City leaders pledge to reduce gun violence

Philadelphia is fighting "the way of the gun" and striving to end violence, especially among African American boys and men.

That was the message Thursday at a City Hall news conference held by leaders of various city departments who pledged to work collaboratively to make the city safer.

"The way of the gun is not the way of a successful life," said Richard Negrin, the city's managing director.

Picking up a gun offers a young person the kind of power "you can get drunk on - the power of life or death," Negrin continued. "That's what we're fighting. How do we get a kid to feel powerful without the gun?"

This is at the core of the city's efforts to "get behind the problem of violence," Negrin said. "We're not going to arrest our way out of this."

If gun violence is to be abated, officials said, the city requires a long-term, holistic approach that addresses poverty, joblessness, and the disproportionate likelihood that young African American males will be the victims and perpetrators of crime.

Mayor Nutter, who did not attend the meeting, issued a statement about the city's multifaceted approach to combating crime, which includes coordinating with the Department of Human Services:

"We know a true crime-fighting strategy cannot only focus on policing and incarceration. . . . The programs and initiatives in which we are engaged are interrelated and focused on the same goal: reducing crime with a focus on decreasing the number of young black male casualties in our city."

There has been some success. Homicides in Philadelphia between January and the end of June this year were at a 50-year low of 115, police figures show.

As reasons for the improvement, Nutter, along with criminal-justice experts, pointed to a greater emphasis on data-driven policing, a crackdown on gun criminals, and major reforms in criminal courts.

Further, police and prosecutors have targeted neighborhoods seen as hot spots of crime, including North Philadelphia's 22d Police District.

At one point during Thursday's session, Everett Gillison, Nutter's chief of staff and the deputy mayor for public safety, brought up Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old African American youth shot to death by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch member in Florida. Zimmerman was recently acquitted in the killing, touching off demonstrations around the country about the victimization of black youth.

"In the last 30 days, the country experienced quite a shock to its system," Gillison said. He added that the shooting and subsequent acquittal "calls us to ask ourselves, what are we doing to make sure there are no more Trayvons?"