Philadelphia authorities are struggling to combat shooting crimes amid a rise in gun violence in the region as federal and city officials commit to better collaboration to address the issue.
On Wednesday, MayorJim Kenney met with federal Department of Health and Human Services officials to address the city's gun violence crisis. To date, shooting crimes have resulted in the homicide count rising to 337 victims.
Philadelphia Gun Violence
Authorities said that they have the same goal of preventing and reducing gun violence in a city that has experienced an explosive number of killings and shootings. Federal and local officials met behind closed doors and came out pledging to work more closely with the goal of making the city safer for residents.
The regional director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Ala Stanford, invited Mayor Kenney, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw, District Attorney Larry Krasner, officials from the city Fire Department, School of District of Philadelphia, and Temple University, and community members to the first-of-its-kind meeting, as per the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Officials said that they have planned quarterly meetings moving forward and pledged to work together by sharing resources and intelligence as their respective agencies grapple with the effects of gun violence.
"Sometimes, people feel that more money is the solution to all things, but really, it's a collaboration with a common goal, with resources, with accountability," said Stanford. She is a Montgomery County physician who founded the nationally acclaimed Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium and was appointed to her current position by President Joe Biden in April.
According to the New York Times, the meeting comes as the 300th killing of the year in Philadelphia took the life of Lameer Boyd, an 18-year-old father-to-be who was fatally shot in July. In the weeks after, a grandmother was shot in the neck, a popular singer was killed in front of his house, and a woman was killed at a front-porch cookout.
Violence Interrupters
So far this year, 1,400 people in the city have been shot, hundreds fatally, which is a higher toll than in the much larger cities of New York and Los Angeles. Officials sounded alarms about gun violence across the country in the last two years but Philadelphia is one of the few major American cities where it truly is as bad as it has ever been.
Furthermore, the crimes are even more alarming because they are focused on certain neighborhoods in North and West Philadelphia. These regions are places that were left behind decades ago by redlining and other forms of discrimination and are now among the poorest parts of what is called the nation's poorest big city.
Amid the threat of gun violence, a violence interruption initiative, Corners to Connections, which is based out of North Philadelphia's Taylor Memorial Baptist Church, patrolled the streets on a recent Tuesday evening.
Senior Pastor Rev. G. Lamar Stewart huddled his volunteers and split them into two groups, explained the perimeters of their planned walk, and asked someone to lead a prayer. "This mission is to stop the violence. We walk in grace, we ask for protection right now," said a team member, WHYY reported.
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