TOLEDO, Ohio — The past year has been one for the record books. Police reports from across the country show spikes in violent crime.
Homicide numbers in at least 16 cities, including Toledo, hit an all-time high; and the year isn't over yet.
As we look forward to 2022, conversations surrounding Toledo's gun violence are happening everywhere. For many men in Toledo, one of those places is the barbershop.
On Wednesday night, Steve's Sport-N-Cuts on Dorr Street hosted the discussion.
The barbershop brings in dozens, sometimes hundreds, of people a day for haircuts, but they also go for a sense of community. It brings together people from every economic level, every education level, everyone with their own perspectives on things happening in the area.
As the conversation surrounding gun violence began Wednesday, everyone agreed the first step is to be open to having those types of discussions.
"What is pushing the violence to the pistol because it's skipping steps?" behavioral health counselor Brian Towbridge said.
Community members said they are fed up with the shootings.
"When I was in high school, we didn't have one kid that we lost to gun violence," one man said.
Confusion has turned into frustration.
"Inconsolable pain," said a man named Mark, a longtime customer and Toledo native. "Pain for the victim. Pain for the perpetrator. Pain for the community."
This isn't the first time the discussion has turned to gun violence at Steve's shop. Owner Steve Parker said his shop's been open for 15 years and it's always been a home for more than just haircuts.
"I honestly feel like a lot of us do be suffering from PTSD, mental health," Parker said, "and some of that needs to be addressed."
We've heard the cry from Toledo police. They need the community to speak up to help solve crimes. The men Sport-N-Cuts Wednesday said parents should be talking to their kids about not staying quiet.
"I know I'm not the only one in here, if you do something in front of me, I'm going to tell on your a**, especially if you're killing somebody," another man said.
But the men in the shop, ranging in age from 78 years old to 26 years old with a budding family, said not everything used to involve talking to the police.
"I was raised with a village," Towbridge said. "And so in that village, we had a lot of people in a lot of different positions out there that were able to quell whatever happened."
He said ultimately that came down to community center leaders, ministers, coaches and teachers. Towbridge called them the "in-between" when there was conflict among young people, and it was a different way of solving things.
But, now that "in-between" is gone, he said, as are the role models and other outlets to be safe and to learn.
"They're not exposed to those community centers where we'll have like a McEarl when I was young, who helped me stay on track with sports," trade worker Verdis Chears Jr.s said.
They all agreed that a lack of role models and places for young people to feel safe are pushing them toward the wrong influences.
"There's been a lot of glorification of things that have just desensitized us," Toledo native Derreck Shaw said.
"The music that they listen to matters," a 31-year-old city worker said, "so they think it's cool to carry around a gun and not know the consequences of when you pull the trigger and what falls behind that."
"It's just a sad thing that they feel like they have to resort to that because they don't have anybody in their life to guide them away from that rage," Towbridge added.
"Trade schools, you know a lot kids aren't introduced to that," Chears said. "Instead they're introduced to the violence because they feel like that's the only opportunity they have."
The men also emphasized a need to invest in the arts as well, saying the community needs to find ways to push kids toward trades and more creative outlets and give them places to talk about their problems and mental health.
"A lot of these kids, I promise you, if you just sit and talk to them, you'll realize they just need someone to talk to," 26-year-old new parent Trenton Hawkins said.
"(I) really believe that we need to get back to men being inside the homes, families again," minister Garland Files said.
Many of the men stressed they don't believe elected officials downtown are listening and they hope that changes soon.
"I hope this conversation goes somewhere and I hope some people downtown are listening," Towbridge said.
The men also took responsibility and said parents and adults need to step up and do better, noting years of ignorance created this vacuum of love that kids are suffering from now. They said it's time to do better and build the village back up.
While the discussion offered many solutions, the most common was investing back into neighborhoods, specifically with community centers.
The men called them positive outlets for kids to do everything from creating art and music, learning a skill, being able to talk to someone about problems or simply a place to not be alone when things are rough at home or school.
Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz has pledged millions of dollars from the American Rescue Plan toward youth programming and a new Wayman Palmer YMCA. The men at the shop said they believe those actions are steps in the right direction.