Community group hopes S.N.I.T.C.H. campaign can help stop violen - KPTV - FOX 12

November is National Homicide Victims Awareness Month, and one local group came together Monday to raise awareness hoping to stop the violence.

The community group Enough is Enough is launching what they're calling the S.N.I.T.C.H. campaign, which stands for Somebody Needs Information That Can Help.

The group stated its goal is to stop the violence and bring justice to the families of the victims, and members said they were taking a stand against gang violence in Portland, during a year with record high gang violence.

Last week they put up a billboard near the intersection of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard and Skidmore Street.

It encourages witnesses of violence to speak up and help officers with their investigations.

Group members, parents of victims and law enforcement officials met on Monday to bring attention to their campaign. People there said the hope is to reeducate the community and get witnesses to come forward.

"It is not just a nameless victim, there are victims besides the person who is now a murder victim,” Kimberly Dixon, a mother of a murder victim, said. “The families become victims. The family suffers trauma, the family has to learn how to recover. The families have to learn how to have a holiday without their loved one present."

"When you witness someone murder somebody, that’s not snitching, that’s being an American, a citizen, a human being,” Lucy Mashia, who also lost a child to murder, added. “If it was you wouldn't you want somebody to speak up and tell who did it to you."

Two months ago, the Portland Police Bureau released a report showing there had been 121 cases of gang violence so far this year. Several more have been investigated since that report was released.

The billboard in Northeast Portland will be up until the November 20.

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