Punks with guns, attitudes and no conscience: Read a speech from Saginaw Mayor Greg Branch on crime in the city

Tamaris \12-year-old Tamaris "T.J." Steward Jr. was sitting in a chair when he was shot and killed about 1:30 a.m. June 7. Someone fired more than 10 shots into his grandfather's house at 2142 Whittier on Saginaw's East Side, where Steward was visiting.
SAGINAW, MI. — Saginaw Mayor Greg Branch gave a compelling speech at the Saginaw City Council meeting Monday, following the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamaris Steward Jr. and the shooting that injured  4-year-old Miyona Alexander.

The funeral for Tamaris is today. Police are still searching for whomever shot and killed the sixth-grader as he slept at his grandfather's home. 

The speech discusses the need for the community to work together to rid itself of "punks with guns, attitudes and no conscience."

Below are some highlights from his speech. 

Read the entire speech here: Branch comments.pdf 

• "This city is home to 51,000 people and 12,000 families. The overwhelming majority of those people are good, decent people ... But there is a small percentage of people here who are not good, decent people. There is a small percentage of families who do not provide caring, supportive environments ... or even anything you could call a "family." It's like a small group of cells that goes wrong inside your body. It's a cancer."

Greg Branch.jpgMayor Greg Branch
• "Law enforcement is the surgical treatment. We find the tumor and we take it out. And a punk with a gun, an attitude and no conscience is a tumor. We will find the guys who did this, and they will be surgically removed from our community."

• "We could have 100 police officers, 200 police officers, a thousand police officers ... and they can't keep that wrong switch from being thrown. They can only cut out a cancer once it's fully grown ... and, usually, once it's done its damage."

• "If I had the slightest suspicion that my nephew, my brother, even my son shot up a house with an AK-47 and killed a 12-year-old, I would kick his ass and then drag what was left of it to the police. Blood might be thicker than water. But my family's blood isn't any thicker, or any more valuable, than Tamaris Steward's. And when we lose a Tamaris Steward, we lose a family, we lose a future, we lose everything."