Just over a month ago, Philadelphia Police Chief Sylvester Johnson called on 10,000 men to patrol the city streets to help quell a run of deadly violence in this crime-plagued city and protect their neighborhoods’ more vulnerable residents.
Sunday, they answered the call. Thousands of black men filled Temple University’s Liacouras Center to volunteer for “Call to Action: 10,000 Men, It’s a New Day,” lining up for several blocks to register.
Three months before Johnson’s planned retirement, Johnson joined Mayor John Street, record industry mogul Kenny Gamble and a group of black community activists and executives at a kick-off rally for the campaign.
Volunteers who join street patrols as part of the “Call to Action” program will not carry weapons or make arrests, but will instead be trained in conflict resolution, organizers said. Officials from Concerned Black Men, Men United, Mothers in Charge, Big Brothers/Big Sisters and other organizations were also on hand Sunday to recruit volunteers.
Philadelphia endures a reputation as one of America’s deadliest cities, with about a slaying a day and many more nonfatal shootings.
The nation’s sixth-largest city has nearly 1.5 million residents, 44 percent of them black. It has notched more than 320 homicides this year. More than 80 percent of the slayings involve handguns, most involve young black males, and most of the victims are black.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures, and that’s where Chief Johnson is at this point,” Elsie L. Scott, president and chief executive officer of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “He can’t get a handle on this problem, and he’s calling on the community to rally around it.”
Scott, who once served as deputy commissioner for training for the New York City Police Department and executive director of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, said Johnson is returning to a “community policing” philosophy of law enforcement.
Scott said Sunday’s gathering might be successful for crime fighting if there’s a larger movement.
“Black men might be more effective than police. But the question is can they mobilize people in the community, and how long will they commit — because criminals know they can outlast them,” she said.
The program’s backers include Dennis Muhammad, a former Nation of Islam official who has been hired by police departments in Detroit, Syracuse, N.Y., and other cities to conduct community-sensitivity training. Muhammad met in City Hall last summer with Johnson, Mayor Street and local business leaders.
Muhammad told the Daily News he envisions a dramatic presence in Philadelphia’s most troubled neighborhoods that could inspire a national movement.
“We plan to deploy these men and distinguish them with a colored shirt or something, and our very physical presence will become a deterrent,” said Muhammad. “It would be hard to commit a crime on a corner with 200 men.
“When this is successful, we hope to bottle this and take it to every major city in the country,” he said.
At a gathering with community activists last month, Muhammad said the idea of enlisting 10,000 men invoked “the spirit of the Million Man March” in Washington in 1995. He said it was important that the focus be on men because most of the violence involves young black males.
“If the heart is what we are, and the hand is what we do,” Muhammad told the Daily News, “we need to change how people see themselves.”