Matching purple T-shirts and purple balloons and pom-poms gave the event a festive atmosphere, but the small signs in the planters sprinkled around Civic Center plaza told a different story: Domestic violence can be deadly.
Tuesday from noon until 1, the public gathered to take part in the 2020 Domestic Violence Walk, which is an annual event sponsored by the Pine Bluff Police Department. Scores of participants, walking behind a banner that took note of the occasion, walked around the Civic Center complex on the warm, sun-splashed day. Afterward, speaker after speaker urged those in attendance to take action if they are in an abusive relationship or know of someone who is.
The keynote speaker was Wendy Gates, whose 21-year-old daughter, Hannah Roberts, was killed in a domestic violence incident in March 2019.
Gates described her daughter as happy and full of life as well as supportive of her friends and family.
"If she said she's got you, you'd better check your foot because she's got you," Gates said.
Gates, who had help getting to the speaker's podium, said her daughter became pregnant and "wanted to be the best mother she could be," but she was instead subjected to mental and emotional abuse at the hands of the baby's father. Gates said her daughter was kicked out of her house at all hours and that in the end, "she lost out to drugs, money, cars and females" in a "loveless relationship."
Because of the hardships her daughter was subjected to, Gates said, Roberts gave birth prematurely to her child that weighed only 1 pound, 7 ounces because it, too, had been subjected to abuse.
The child survived, Gates said, "but on March 20, Hannah lost her life, shot to death by the father of her child."
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"Please reach out to help," she said to anyone listening who might be going through the same torment. "People do care. If you suspect someone is being abused, reach out. I ask you not to close your eyes to the signs. I ask you not close your ears to the signs. Please don't let another set of parents bury their child or another child bury their mother."
Another speaker, Prosecuting Attorney Kyle Hunter, said domestic violence was as wrong and as illegal now as it was years ago.
"The difference is that for years, people just looked the other way," he said, "Now, because of events like this, people are cooperating," allowing law enforcement and prosecutors to pursue cases of domestic violence.
Hunter said from the outside looking in at a case of domestic violence, many people say "I would just get out," but he added that that solution "is not as easy as it sounds."
Complicating the situation, he said, are issues involving love, children, marital commitments and the social stigma of a failed marriage or relationship.
"Some people don't want their neighbors to know what's going on," he said.
But left to continue, he said, domestic violence situations that start with slaps and hits "can turn into homicides."
Hunter said there are multiple resources in Pine Bluff and Jefferson County that are there to help women and men escape from abusive situations.
"I hope you get out of that cycle," Hunter said, adding, "for those who did get out, congratulations."
Mayor Shirley Washington thanked those in attendance and said everyone at the event was taking a stand against domestic violence.
"Violence thrives in silence," she said. "We need to make noise. Today, men and women, absolutely no one deserves to be abused. This message must be spoken and spoken loudly."
Washington said the incidence of domestic violence had increased during the covid-19 pandemic, which has kept people isolated and at home in many cases.
Hunter said later that most of those cases end up going through the city's district court system because they are misdemeanors and that it was also his impression that cases had risen in the past few months.
During the proceedings, there was a moment of silence for the many abuse victims whose names, dates of death and relationships to the people who killed them were listed on the small placards that had been staked into the planters around the plaza.
After a final prayer, participants released all of the balloons, and then many partook of a boxed lunch that was provided.