From New York to Los Angeles, to Harrisburg, PA, and an increasing number of cities in between, a new approach to ending gun violence, especially in marginalized communities in urban areas, is starting to bear fruit and save lives. It is called violence interrupter programs.
Last July, Friends Place on Capitol Hill and Friends Committee on National Legislation hosted more than a dozen leaders of violence interrupter programs for the first Violence Interrupter Symposium.
People ranging from mid-20s to late 60s gathered to talk about the challenges facing their communities and the opportunities at hand in crime prevention. They emphasized the importance of their community-based work and the threats of losing government and other funding for their work.
It is easy to count crimes. Each city has an official number for homicides, arson, car-jackings, etc., each year. But how does one measure crimes on the verge of being committed but ultimately avoided? Just talk to a violence interrupter.
“There was a shooting at a nightclub in Allentown, PA. Ten people were shot. The city was on fire. There was going to be huge retaliation. We talked about what a truce would look like. Ten people being shot can very easily lead to 50 people being shot. We’re talking about AR-15s, AK-47s,” said Dr. Hasshan Batts, executive director of Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley.
“What we centered on was the children. If this violence continues to escalate, little kids are going to be killed. There was no retaliation. Zero. Had it not been for our team, this thing would have been ugly,” he said.