Harris: Jamal Small’s death a catalyst for change
Pastors, friends, family, and City Council members pledge action
Over 1,000 people packed Living Word Christian Church on Route 35 in Neptune City Saturday to attend the funeral of Jamal Brian Small.
Family, friends, and pastors, who spoke during the service, called him ‘Smalls,’ a lifelong nickname.
Small, 24, died Dec. 20. He was a victim of gun violence.
Jamal Small
The 2010 Asbury Park High School graduate and star athlete attended Dean College in Franklin, Mass., before transferring to Texas Southern University in Houston, where he obtained a Business Administration degree, Kamesha Davis said during the Saturday morning funeral. He worked at New Hope Foundation, the Marlboro-based addiction treatment center, volunteered as a football coach and mentored the city’s youth.
“This has to be a place of a start,” Pastor Porter Brown said. “A start of great energy to work towards an end to the violence. This has to be a place of a start – a start to really have more compassion for the long suffering towards one another and mankind; that we pay attention to our youngsters. This is a place where we need to start to bind the wounds that have been open and festering for so long. This is the place where we need to start to work within the institutions and organizations that are available to us both governmentally and privately – to affect real change. This is the place to start to stop making excuses for us not coming together.”
In the day’s leading up to burial, Mayor John Moor discussed his New Year’s resolution at the last City Council meeting of the year.
“There’s way too many guns on the street – not in Asbury Park, the county, not in the country, in the world,” Moor said.
“Every day we read about a shooting here, a shooting there,” he said. “I want to address the problem of guns on the streets and less violence and not just in Asbury Park, but the entire county, state, and country. It’s out of control. We are supportive of our law enforcement, be it local, county or state – to stop these guns coming from the Carolinas, Connecticut, or where ever they are coming from… Unless we all get together as one to address this – and there are some people in Trenton that don’t want to address this problem, which is a sin – until then we will be up here doing this again and that is irresponsible on our parts.”
On Tuesday President Barack Obama, in a public address to the nation, introduced an Executive Order to require small-scale gun sellers to get federal licenses, among other provisions.
“For every family who never imagined that there loved one would be taken from our lives by a bullet from a gun,” Obama said before a long pause and wiping a tear from his eye. “Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad.”
In response to gun control legislation, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr, D-6th 
District said, “President Obama’s bold action today is a welcome, overdue, and necessary move to make our nation safer. For too long, Republicans in Congress have blocked any and all meaningful action on gun safety – and lives have been lost…While we shouldn’t need additional motivation to put an end to gun violence, the President’s executive order is a meaningful and encouraging step forward and it fuels my commitment to continue the fight for common-sense, lifesaving gun control legislation.”
At the funeral Saturday, Nicolle Harris, head of the National Action Network, Asbury Park Chapter, said, “In our minds we don’t understand.”
She prayed that the community find the “strength to live as Jamal would want us to live.”
“We are tired of coming to funerals, we are tired of burying loved ones but we know that you will heal the land. This is a catalyst for change in this community. Give us strength to live as ‘Smalls’ did. Challenge us to live like he did.”
Councilman Jesse Kendle said he will be walking around the community and knocking on doors to make a personal plea.
“I’m obligated because I grew up in this town,” Kendle said. “I’ve been to many a young people funerals and it tears me up to see anyone get hurt or shot down. I think we all feel the same way; people are getting shot and killed in the black community. This is the time when we have to talk to each other…”
Small’s funeral included remarks from close friends and mentors Stephen Williams and Shine Davis who gave personal reflections on the 24-year-old’s determination, strength and wit. Attendees flew in from across the country to attend Small’s funeral service and the Living Word will name a college scholarship fund in his honor.
Small is survived by his son Jai’yon Small, his mother Lucy and companion Ka’tarrin Lacey. He also is survived by seven brothers, five sisters, six aunts, two great aunts, six uncles, and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, and other relatives, Davis said.
“My heart breaks for the family,” Councilwoman Yvonne Clayton said last week during a City Council meeting. “My family also experienced this type of violence. My cousin was shot on Easter Sunday in front of his family. You cannot imagine the pain that something like this cause. No matter how long you live, there is always pain – you never get anything back; you can’t take it back.”
[Small photos courtesy of the family]
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