A growing number of American cities scarred by gun violence are turning to partnerships involving community activists and public health authorities to drive down firearm deaths and related violence.
Longtime New Orleans community advocate Ernest Johnson, co-founder of Ubuntu Village NOLA, and Chip Brownlee, a correspondent for The Trace which covers firearm policy and gun violence in America, said cities are no longer relying exclusively on law enforcement to address violence involving firearms.
Violence Intervention
Johnson and Brownlee described New Orleans’ newly launched strategy to journalists at the Crime Coverage Summit. Trained citizen “intervenors”, in partnership with local health authorities, will seek to quell tensions in high-risk neighborhoods in a campaign aimed at halting deadly conflict and retaliation.
“If you don’t involve the community in what you’re doing, then you’re just spinning your wheels,” Johnson said. “You have to really have them involved in it in a way and build trust.”
Johnson said high-risk neighborhoods—or hotspots for violence—have been identified and intervenors will be going “door-to-door, block-to-block” to help resolve conflict.
Ernest Johnson and Chip Brownlee, Photo by: BP Miller/Chorus Photography
Similar programs have been launched in Alabama, New York, Virginia and other states.
Johnson said communities had previously relied exclusively on law enforcement programs to address violence, often resulting in arrests and prosecutions but without focusing on the overall health and well-being of local neighborhoods.
“Government programs come in for a few years, give you little money, you think you’re doing something and then something else becomes sexy and it shifts,” Johnson said. “So, we’re trying to build some sustainability outside of what we’re doing with the government.”
Access the full transcript here.
Crime Coverage Summit 2024: Beyond ‘If It Bleeds, It Leads’ was sponsored by Arnold Ventures and hosted by NPF and RTDNA. NPF is solely responsible for this content.
