This is not a full story on Sunday's "Call to Action" forum, just some impressions from the first hour and a half.
First off, the forum began in the time slot of Imhotep
Gary Byrd's WBLS show, "Express Yourself." Byrd is a well-known radio personality and also has a show on WBAI, "The Global Beat Experience." Why his involvement was not mentioned in publicity last week is unknown, but surely is somewhat of a lapse.
Byrd hailed Mayor
Sharon Robinson-Briggs as "a courageous sister" and added, "She's what we call a 'warrior sister.' "
He noted the reason for the call to action as the problem of gun violence and said that even as the program was being discussed, there had been a shooting incident in Harlem. Byrd mentioned a Monmouth County "Guns for Cash" program to get guns off the street.
Plainfield has had a rash of shootings since May.
The mayor said forum topics would include gang-related activity, affordable housing, foreclosure assistance, education, mentoring, and employment and lauded the recently formed "Taking Back the Streets" task force in Plainfield.
Byrd said there had been some objections to the program's announced focus on shootings, especially from the real estate community, as people felt it wrong to air "dirty laundry." But Robinson-Briggs noted wide coverage already of the issue, with panels and numerous newspaper articles on the shootings. She said the city worked very hard in 2009 to reduce crime, but suddenly this year there was a spike in shootings in the "West Ward."
She repeated advice given at a May 3 panel, which was to check bedrooms and backpacks of young family members for guns or signs of gang activity.
Byrd, noting keynote speaker Rev.
Al Sharpton was on his way to Plainfield, said, "What we're saying is, let's network the community. Let's go back to a time when you actually knew who was living next to you."
Byrd said people came out "10,000 strong" for peace in Newark's West Ward.
After a break, Byrd said Sharpton would appear in the "7 o'clock hour" of the forum.
Next came a long list of panelists, including
Salaam Ismial of United Youth Council, East Orange Mayor
Robert Bowser, Irvington Mayor
Wayne Smith, Bro.
Lonnie of Nation of Islam Mosque No. 80, a representative of the ShotSpotter company that sells gunshot detecting equipment, local police officers and Union County Freeholder
Nancy Ward. Robinson-Briggs mentioned she is the first female African-American mayor in Plainfield and is in her second term.
Both Smith and Bowser spoke in favor of the gunshot detection system. Smith mentioned the Weed and Seed program and also Ceasefire, both of which have been tried in Plainfield. The latter, which calls for investigating every shooting incident as if it were a homicide, fell to budget cuts and is no longer operating in Plainfield.
Advice such as "talk to kids" was given, also to form prisoner re-entry programs and to do community outreach. Bowswer said he went to Australia to learn how crime was reduced by 75 percent there over the last five years.
After another break, the program resumed with more general comments on crime reduction and a call for community involvement from Sgt.
Kenny Reid, a former mayoral bodyguard.
People's Organization for Progress leader
Larry Hamm also called for more community involvement.
By now, the program was well into the 7 o'clock hour with no sign of Sharpton. After another break, Bro. Lonnie spoke about supporting the youth in the community and the mayor talked about a job training program led by
Debbie Myers.
I got as far as opening remarks from Congressman
Frank Pallone after 7:30 p.m. and then, as I was listening in bed to the show on my big purple boombox, I dozed off. Maybe someone can fill in the rest.
Still to come were remarks from Sharpton and responses from audience members, who had been given cards to write on. The show was billed to air from 6 to 9 p.m. and by the mid-point, all I had heard was mostly speechifying. I'm sure Sharpton, if he actually showed, gave the best speech, as he can always out-orate anyone in the room.
I would have liked to hear more concrete information on how things are going with the task force, which has been meeting every Tuesday and visiting troubled neighborhoods. Are people responding? Are neighbors willing to defy the "stop snitching" mandate of gang leaders and cooperate with police? At the May 3 panel, it came out in the wash that police and community figures generally know who's who and what's what on the street, but can't get witnesses to testify in court. Gang members live by their code and residents do not want to risk being labeled snitches. It appears that only the dangerous stratagem of intense undercover work might yield enough solid information to pit the law against gang culture.
This is not to make less of the small increments of trust garnered by those who appeal to youth to forego gangs and gun violence. These one-on-one heartfelt appeals can turn young people away from crime, especially if they include an offer of longterm support for the individual's escape to a better life.
Plaintalker welcomes any comments on the forum or on the issue of gun violence.
--Bernice Paglia