Over 400 people attended a Stop the Violence Rally, hosted by radio station Hott 107.5, though organisers were disappointed with the lack of males that showed up at Victoria Park.

Among guest speakers were mother of slain Shaundae Jones, Police media relations Dwayne Caines, lawyer Charles Richardson and Bishop Vernon Lamb. Thao Dill, a radio personality, said the station decided to throw the event after Jason Lightbourne was gunned down on Ord Road in the early hours of July 23.

Marsha Jones, whose son was shot at point blank range outside a nightclub in Dockyard in 2003, asked every mother to pay attention to their sons in an emotional speech.

“We have to take back our community,” she said. You don’t want to be in my seat. I don’t have any of the answers I just have all the pain. We can’t fix my problems but you mothers can help fix the problem.”

Bishop Lamb kicked off the event and told the audience that “enough is enough, we are prematurely burying young black males”.

He called for families to acknowledge and accept that it was their sons’ who were involved in the violence.

“It is time for us to consider that Bermuda is in a crisis,” he said. “Lets take back our community. Bermuda is not another world, we are part of the crisis of the troubled world.”

Mr. Caines continued with the theme of adults needing to accept that their children are involved in criminal activity.

He said that the Island suffers from “not my son” syndrome. He asked society to stop allowing mothers turn a blind eye and to address issues as they arise, while the child is growing up.

He also called for men to step up and be fathers. “Take responsibility for what you created,” he said.

“The disenchanted and disposed are men of colour,” he added. “They can see the glass ceiling, they can look but not touch. They see everyone else on the Island benefiting from the situation.

“They are a reflection of what we have created. We live in a society that is more concerned with clothes and shoes than development of character.”

Once behind bars for a shooting at the Spinning Wheel nightclub in the early 1990s, Charles Richardson told the audience that many of the issues facing young men today are similar to ones he faced almost 22 years ago.

He told the audience that he thanked God that he did not kill the young man he shot, especially after seeing the grief his victim’s family went through, because “we got another chance”.

He also thanked God for not being a murderer for another reason, because he would not have been able to shoulder that burden, he said.

Mr. Richardson went on to explain how and why young men became wrapped up in violence.

He pointed to the housing crisis, which leads to overcrowded houses that prompt young men to hang out on a wall with friends to escape the cramped quarters. He also said that the poor education system led to young men realising they would never have a chance in Bermuda’s booming economy. “Let’s be real: The BSC (Bermuda Secondary Certificate) isn’t worth the paper it’s written on,” he said. “It’s only exalted by the Education Minister.”

This leads to young men seeing “the same segment that have always benefited continue to benefit” he said.

This was compounded, he said, when they saw their grandparents and parents work tooth and nail to afford to live.

He added that the younger generation has taken on the rage and passion of elder segments of the black community but, have not benefited from having the tools of their elders.

He pointed to grandparents protesting and speaking out against segregation and parents being able to get an education, things he said the younger generation did not have.

He concluded that the adults of the community needed to be better mentors and listen to young black males when they ask for help, adding: “Because they do ask for help, I know, I was there.”