We must have an Urban Violence Plan?

GOOD MORNING FLINT!
11/23/2009
By, Terry Bankert. Opinions of a Flint Divorce Lawyer.

WHAT IS OUR PLAN TO SLOW AND REVERSE FLINTS INCREASING URBAN VIOLENCE.

Here I am contributing to the discussion with a morphed article fully cited for your review. What Actions can we take today, tomorrow, next budget year to stem Urban Violence in Flint? Your thoughts!

TO SOLVE VIOLENCE IN FLINT GIVE MORE MONEY TO POLICE AND LOCK EM UP? …..NO THIS DOES NOT WORK! THEN WHAT?

FROM: Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of South Carolina
In recent years, sharp declines in violent crime rates have been recorded across major American cities. During this time period, many police departments have shifted from a traditional reactive form of policing to a community-oriented approach. It is unclear whether these changes have any causal relationship with the control or reduction in violent crime. To examine this issue, this study used the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey, the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, and city-level census data to examine the economic and political determinants of robbery and homicide rates in 164 American cities. [5]

Findings indicate that community policing had little effect on the control or the decline in violent crime. [5]

Proactive policing strategies related to arrest had an inverse effect on violent crime measures and were related to reductions in violent crime over time. Implications of these findings for criminal justice policy are discussed. [5]
　
HOW MANY MORE MUST DIE WHILE WE SIT STILL

Young men shoot and kill each other by the scores in our region each year, and most of us assume there's not much that society can do to stop it. [1]

ONE OLDER GROUP HAS A PLAN AND SOME SUCCESS.

The mission of the Alliance of Concerned Men (ACM) is to teach independence and positive life skills to children, youth, and adults who live in high-crime neighborhoods in the District, especially east of the Anacostia River.[4]

　
TOOLS FOR CHANGE ARE AVAILABLE

It isn't true. Police, social workers and academic researchers have identified tools and policies that have been shown to reduce urban violence, such as brokering truces among rival gangs or other neighborhood groups. [1]

mckdarrenDC wrote:
Unless and until our public policies work aggressively to reduce the self-dooming out-of-wedlock birthrate that is at the root of don't-snitch-hip-hop ghetto culture, the vast majority of black children in D.C. and across the country will continue being raised without the loving discipline of committed fathers (aka "favuhs"). [1]Meanwhile, none of us should expect a bunch of semi-literate ex-thugs with a "manual" to make too big a contribution to "peace" in the streets.[1]
　
ALLIANCE OF CONCERNED MEN HAS TRAINING MANUEL

Now the Alliance of Concerned Men, a District nonprofit group with a proven record of achieving peace for a while in some of the Washington area's most dangerous neighborhoods, has published a training manual to share some of its methods with the rest of the country. [1]

The Alliance of Concerned Men is a 501©(3) non-profit organization which promotes independence and personal survival skills for youth who come from dysfunctional homes and are in desperate need of learning how to bridge the gap between survival on the streets and existing on marginal lifestyles. ACM’s program is unique in that it is the only one in the country that deals directly with the missing, yet common and essential element in an “at-risk” and /or “in-crisis” youth’s life- the incarcerated parent. …THEY…provide guidance interventions to building positive life skills through its one-on-one counseling, programs, group sessions, and community outreach.[3]

Services Offered:
Self-esteem Development
Communication Skills
Conflict Resolution
Peer Tutoring & Counseling
Job Training Skills
Cultural/Recreational
Life Skills Training
Workshops & Seminars
Alcohol /Drug Prevention & Treatment
HIV/AIDS & STD Awareness
Gang Intervention & Mediation [3]
　
　
FROM THE WEB SITE

Gang Prevention and Outreach Program is a peer education initiative. This program was developed out of the experiences gained through ACM’s successful Benning Terrace model. Approximately ninety-five per cent of those hired through this program secured permanent employment. A number of graduates of the Fatherhood Initiative will be hired for six months as outreach workers to provide gang intervention and mediation services in areas impacted by gangs and youth violence and to gain valuable work experience. At the conclusion of their paid internships/training, participants will be provided with job training and/or full time employment. Participants will continue to meet with program staff on a bimonthly basis. [2]For further information on this program, please contact Mr. Arthur Rush, rushrico@aol.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (202) 986-6200
　
SIMPLE PRACTICAL ADVICE

The alliance's approach is refreshing, because it supplies practical advice from people with real-life experience. The members are men who've gone unarmed to meet killers with Uzis to ask them to "squash a beef" with rivals. [1]

mendelsonmustgo wrote:
The most important law enforcement needs in DC are not mentoring and deal making among crews. We need to focus on basics of law enforcement, like:1) get a crime lab - most evidence is not processed or analyzed as we rely on the FBI for testing, which they rarely do. This also means that many arrested guys are released for lack of evidence.[2]2) change our farcical gun law - while owning a handgun in DC is largely illegal, the penalty for doing is very minor. Read about George Rawlings shot yesterday, on probation for a gun, or Ransom Perry. In most other areas they would face jail time for carrying guns, but in DC they were immediately released. [2]3) change juvenile enforcement - right now juveniles get to run the city, and it shows.You make these three changes and things like the Alliance and their pamphlet might have a chance. Without these changes the social work is just pissing in the wind. Violent men and boys are part of humanity, and they need to be put away or put down, its not that complicated.[1]
　
NEGOTIATED TRUCE

The group, which has negotiated five major truces in the District and Prince George's County since it was founded in 1991, presented its 41-page guide Tuesday at a conference at the U.S. Capitol attended by 300 social workers and others active in the field. [1]

ADULT APATHY AND NEGLECT

I hope the alliance's effort will help, at least in a small way, to reverse the apathy and neglect with which the Washington region and the country treat urban violence. The U.S. murder rate dwarfs that of most other industrialized countries: Homicides claimed three times as many lives last year as total combat deaths since 2001 in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. [1]
　
PICKING THE RIGHT MEDIATOR

It says that it's important when picking a mediator to weigh whether to send a young man, who might be perceived as a threat, or an older one, whose presence might be "a negative trigger, a reminder of a lost or abusive father." [1]

GUIDE OFFERS TIPS

The guide offers tips such as barring cell phones from meetings so participants won't worry that calls are being made to arrange an ambush. [1]

The alliance recommends using prayer, food, trips to the movies and, believe it or not, hugs as a way to create the right atmosphere. "Hug a thug, and you might not get mugged" is one of the group's numerous sayings. Others are "just show up" and "the sun's always shining." [1]

BELIEVE IN YOUR YOUTH

Above all, the training guide emphasizes the need to believe that the tough young men would like to solve their problems themselves and need a credible outsider to assure them that it's possible. [1]

SPEAK THE TRUTH

"We tell our youth the truth: 'You're Black, you're angry, you don't have any education, and I'm here to tell you that if you want to do it, you can,' " the manual says. (Since the alliance leaders are more hands-on than academic, it was written for them by three locally based staff members of groups that specialize in conflict resolution.) [1]

KUMBAYAH…NOT

The approach sounds awfully upbeat and kumbayah, but the men in the alliance have some hard-earned credibility. Executive Director Tyrone C. Parker, 62, served more than eight years in prison for bank robbery, and his son was killed at age 19 by another teenager. President Arthur "Rico" Rush, 62, was imprisoned for 18 months, and some of the group's young outreach staff members are also ex-offenders. [1]

THE MANY ACTORS NEED TO COMMUNIUATE

Admittedly, the scale of the problem overwhelms their work. It will take improved performance by police, parents, schools, social agencies, churches and other institutions to transform communities and drastically reduce the number of homicides. There have been 123 homicides in the District this year, compared with 164 at this time last year.

Nevertheless, the alliance draws praise and backing from law enforcement officials up to U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. "I've seen the miracle they've brought," Holder said in a statement published in the manual. "It needs to be duplicated. It can work in New York, Detroit, Los Angeles and any other community in America with similar problems." [1]

OUT REACH WORKERS AND THE POLICE

D.C. police officers are supporters, too, partly because the alliance cooperates with them, albeit carefully. The manual says a balance is necessary "to counter the perceptions that our outreach workers are 'snitches.' Conversely, outreach workers can mistakenly be viewed by law enforcement as being in collusion with criminal elements." [1]

POLICE PROCEDURES

D.C. police Cmdr. Charnette Robinson, head of the Youth Investigations Division, said in a panel discussion at the conference Tuesday that the District should implement more of the policies and procedures recommended by the alliance and similar groups. The city "has a reputation of throwing a lot of money" at problems, Robinson said, but "unless you have good policies and procedures in place, it doesn't help." [1]

MANUEL COSTS $25

Money needs to be part of the effort, though. The alliance has had to reduce its budget, to about $500,000 for the coming year, after suffering cuts by the D.C. government and private funding sources. It's charging $25 for the manual, and some of the proceeds will offset those cuts. [1]

ALLIANCE PAST ITS PRIME

The alliance is probably past its prime, as it was formed by Parker, Rush and three other men who were friends at Eastern and Spingarn high schools in the mid-1960s. Its greatest triumph occurred a dozen years ago, when it negotiated a truce in Benning Terrace in Southeast after a 12-year-old boy was slain. [1]

ACTIVE WITH CREWS

It's still active, though, and has worked recently in the Benning Terrace, Clay Terrace and Park Morton neighborhoods and with crews based near Seventh and O and Fifth and O streets NW. [1]

GRAY HAIRS JUST SHOWING UP HELPS

Moreover, it's to the credit of these graying members of the community that they've acted to help ensure that others can benefit from their experience. The sun's shining a little brighter in the District because they "just showed up." [1]
stinkface wrote:

HUG A THUG?!! I am seriously considering refusing to pay taxes if the government is going to keep pouring my money down this drain.[1]

CONTACT INFORMATION- ALLIANCE OF CONCERNED MEN
Address: 2905 11th Street NWWashington,DC 20001
Contact: Mr. Tyrone Parker, 2905 11th Street NW
Phone: 202-986-6200
Email: tyrone_acm@msn.com
Website: http://www.allianceofconcernedmen.org/


Posted here by
Terry Bankert
http://www.flintfamilylaw.com/
See;
[1]
Manual offers ways to fight urban violence
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/11/AR2009111126343.html
[2]
Web site alliance of Concerned men.
http://www.allianceofconcernedmen.com/
[3]
http://www.interchange.org/romros/resource-1.html
[4]
http://www.meyerfoundation.org/grantees/recent/Alliance+of+Concerned+Men
[5]
The Effectiveness of Community Policing in Reducing Urban Violence
http://cad.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/48/4/592

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