But Wilson doesn't operate in the same way or by the same rules as the police or City Hall. As a respected street figure, he has intervened in countless disputes in an attempt to avoid deadly violence, all very much off the radar of police. He has organized pickup basketball games and sit-down meals between Bloods and Crips. Last year, he issued a challenge that he would take them on trips to Six Flags if they went 45 days without killing one another.
It worked.
Like the much-heralded Safe Streets program operating in a nearby neighborhood, it is both the distance from law enforcement and the real-life experiences of key staff members that give these programs the street credibility crucial to their effectiveness.
But that is also what makes them potential powder kegs, their success a high-wire act that, like much of the city's violence, could take a turn for the worse with the slightest misstep.
"There's an ongoing tension," said Jean Lewis, a deputy director in the Mayor's Office on Criminal Justice who works with Rose Street. "These are really good guys who might not pass everyone's litmus test, but you take a certain amount of it on faith. They can reach some of the most disconnected youth, because they're there day in and day out."
Two weeks ago, with the mayor's office conducting a census of the city's homeless, Rose Street was asked to locate 45 juveniles who were not in stable housing. But a resident saw the large gathering and called police, who showed up looking to serve a warrant. The teens scattered.
It was not an isolated incident. Wilson said he has had to move his daily youth meetings five blocks away to a transitional house for ex-offenders on Madison Street because the large congregations of known gang members raised red flags for patrolling officers.
For all its work over the years, Rose Street and its mission should be well known. The center was established 17 years ago on a notorious drug corner a half-mile from Johns Hopkins Hospital by activists Clayton Guyton and Elroy Christopher. They sought to usher in a new era in which the laws would be respected, trash would be picked up and drugs would not be sold.
Drug dealers pushed back, setting the building on fire in a stunning act of defiance. Guyton and Christopher refused to back down, tearing the boards off the vacant house next door and resuming their work. Despite ensuing months rife with tension, they persevered and earned newfound respect.
