HOUSTON – Between Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 17 people including four teenagers were shot in Houston, the most of any weekend this year and part of a growing trend of violence in the city. “We haven’t seen this kind of violence, since the late 80s and early 90s when crack first hit the streets here in Houston,” said Doug Griffith, the president of the Houston Police Officers Union. Mayor Sylvester Turner began his Monday press conference addressing the shootings, instead of COVID-19, calling his administration’s commitment to reducing crime “our top priority.”“We cannot blame everything on the pandemic in Houston,” Turner said. “We have a situation that we need to address in our city.”Of the 17 people shot over the weekend, six did not survive their injuries. “Our community/region had too much gun violence this weekend.

“My thought process is that we’re stagnated,” said Ashton P. Woods of Black Lives Matter Houston. But the push for policing reform also came with a call for transparency – including throughout the reform process. We just want reasonable change’Doug Griffith, president of the Houston Police Officers Union, said the union supports most of the recommendations made by the mayor’s task force. Overall, Griffith said the current disciplinary process is extensive and fair to all sides. Woods argued the union has slowed down the reform process, a claim the union denies.