Rap singer, Ricky Hampton, who performs as “Finese 2Tymes,” was doing his act at the Power Ultra Lounge in Little Rock early Saturday morning when the shooting began.
It came from several sources in the packed downtown club, and before it was over there were 28 injured, many of them on the way to Little Rock hospitals. There were no fatalities, but one victim remains in the hospital in serious condition.
In addition to reports in the local media, the event attracted coverage from Fox, CNN, NBC, ABC television and USA today.
Compared to the riots and lawlessness in other communities, the Little Rock fracas was fairly mild but drew responses from Little Rock mayor Mark Stodola and Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson in the media calling for a task force to address the increasing violence in the city.
In the meantime, the owner of the club, Herman Lewis, sent Mayor Stodola an e-mail through his attorney indicating that he would not fight any efforts from the city or from the alcoholic Beverage control to close the Power Ultra Lounge.
The shoot-out comes at a time when substance abuse, especially opioids is trending upward in Little Rock and many other communities.
There have been close to 100 cases of violent crime-homicide, robbery, rape and aggravated assault in Little Rock since Jan 1, a 24 percent increase over 2016. And there have also been 29 murders so far this year.
The violence at the Power Ultra Lounge brings to mind the “Fighting Back” project conceived by Princeton’s Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) in 1989 aimed at reducing substance abuse.
In the book, “Fighting Back, the First eight years—mobilizing people and communities in the fight against substance abuse,” author Barbara R. Thompson provides a fascinating account of the experience of 15 communities, including Little Rock.
Fighting Back was a seven year project designed to help mid sized communities (population 100,000 to 250,000) reduce the demand for illegal drugs and alcohol.
To assist in the selection of the communities and to provide successful applicants with technical support and financial oversight, the Foundation established the Fighting Back National Program Office at Vanderbilt University school of medicine. The office, in Nashville, Tennessee, operated under the direction of Dr. Anderson Spickard, Jr.
In March 1990, the Foundation agreed to fund 15 communities, and 14, including Little Rock were given five-year implementation grants totaling $45 million.
In making the announcement, Paul Jellinek, Vice president of RWJF noted that “an individual decision to use illegal drugs or alcohol is driven by a complex spectrum of determinants, including family and peer relationships, television, economics, and the perception of legal penalties.
“No single agency or group of people has the power to address enough of these factors to make a difference,” he said. “The Fighting Back program was designed to help people accomplish collectively what they were unable to do individually.”
This is what we, at One Day at a Time, have in mind for Little Rock and other communities– an organization of local citizens who can provide information and hands-on help for those seeking recovery from addictions. Readers can find details on our website-onedayatatime.com—but included below are quotes from the Fighting Back book to think about.
Quotes from Fighting Back
“The remarkable thing about Fighting Back is that people are meeting together to solve the substance abuse problem in their community who wouldn’t cross the street to be with one another before.”
“The community involvement that has gathered around the Neighborhood Alert Center helped us stabilize our neighborhood. In 1994 we had 98 burglaries. In 1995 we had 40. In the first four months of 1996, we had only four.”
“Addiction is a progressive disorder. The longer it’s allowed to continue, the more damage addicts do to themselves, their families and friends and society.”
“Substance abuse treatment is costly and the trend in managed care is toward the short term. This is partly because, unlike many other diseases, we have not established scientifically what kind of treatment is effective for substance abuse, for whom and for how long.
“There is substantial data that suggests people need more treatment rather than less. In fact, some of the best recovery rates come from therapeutic communities which address multiple levels of need over an extended period of time.”
“In almost every case, we have witnessed first hand the power of good leadership and the ability of citizens to move from paralysis to effective action. In the process we have come to believe that, despite an air of national discouragement, almost all our communities have the talent and resources to tackle the numerous problems of substance abuse from a public health perspective.”
“Although the specific form of an effective program is not necessarily transferable from one community to another our Fighting Back sites have benefited enormously from exchanging ideas and programs with one another.”
“It’s hard for a person who isn’t addicted to drugs or alcohol to understand the power of craving. But imagine you are twenty feet under water, and you’ve just run out of breath. You’ll do anything to get to the surface. Anything. That’s what it feels like when I need a drink.”
“In the final stage of addiction the alcoholic often suffers permanent brain damage. Years of heavy drinking deplete the body’s supply of thiamine, an essential vitamin for growth and maintenance of nerve tissue and the alcoholic’s brain begins to shrink.”
“The three leading causes of death in the U.S. are heart disease, cancer and alcoholism. Among these, alcoholism occupies a unique position. It is completely preventable and highly treatable.”
“Prayer and science are complementary channels of God’s grace. Both, together, are agents of divine healing.”
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