Latest news with #OperationCeasefire
Daily Mail
28-06-2025
- Daily Mail
The 'Hot Felon,' Jeremy Meeks shies away from the spotlight after ruling the runways at Fashion Week
Jeremy Meeks, the ' hot felon ' sent the internet into meltdown when his smoldering mugshot went viral in 2014. As he awaited his trial and sentencing, Jeremy Meeks won the hearts of social media users after Stockton Police Department shared his photo online. The June 2014 jail visit that changed his life saw him and three others in a multi-agency law enforcement mission dubbed Operation Ceasefire, where he was listed as a 'convicted felon, arrested for felony weapon charges'. He denied the charges. In 2015, Meeks was convicted of the crime of one count of being possession of a firearm, and was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison and ordered to participate in the 500-Hour Bureau of Prisons Substance Abuse Treatment Program. However, the sudden fame that came following the viral mugshot changed Jeremy's life, as he went on to secure a modelling contract and starred in multiple films after his release from Mendota Federal Correctional Institution. In June 2017 it was revealed that he was dating Chloe Green, daughter of billionaire businessman Philip. They had a son together, Jayden, the following year. Yet after a brief period in the spotlight Jeremy has retreated from the public eye again, so, where is he now? Jeremy currently works with charities, helping with underprivileged youths to avoid gang crime and prevent going down the wrong paths. He also helps incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals change their lives. In an update to Instagram last month, he shared an insight into his work and wrote: 'God is so Good... With projects like this it makes me feel like I'm actually walking in my Purpose !!! 'We had the most incredible conversation yesterday about an upcoming project to potentially changes lives for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals. Thank you.' In another photo from a church inside California Youth Authority, Jeremy wrote: 'God is doing the most incredible things in my life right now, thank you Jesus. 'This picture was taken at the California Youth Authority juvenile prison when I was speaking to a group of kids ages 17-23. 'And every time I go up there and I talk to a group of kids. It reminds me how much I wish I had someone who looked like US… To come talk to US, but I'm very grateful for ALL the trail and tribulations, I'm thankful for the people he's put in my life. I can feel a polar shift coming. Stay Prayed up EVERYONE.' He previously said: 'I mean they definitely need education and proper father figures, and people to look up to. It's a serious issue, especially in my neighborhood with gun violence at a young age, and so that's the situation... 'It's something that really holds dear to my heart, because it affects me on a weekly basis…Someone I know has been killed and shot… it's really rapid'. On the charity work, Jeremy added: 'We've been doing a lot of stuff right now with the kids. Recently I've been working with a charity called WOSMOH (Women of Substance Men of Honor) and visiting many group homes... 'Going to the juvenile halls, and talking to the kids, and just telling my life story, letting them know that I've been exactly where you are. So I'm going to start getting involved a lot more with kids, because as cliché as it sounds, they are the future.' He also moved from the penitentiary to the pen by writing his own memoir, Model Citizen, which was released in March this year. Speaking about the book, Jeremy said: 'I'm in a place in my life where I am extremely vulnerable and want to tell my story, the whole story and hope that people can connect to it and understand how I came to be in the place that I'm at in my life'. The synopsis for his book reads: 'In his harrowing autobiography, Jeremy tells his personal story about his battles with gang violence, poverty, race and the inevitable life-changing moments that turned his world around'. The book also includes 46 photos, featuring 24 full-page color modeling photos by celebrity photographer Jim Jordan. While he has slowed down the progression of his modelling career, following his release from prison he signed to White Cross Management company and kickstarted his career in the fashion industry. He told BuzzFeed in 2020: 'If anyone would've told me 10 years ago that I was gonna be traveling the world, walking fashion shows, acting in movies? I don't know what I would've done.' Jeremy has also designed his own fashion lines working with Fashion Concept GmbH in 2020 and released a line with Canon Mitchell in January 2024. Aside from fashion he has starred in multiple films, he last featured in Dutch II: Angel's Revenge in 2024 and will next be seen in Beach Chain, Doggmen and Rise of the Tarrogan - the release dates are yet to be confirmed. The felon turned model is also father to Jeremy Junior with his ex wife Melissa, who he was married to from 2008 until 2018. His second son Jayden was born of his shock relationship with Topshop boss Philip Green's daughter Chloe. Jeremy and Chloe's relationship first came to the public attention after they were seen kissing aboard a boat in June 2017, while he was still legally married to his first wife Melissa Meeks.
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
After state takeover, St. Louis police should maintain community-based intervention efforts
A St. Louis Metro Police car outside Carnahan Courthouse in downtown St. Louis (Clara Bates/Missouri Independent). The imminent return of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police to state oversight is rooted in the belief that policing remains a crucial force for crime reduction. Safer streets, in turn, fuel business growth and community development. These legislative developments — and the changes that come with them — will undoubtedly affect ongoing crime reduction initiatives. Yet, St. Louis stands at a pivotal moment. By official measures, the city has made progress toward reducing violence since 2020-2021, when there was a nationwide spike. Policing will play a key role in sustaining this progress, but other factors are critical as well. Research on strategic 'focused deterrence' policing, dating back to Boston's Operation Ceasefire in the 1990s, has a key takeaway: sustained violence reductions require both effective law enforcement and authentic community engagement. St. Louis has embraced this approach. Public-private partnerships have built a coalition comprised of public health leaders, community organizations, local government, clergy, businesses, credible messengers and residents to form a 'network of capacity' for violence prevention and intervention. This has since expanded to the Save Lives Now! Initiative and other community-driven efforts embodying a proven model: focused law enforcement, cognitive change and services. Such complementary police and community efforts target immediate violence and its harms while addressing risk factors to reduce violence in a sustainable way over the long term. As policing oversight shifts, it is crucial to assess these community-driven initiatives. We co-lead a research team at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, studying the implementation of community-based violence intervention strategies and whether they're making an impact. We've observed meetings, interviewed key players, analyzed administrative data, and supported efforts to track outcomes and build accountability. Government-led initiatives often face public skepticism, and even good ideas can falter in execution. Yet St. Louis offers promising signs. Examples include the Office of Violence Prevention's collaborative relationships with both St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and community-based service organizations in its Community Violence Intervention; the business community's early commitment to supporting violence reduction that has since expanded to become the regional Save Lives Now! Initiative; and neighborhood residents working directly with city departments to address location-specific violence risks in the St. Louis Public Safety Collaborative. Additionally, the Violence Prevention Commission funds and coordinates youth events to create safer, supervised spaces. Each effort reflects recommended implementation practices and helps strengthen neighborhoods, build trust with police, and support economic growth. This collaboration is promising, but the ultimate goal of these initiatives is to reduce violence. Recent data offers cause for optimism there as well. An analysis of official crime incident data shows that from 2022 to 2024, homicides dropped by 25% and aggravated assaults with guns declined 26%. In the 11 neighborhoods where the Office of Violence Prevention first focused its efforts, those official numbers dropped by 42% and 31%, respectively, during the same period. While more work is needed to ensure that all members of the community feel safe, the results suggest that community-based resource mobilization combined with targeted policing can have an impact and these efforts should be expanded to other areas of the city struggling with violence. Public policy is full of examples of once-promising programs that ran out of funding or faded over time. St. Louis cannot afford to let that happen here. Violence shapes both how residents experience their communities and how outsiders perceive the city — affecting everything from quality of life to economic investment. Maintaining a comprehensive, collaborative strategy is essential but it requires continued support and resource allocation from local leaders and state officials coupled with advocacy and engagement from community residents and organizations. St. Louis has reached a point where it has a rare opportunity to redefine what public safety looks like — one that blends strategic policing with community-based initiatives. This has proven to be a blueprint for successful violence reduction in other cities and it has begun to improve conditions for the better in St. Louis. Even as changes unfold, the city must hold onto this momentum by leveraging the community's growing capacity to effectively respond to violence.
