Group launches campaign placing ‘do not murder’ signs in neighborhoods

Click here for updates on this story

    PORTLAND, Oregon (KPTV) — As Portland’s seen a dramatic spike in shootings and homicides, groups in our community are launching a grassroots campaign by putting signs in neighborhoods with a strong message to stop the violence.

On a busy street corner in Southeast Portland, a memorial sits at the site of a deadly shooting in 2020.

Among the flowers and balloons, a sign reads: ‘do not murder.’

“It’s a bold statement,” Laurie Palmer said.

Palmer is the founder of Go Get Your Child, a community violence prevention coalition.

She’s behind yet another push to stop the violence.

“I get real emotional about it because people don’t understand that the mothers and the fathers and the siblings of these kids are really affected,” Palmer said.

She knows the effects of gun violence because she’s felt them.

Palmer’s son was shot in 2015 and survived that shooting.

She says her son later died from a heart attack in 2020.

This campaign she says is about working together.

“The people that I’m collaborating with they’re not my color, but they’re human,” Palmer said. “We have a lot in common. And they’re willing to put forth their skillsets to make this thing really happen, meaning get the word out to stop the killings.”

Palmer is working with Dayle Ann Marvin, the executive director of The Way to Happiness in Portland, an organization focused on better living.

“It really is a grassroots movement,” Marvin said. “We really do have to bring peace to the streets, and it involves people speaking to other people and good will.”

The group is planning on putting out the signs at various deadly shooting locations from 2020 and 2021 over the next several weekends.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.