young life they took could have grown up to be the scientist that would find the cure for some deadly disease. Or, perhaps, a world leader. Or, just a good, old American citizen. Who gave the shooters the right to steal away our babies’ futures?

I am so tired of seeing tiny coffins being carried inside our sanctuaries while grieving relatives follow. I don’t want our children to grow up in a society where the sounds of gunshots smother the happy sounds of children laughing and playing. I want the killers to be caught and punished. But in order for that to happen, somebody who saw something, who knows something, must come forth and say something.

Whatever happened to “The Village” — that group of loving individuals who looked after each other’s children? The mamas of The Village were always just as quick to give a loving hug as they were to pluck a switch off the nearest bush for a “switching” whenever a child had been naughty. It didn’t matter that you weren’t the child’s natural parent. What mattered was that you cared, and you wanted the child to grow up healthy and mannerly.

The Village needs to be reinstated. We need to return to caring about each other; we need to stop looking the other way when we come face-to-face with the devil. We must look the demons right square in the eye.

Beautiful, young lives are being lost all too often. People, we have got to start loving ourselves again.

We have got to weed out the cowards who live only for the thrill of taking the life of another human being. We’ve got to do more than build makeshift monuments with colorful flowers and stuffed teddy bears in “loving memory “ of one of our children who have died too soon. These killers seem heartless. We must turn this deadly trend around.

The place to start is to care. Care that the killers don’t walk free to take the life of another child, or innocent adult.

Let’s make our front yards and our backyards happy places again. Let laughter and innocent game-playing replace the sounds of police car sirens in our neighborhoods. Let innocence reign in the lives of our children once more. Let’s care. About each other. About our future as Blacks in America.

I don’t think this is too much to ask. We must, and we can, save our children.

Somebody knows who fired the fatal shots that killed little Elijah. If that somebody is you, say something. We will all be better if you do.