'Don't Shoot': Stopping urban violence with sweet reason

Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images
Gang interventionist the Rev. E. Winford Bell hands out peace message ribbons to motorists in Compton, Calif., on May 28. He is founder of the Silver Lining of Hope Crusade.

David Kennedy details how Operation Ceasefires truly reduced the killing in fractious city neighborhoods
Sunday, December 18, 2011
By Diana Nelson Jones, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Billions of dollars are poured into an unwinnable war on drugs. Gun violence has thinned the ranks of black men, and prisons have claimed others in alarming proportions. The intertwining of the two has become inextricable, and the result seems unsolvable.

In "Don't Shoot: One Man, A Street Fellowship and the End of Violence in Inner-City America," David Kennedy describes how the problem is solvable. His method has proved effective in city after city that wrestled together a collaboration of city officials, police departments, district attorneys, federal drug agents, probation and parole officers, ministers and street volunteers. Their secret ingredient? Reason.

The program, which piloted in Boston in the 1990s, became known as Operation Ceasefire. It was taken to Stockton, Calif.; Minneapolis; East St. Louis, Ill.; Baltimore; Cincinnati; Richmond, Va.; and many other cities that include Pittsburgh, where collaborations began in 2008.

It works this way: After the law enforcement team has run its data, collected its evidence and videos and connected the dots on who the players are, they call in the players for a meeting. They promise not to arrest anyone; in fact law enforcement wants to prevent one more arrest.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11352/1197140-148.stm?cmpid=entertainment.xml#ixzz1gspWVJaj