CHIEF CHARLES RAMSEY AND THE *PREVENTION REVOLUTION
(* My name for the gigantic effort needed to prevent kids from becoming
criminals.)

This past Wednesday, the Chief's Citizen Advisory Council, under the
leadership of Chief Ramsey and CAC  President Jim Berry, held one of its most
interesting and important meetings ever. The topic was youth anger and
aggression, as demonstrated on Monday at the National Zoo.

Two startling  pictures emerged from this CAC meeting:

1.) The young anger and aggression that we see over and over in this city is
fed by and partially caused by a division of some neighborhoods into smaller
segments that, by their existence, create an "us vs. them" mentality in the
youngsters in those minihoods. In other words, a kid may actually distrust
and hate another kid who lives two blocks over or even across the dividing
street simply because that individual lives in that 'hood and not in his own
'hood. No other reason is needed for him to hate and harass that other
youngster. Out of  this subculture grow the gangs --  the "crews" as the
gangs in DC call themselves. When some real or imagined insult occurs, the
groups become crystallized. When the police talk about these youth, they are
thinking age 25 and under.

With all the generalized rhetoric about youth problems that I hear and read,
I have never heard it explained in this context before.

Nothing like this exists in our  'hood, but try to imagine, if you can, that
a group of kids who live in Fort Gaines (around 45th & Springdale) are afraid
to ride their bikes or walk or date girls who live in the mini subhood of
Reservoir (around 46th and Warren). These kids in turn would distrust those
across Mass. Ave. in the American University part of  Spring Valley.

These minihoods are a very strange phenomenon that, as I understand it, has
been around in some parts of the city for some time. Some of the so-called
borders have been in existence for years. They didn't just spring up with
this generation. This structure feeds on itself in these neighborhoods where
it occurs. The kids in these minihoods run into one another in places outside
their 'hoods, places such as Wilson High or the Zoo. Remember the two
youngsters from Wilson who were recently shot? The argument started at Wilson
but was carried back to the kid's own neighborhoods. I understand that one of
 youngsters involved in that shooting went to the police because he was
afraid that he would be killed by someone in the 'hood of  the kids he
killed. Chief Ramsey once said, "...Their [crews] closure rate on homicides
is better than ours."

Reverend Anthony Motley, one of the guest speakers at the CAC meeting, talked
about his efforts to work with groups like the Alliance of Concerned Men and
others to interact with kids and try to break down these artificial barriers
as well as help the kids with other problems that lead to their anger. His is
one of what has become known as faith-based programs -  programs set up by
local churches to work on social problems.

He talked about how many of these youngsters feel disconnected from and
distrustful of the institutions and adults that affect their lives.
Intelligence gathering on disputes and mediation is a big part of his
efforts. He has to go to the kids; they don't come to him in the beginning.
He feels that the dynamics do change as the kids get to know him and others
working like him. He told us that he had had a heads up about a dispute among
groups going to the Zoo on Monday and had gone to the police  (I presume he
meant the Zoo Police) and offered his mediation help. He said they told him
they could handle it.

Other speakers were Assistant Chief Rodney Monroe who is heading Chief
Ramsey's youth violence program. He too talked about these territorial lines
and how the "beef" will often go away if the youngsters can be helped to
cross that line and integrate with one another. He said that the police had
probably the most difficult job of gaining the kids' trust. Many police
officers are not skilled in interacting with kids. He did not say this, but I
suspect also that it is difficult to form a bond with a youngster when the
kid knows that you might be back some other time to arrest his father or
brother.

Also present at this meeting were Drs. Angelyn Flowers and  Sylvia Hill, from
UDC's  Institute for Criminal Justice Planning and Policy. They are involved
in research in youth violence in this city.

2.)  The second somewhat surprising revelation during this meeting was that
there is, at present, no government leadership in this revolution. Everybody
is trying to get something going, but the city social service departments are
just part of the mix.  In addition, there is very little exchange of
information or coordination. Mayor Williams, Carolyn Graham, head of Youth
and Family Services, and Erik Christian, the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety
and Justice all have their work cut out for them. They didn't create the
problems or the lack of interagency information exchange, but if the
revolution is going to go forward, intelligence gathering and sharing, and
coordination has to be an important part of that effort. Geomapping, which I
understand to mean mapping of crews in particular minihoods, needs to be done
so that those involved in conflict resolution can know who to talk to and get
the dialogue and problem intervention rolling.

There also needs to be "mapping" of which organizations and government
agencies are doing what and where, and who can be called on for particular
help in a particular crisis. That does not now exist.

As I said before, we, in this 'hood  need to be interested and involved in
this because we are paying through the nose for a considerably less than
efficient criminal justice system as well as becoming victims of a small
handful of these youngsters who graduate to crimes not directed at members of
other crews. Generally their anger is not directed against adults or
youngsters outside of their crew culture. But a small handful of  them do
grow into serious, hard core criminals. Every month we have armed street
robberies and other crimes in this PSA. I'd be willing to bet the ranch that
some of  those perpetrators started out as crew members elsewhere in the
city.

Also, I believe we have a moral obligation to use our skills to make the city
peaceful for everyone. Several issues back I  ran a very moving letter by
John Kelley, someone who has decided to put his skills to good use as a CASA,
a Court-Appointed Special Advocate for the DC court system.  His is just one
excellent example of  what folks like us can do.