Far too often, communities like ours are subjected to senseless acts of violence. As a mother, and an educator, it breaks my heart to see our sons and daughters lose out on the opportunity to live a full and complete life.

Time and time again, we say the same thing with little to no follow through; we MUST come together as a community to have the uncomfortable, real conversations about what’s happening around us and work towards finding solutions to the tough questions. It is up to us to rebuild genuine relationships between our residents, community organizations and local law enforcement agencies. Collectively, we need to work towards tangible prevention strategies for the gunplay that plagues our city and combine resources to bring the perpetrators to justice when they commit a crime. Indeed, this isn’t an easy task, but we must work together in order to achieve it.

If anyone has any knowledge of any information that can assist the police regarding recent activities that have taken place and want to come forward anonymously as well as any information regarding ongoing investigations, you can contact the Trenton Police Department: Confidential Tips: 989-3663 · Text-A-Tip: CRIMES (274637) and enter the word TPDTIPS. Please, if you see or know something, say something!

I share the pain and heartache of the families who have lost someone to senseless acts of violence in our city — this is our Trenton, and we’re in this fight together.

Editor in Chief of Peterson’s Breaking News of Trenton, founded in 2012.