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Latest News
East Side activists throw ’peace party’
by Lynn Horsley, Kansas City Star
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For years, East Side activists have tried prayer vigils and marches to combat violent crimes and homicides in Kansas City.
On Saturday, the city kicked off a new kind of effort, sending street intervention teams to go door to door in selected neighborhoods, distributing brochures with information and urging residents to promote peace in their community.
“Save a life! Think twice!” dozens of people chanted at an opening celebration at 27th Street and Prospect Avenue before they fanned out through the neighborhoods. “It’s a peace party over here. Ain’t no party like a peace party.”
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Lamonika Aiken joined with other members of her church, Memorial Missionary Baptist Church, in braving bitter winds and frigid temperatures to spread the word about the Day of Peace. Ten other faith-based and community organizations collaborated in Saturday’s outreach to six East Side ZIP codes.
“This is to alert the community, to raise awareness about the number of homicides, to try to bring peace in the community so we can eliminate some of these shootings,” Aiken said.
Just 12 hours earlier, about 9 p.m., shots rang out in a Northeast area neighborhood, where two bodies were later found. Police were investigating Saturday and weren’t sure yet whether it was a double homicide. That would bring the homicide toll this year to 113, compared with 86 at this time last year.
The effort to dramatically reduce those numbers is coordinated by Aim4Peace, a city-sponsored outreach program. It is designed to let people at high risk of committing violence know that social service agencies, job counseling services and dispute resolution efforts can help.
Aim4Peace has received about $600,000 in city funding, plus a federal grant, to continue its street intervention through April 30. It is modeled on successful crime-prevention efforts in Chicago, Los Angeles and Newark, N.J., according to program manager Tracie McClendon-Cole. She said the people who have been hired for Aim4Peace have street credibility and will work all hours, in all kinds of weather, and in the neighborhoods where they can make the most difference.
“This is the first time the city has had something like this,” she said.
Speaker Calvin Neal noted that the East Side had struggled for the past 10 years and that the number of homicides often spiked in November.
“We’re trying to change that,” he said. “We’ve seen a change in the White House, so we’re going to see a change in this house.”
Andre Thurman, 34, was introduced as Aim4Peace’s newest foot soldier. He said that he used to be involved in a gang, but that he is now devoted to telling young people about positive opportunities for their lives.
“We are the future,” he said. “We don’t want to see 100 murders next year. We have to go to the people who are committing the murders … to make sure they know this is something we won’t tolerate.”
The Musketeers, a men’s service organization, was assigned to reach out to young people in the 64128 ZIP code.
Musketeer Chuck James said the organization provides scholarships and mentors, and is contracting to bring those services to Aim4Peace.
“We’re trying to recruit young people to our mentoring program,” he said.
Kansas City Councilwomen Cathy Jolly, Cindy Circo and Melba Curls applauded the crowd at 27th and Prospect and said the city will be working on a comprehensive crime-prevention plan.
City Manager Wayne Cauthen said Aim4Peace is a part of that plan, but he recognized that the city had to do much more, both in terms of sustained funding and programs.
“We have to have retraining and employment opportunities to deal with ex-offenders,” he said. “This is something we take very seriously.” One option, he said, was employing ex-offenders to restore some of the city’s many foreclosed properties.
Kris Wade, an urban core resident who showed up for Saturday’s event, had a message for cynics who think there is no solution to violence on Kansas City’s East Side.
“The solution starts on the street,” she said. “I know that street intervention works, if people reach out in a nonjudgmental way. You have to have a positive, forward-thinking attitude.”
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Nextwork.