Church hosting community meeting on crime

A community meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday at the Clovis Church of the Brethren to discuss the recent surge in crime.

The church is located at 101 Acoma Drive just off Manana Boulevard in Clovis.

One of the meeting organizers, Josefita Griego, said the purpose of the meeting is to bring to the community an awareness of the rising crime rate, especially the rise in number of incidents of gun violence.

“I think there has been a rise in crime in general in New Mexico,” Griego said. “I have always been a believer that crime and poverty can go together and Clovis is a low-income community.”

“I believe crime has increased since COVID hit, because of the economy,” she said. “I think that we have to choose to work together as a community to bring awareness and change and to help bring programs for families and youth to better serve the community.”

Where there is “no structure in the community” for programs for youth, they do not have positive alternative ways to spend their time and can be attracted to crime, she said.

The meeting will inform people of what they can do and there will be a Q&A presentation, she said.

Daniel Murrell, pastor of the Clovis Church of the Brethren, said they are holding the meeting for the community to discuss the recent violence.

“I believe the citizens are ready to take accountability for our community by getting involved and reporting crime,” Murrell said. “We want to get citizens involved with helping the police with this problem.”

Some things people can do include joining Neighborhood Watch groups and using Crime Stoppers and Tip411, he said.

“We want to be able to bridge the gap between the community, city leadership and first responders, the police officers,” he said.