The pastor and the police officer

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, September 27th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Fighting juvenile crime.

According to a recent article in the the New York Post, youth crime in New York City is on the rise. Juvenile robbery arrests have nearly doubled. Felony assault—up by a quarter. Whether it’s carjackings or kids just randomly punching people, the crimes are brazen.

But it’s not just a big city problem. WORLD Senior Writer Kim Henderson recently met a father and son who know a lot about youth crime in a small town.

Here’s her report.

SOUND: [NATCHEZ VISITOR CENTER]

KIM HENDERSON, SENIOR WRITER: Natchez, Mississippi, is a tourist town. The visitors center promotes tours of its antebellum mansions. And there’s the Mississippi River, too.

SOUND: [MISSISSIPPI RIVER]

You can walk right down to the river’s edge. Water will lap your feet as barges pass, carrying freight to New Orleans. It's picturesque. But a block away, something’s always happening on Natchez streets.

AUDIO: [NEWS CLIP]

Two men—who share the same name—have a passion for helping youth caught up in crime. They just work at it from different angles.

STANEY SEARCY: My name is Stan Searcy. Stanley Searcy.

That’s Stanley Searcy, senior, the pastor. He’s 63.

OFFICER: Major Stanley S-T-A-N-L-E-Y Searcy S-E-A-R-C-Y. Adams County Sheriff's Office.

And that’s Stanley Searcy, junior, the law enforcement officer. He’s 41. The pastor’s son. Officer Searcy deals with young people and crime every day.

OFFICER: It started off as petty crimes that we always saw. And now we’re seeing kids commit violent crimes. Murder, the manslaughters, the aggravated assaults, the deadly weapons.

He says more than half of the youth that officers stop have guns on them.

OFFICER: That's crazy. When I was growing up, the only time I had a gun, that I came in contact with a gun, was when I went hunting.

SOUND: [FLAG FLAPPING]

Outside the red brick sheriff’s office, an American flag flaps in the wind. The building hasn’t changed much through the years. But the town sure has.

OFFICER: I saw a kid riding a bicycle last week, on a bicycle, with a pistol on his side. And this kid is in high school.

Searcy’s father, a Natchez pastor for nearly three decades, sees the changes, too. After a murder involving a teenager last year, Natchez held a town hall panel discussion. Pastor Searcy took part. He remembers the suggestions people offered during the discussion. Things like: take the guns away. Enforce a curfew. Demand stiffer punishments. Pastor Searcy wasn’t impressed.

PASTOR: There may be some things, you know, that we might take a look at and need to take a look at. But when I looked at it, it's going to have to be somebody getting in the trenches, getting out here with them.

That’s why Pastor Searcy and his church started youth camps. Renovated apartments for low-income housing. Helped at the local youth court.

PASTOR: I would try to get the mindset of the youth, and say well, why are you killing one another? You know, why all the gunplay? Why all this? “Well, he disrespected me, and you can't let people disrespect you.”

Searcy shakes his head over that.

PASTOR: We don't talk. We don't communicate with one another. You know, a lot of our young people just blow up, and they go straight to the gun.

SOUND: [TRUCK AND MACHINE]

In their retirement, Pastor Searcy and his wife have started a new automobile repair shop. They hire local students and mentor them.

They detail cars, change oil. Even recover seats.

SOUND: [TRUCK AND MACHINE]

That’s the sound of a trained upholsterer using a sewing machine in the shop. He’s there to pass on his trade.

PASTOR: We're not trying to basically give them a fish, but we’re trying to teach them how to fish, and that there is a benefit in doing things the right way, not having to wake up at nighttime, the doors being kicked open, looking over your back. Because you know you're making money in the right way.

SOUND: [SIREN]

Officer Searcy has a different kind of rapport with Natchez youth. He says very few offenders can tell him why they commit crimes. But he knows the reason. They’ve made bad choices. They’ve turned away from God.

OFFICER: You choose to make the streets your god, drugs your god, women your god.

Both of the Searcys believe youth crime represents a spiritual battle.

Officer Searcy quotes from Second Chronicles.

OFFICER: I'm a firm believer that “if my people, which are called by my name, humble themselves and pray, and turn from their wicked ways, then God will hear and heal the land.” But if they don't turn from their wicked ways, then this, what we're seeing, is like a snowball going downhill. It’s just going to continue to increase.

His father agrees. He wants God to use them to bring about change.

PASTOR: It's overwhelming, but it's a task that we've been called to. And I don't think it's just a one community thing, or one church issue, I think it's everybody's problem.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in Natchez, Mississippi.

If you’d like to read deeper, Kim wrote about this in our sister publication WORLD Magazine, publish date October 7th. We’ll put a link in the transcript and you can read it right now.

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