Anti-violence activists pull up to the corner of 27th Street and Benton, cars following as slowly and methodically as a funeral procession. Everyone is wearing the same black T-shirts with the name Aim4Peace printed across the chest as they unload signs from their trunks.
They're here for a march. The plan is to let the neighborhood know there's a new group in town, intent on stemming the violence that has killed, by this point in the year — it's early August — almost 70 people.
Less than 20 minutes before their arrival, a car stopped in front of the E & J Market on the corner, and someone fired a gun out the car window.
People on the street say they don't know who the shooter was or why he fired. At least no one was hurt.
This story gets passed around as the activists congregate along the corner. They all look shocked.
Most of the 50 or so people gathering here aren't affiliated with any particular group outside Aim4Peace, the City Hall program that has organized the march. Today's marchers just want their neighborhoods to be safer. They form a circle in the grocery store's driveway and pass around a microphone, from neighborhood leaders to preachers and then to staffers from Aim4Peace.
Once everyone has had their say, they all start to walk. They wave signs in the air. They scream, "We aim for peace!"
People come out of their apartment buildings and stand on their lawns to watch. Others lounging on their porches sit unmoved, baseball caps pulled low over their eyes. Some of the marchers run up to the onlookers, hand them brochures and shake their hands. The residents say the cops are on their way to investigate the shooting.
The marchers round the third block of the four that they'll circle. A squad car is parked on this corner with lights flashing. Four people are huddled around its passenger-side window.
The parade finishes back at the E & J Market, where a few people are still standing in the parking lot. An old man standing there pulls a drag from a cigarette. Two little girls are standing next to him.
"I appreciate what they're trying to do," the man tells one of the girls, who doesn't appear to be listening. "It's nice. It's nice sentiment. But it doesn't matter. No one's going to save anybody. Not never."
The marchers congratulate one another, get into their cars and leave.
City Hall's anti-violence effort started two years ago. After 127 homicides in 2005, the Kansas City, Missouri, City Council put together a crime commission to look for solutions.
In June 2006, the city's Commission on Violent Crime submitted its final report to the council.
The commission concluded that most homicides were the result of long-standing conflicts and disagreements, and it recommended, among other things, an expansion of mediation and conflict-resolution services.
That commission led to another commission. City Manager Wayne Cauthen created a Mediation Task Force made up of 11 people — community activists as well as employees of city government and the police department.
In late 2006, the task force presented a plan authored by Tracie McClendon-Cole, the city's Justice Program coordinator. (McClendon-Cole, who works in Cauthen's office, declined to speak with The Pitch for this story.) McClendon-Cole based her recommendations on a successful Chicago anti-violence effort called CeaseFire.
CeaseFire was launched in 2000 by the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention, part of the University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Public Health. After studying violence-prevention programs in several cities, the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention designed a program that focused primarily on conflict mediation. If a shooting occurred, trained mediators paid visits to people who had been involved to try to prevent retaliation shootings. Many of those paid mediators were former gang members with inroads to current gang members.
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I think that what Aim4Peace is trying to accomplish is amazing. Without Aim4Peace who else would be trying? If we talk about just "caging up" the neighborhoods and "letting them take care of each other" where the violence occurs does that even make us any better than the ones who commit these acts of crime? No. So Kansas City, lets give these people a little support for once. Stop being so negative and maybe give a little praise for the people who have spent countless number of hours working just to try and make this beautiful city a little safer for everyone.
I think that what Aim4Peace is trying to accomplish is amazing. Without Aim4Peace who else would be trying? If we talk about just "caging up" the neighborhoods and "letting them take care of each other" where the violence occurs does that even make us any better than the ones who commit these acts of crime? No. So Kansas City, lets give these people a little support for once. Stop being so negative and maybe give a little praise for the people who have spent countless number of hours working just to try and make this beautiful city a little safer for everyone.
Why don't they just arm all of these low life neighborhoods and put up barriers around them so no one can get out and no one can get in. When the smoke clears the crack will be all gone and 2/3rd's of these ghettorats will be dead. After a about 10 weekends of this, we'll have effectively cleared a lot of outstanding warrants, greatly reduced the crime rate and eliminated the welfare rolls.
Come on Funkybunch, here's an effective way to address the crime problem....get crackin.
Why don't they just arm all of these low life neighborhoods and put up barriers around them so no one can get out and no one can get in. When the smoke clears the crack will be all gone and 2/3rd's of these ghettorats will be dead. After a about 10 weekends of this, we'll have effectively cleared a lot of outstanding warrants, greatly reduced the crime rate and eliminated the welfare rolls. Come on Funkybunch, here's an effective way to address the crime problem....get crackin.
You will note that contrary to the wild claims of Alvin Brooks, Carol Coe, Sandra McFadden about gun related deaths if a legal concealed carry law were in effect. Not one of these killings had anything to do with law abiding, legally qualified armed citizens.They were all committed by a bunch of low life thugs who are very much in control of what goes down in our city.
I am guessing these activist will have to look elsewhere for a boogie man to blame. It would appear that a certain segment of our community has absolutely no integrity, no self control and no respect for themselves or the community around them. But it is not the NRA rank and file or any of the thousands of legally armed citizens being involved.
How about that Alvin and Sandra?
You will note that contrary to the wild claims of Alvin Brooks, Carol Coe, Sandra McFadden about gun related deaths if a legal concealed carry law were in effect. Not one of these killings had anything to do with law abiding, legally qualified armed citizens.They were all committed by a bunch of low life thugs who are very much in control of what goes down in our city. I am guessing these activist will have to look elsewhere for a boogie man to blame. It would appear that a certain segment of our community has absolutely no integrity, no self control and no respect for themselves or the community around them. But it is not the NRA rank and file or any of the thousands of legally armed citizens being involved. How about that Alvin and Sandra?
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