![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/cLiCXjqB.jpeg\" "\\"Jacksonville")
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Jacksonville, FL\u2014 On Tuesday, March 24, the Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) mobilized to Mayor Donna Deegan\u2019s town hall meeting at Springfield Middle School. Deegan spoke about the city budget and offered the audience an overview of her priorities.<\/p>\n
United with the JCAC, a group of mothers A Mother\u2019s Cry, approached Donna Deegan with questions about police violence in Jacksonville, Florida. Yvonno Kemp read aloud a letter that had previously been mailed to Deegan. Kemp said she had not received a response from the mayor\u2019s office. The letter requested a meeting with the mayor, so that mothers impacted by police violence could sit down with Deegan and work on solutions.<\/p>\n
The five family members representing A Mother\u2019s Cry had all lost loved ones at the hands of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO). Kemp\u2019s son, 20-year-old Reginald Boston, was shot and killed by JSO in 2020. Since that time, Kemp has been advocating for increased transparency around JSO and demanding answers for the questions surrounding her son\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Vanessa Martin, member of A Mother\u2019s Cry, held up a framed picture of her son, Rashaud Martin, while addressing Mayor Deegan. 32-year-old Rashaud Martin was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and in October 2025 a schizophrenic episode resulted in a Baker Act. Rashaud Martin died in JSO custody soon thereafter.<\/p>\n
Martin explained that she is still awaiting answers about her son\u2019s death. She expressed that he was an \u201cintelligent and loved person, struggling with mental health.\u201d Martin is calling on the mayor to send trained mental health professionals to any scene involving a mental health crisis. Deegan agreed to a meeting with the representatives of A Mother\u2019s Cry.<\/p>\n
After the remarks made by A Mother\u2019s Cry, Xavier Green spoke on behalf of the JCAC. Green said he voted for Mayor Deegan because of the promises she made regarding police accountability. When running for mayor, Deegan had positioned herself as favorable toward a civilian review board. Green said, \u201cBy executive order, you could pass a Public Safety Committee tomorrow, which would allow for community members to have some oversight in regards to policing in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Green added, \u201cJacksonville is one of the only cities in the state without any form of civilian review.\u201d Green also passed out a one-pager to the town hall attendees about JCAC\u2019s demand for a Public Safety Committee.<\/p>\n
The Jacksonville Community Action Committee is holding their next general body meeting on Thursday, April 16. They invite community members to join and to follow them on Instagram @jaxtakesaction.<\/p>\n
#JacksonvilleFL<\/a> #FL<\/a> #InjusticeSystem<\/a> #OppressedNationalities<\/a> #JCAC<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacksonville, FL\u2014 On Tuesday, March 24, the Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) mobilized to Mayor Donna Deegan\u2019s town…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-209630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}