"A lot of the shootings can be over relatively minor disputes, because people think that's what they're supposed to do," said Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, who sees youth violence as a behavior that can be treated. "Getting people to rethink how they respond to provocation can be critical to changing the violence epidemic."
Operation Safe Streets is a replica of a Chicago program called CeaseFire, which has led to double-digit reductions in shootings and homicides since it began in 2000. The Baltimore results, though preliminary, are drawing attention. In a remarkable scene last week, academic researchers with advanced degrees visited the Monument Street office to listen to the outreach workers - guys without high school diplomas - explain their work.
A `duty to teach'
"It's our duty to teach the generation that's coming behind us that what we felt was slick and cool - violence, the street life, the ghetto life - it's not slick," Tard Carter told the researchers, who nodded their heads. "It's a life of misery."
Carter knows. He grew up in McElderry, raised by a single mother. More than once, he came home from school to find his family's belongings on the street. He wasn't long for school, anyway. He says he's a natural leader and a manipulator. "I was trouble," he said. "I'm the one who introduced people to the game."
His adult record includes arrests for assault, drug possession and firearms possession. Though slight at 5-foot-8 and 145 pounds, Carter was respected on the street. But he got tired of the revolving door of prison, tired of the same old 'hood conversations, tired of wondering if he'd reach his next birthday.
"I could name fallen soldiers who could fill a tennis court," said Carter, now 31. In prison in 2002, he came across the Book of Job and was inspired to change. He signed on with Safe Streets last summer. Now, he says, gang members flash him the peace sign when he canvasses the neighborhood with his message of change.
Progress, though, comes fitfully. Last Wednesday night, shortly after 10 o'clock, a man was shot in the leg in McElderry Park. The outreach workers responded to the scene and tried to calm the community.
When there is a shooting, Safe Streets responds with a march, vigil, barbecue or in some other way to let people know that violence will be met with action - not the silence that has been the norm. Two weeks ago, a man was shot two blocks outside the McElderry Park target area, close enough that Safe Streets took notice. A few nights later, a dozen people marched to the shooting site, sang songs and prayed.
