FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com JANUARY 14, 2016 • THE COURIER SUN 3 THE COURIER/Photo by Brooke Smith Carrying flags and wearing shirts bearing the peace symbol, residents in Jamaica marched on Thursday night calling for action to stop gun violence throughout the community and country. FAMILY OF JAMAICA MURDER VICTIM DEMAND END TO GUN VIOLENCE AT VIGIL BY BROOKE SMITH go to work for every day,” Miller said. editorial@queenscourier.com/@QueensCourier A teary-eyed crowd held each other while wearing their “Peace is a lifestyle” shirts in support of Jamaica residents are taking their community Jackson’s mother and aunt, who were joined by back from the gun violence that has taken too three other mothers who have lost their sons to many of their youth. The death of Jihad Jackson, gun violence. a 16-year-old boy who was fatally shot on New “I never knew the community would come out Year’s Eve, has pushed the community to the point so deep for something like this,” said Jackson’s of demanding a change. mother, Marguerite Tolson-Jackson. “My son is Jackson’s friends and family joined City not the first kid that has gotten killed in this neighborhood Councilman I. Daneek Miller and community and I’ve never seen this before. Enough activists at the corner of Merrick Boulevard and 109th Avenue on Jan. 7 for a community vigil, then marched behind the mourning family to Jackson’s old middle school, The New Preparatory Middle School for Technology and Performing Arts. A crowd of more than 100 chanted “Guns downs, lives up!” and “Stop the violence!” as police escorted them to the middle school. “Senseless gun violence is not an acceptable norm. This is not our culture. This is not what we is enough. How many more kids got to go before someone makes a change?” “Get better hobbies, educate yourself. I have five sons and I have to pray every day that I hear from them or they come home to me,” said Jackson’s aunt Domanecia Davis. “We need to put a stronger emphasis on gun control. At 16 years old I should not be burying my nephew, I should be going to see his basketball games.” Tolson-Jackson now joins other mothers who have suffered the loss of a child to gun violence, including Carolyn Dyxon, Donna Hood and Shenee Johnson. These mothers are working to ensure their children’s lives were not lost in vain by turning such tragedy into an opportunity to seek change. “The moment that my son’s life was taken was the moment that I became an advocate against gun violence. So that’s why I have to come,” said Johnson, whose son was killed six years ago. “I have three other children to fight for as well as other children in the community.” Hood and her family have started the KLM Jr. Foundation in the name of her son, Kevin Lamar Miller Junior, who was killed by a stray bullet in 2009. “We’re trying to give the kids an opportunity to attend college by giving scholarship money,” she said. “If they were able to go away to college and better themselves maybe that would be one less dead child on the street.” Congressman introduces bill to increase protection against debt collectors BY KIRSTEN E. PAULSON editorial@queenscourier.com/@QueensCourier Congressman Gregory Meeks introduced a bill last week designed to bolster protections for consumers against unfair and abusive debt collection practices. The Debt Collection Harmonization Act would build upon the Fair Debt Collection Protection Act (FDCPA) by treating all third-party debt collectors the same. Currently, the FDCPA prevents collectors of consumer debt from acting abusively toward debtors; however, debt collectors hired by government agencies are exempt from the law and often ignore mandated protection standards. The Debt Collection Harmonization Act would extend the FDCPA to protect people against abuse from government debt collectors as well. The act would also prevent private debt collection companies from collecting debt associated with natural disasters. Instead, the Department of Treasury would be required to manage debt associated with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). “The Debt Collection Harmonization Act will extend consumer protection to non-consumer, government-related debt such as parking tickets, and prevent third-party debt collectors from harassing individuals, threatening them, or ignoring their requests simply because the underlying debt is owed to the government,” Meeks said. “Essentially, the bill will treat all third-party debt collectors similarly, regardless of the underlying source of debt.”
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