Weekly Brief on Gun Violence and Prevention in Philadelphia

By The Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting

Weekly Brief on Gun Violence Prevention in Philadelphia

#28・ Jan 19, 2022

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Weekly Brief on Gun Violence Prevention in Philadelphia

By The Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting • Issue #28 • View online

Each Wednesday morning we share news, research, data, opinions and community responses related to gun violence and prevention in Philadelphia.

Memorial to the Lost

Opinion

“There is no greater threat to our well-being than our historic levels of violence; supporting proven, community-led solutions should be a top priority.” – Dr. Dorothy Johnson-Speight of Mothers in Charge

In memoriam

In honor of their ‘Fallen Angel,’ parents of slain Philly entrepreneur reopen his clothing store in a new location

• Sircarr Johnson Jr.‘s family hopes this new store on South Street in South Philly will inspire people as much as he did before his shooting death in July.

www.inquirer.com • Share

• Heeding God’s Call to End Gun Violence installed their Memorial to the Lost at Overbrook Presbyterian Church, which puts out this display every year on the weekend before MLK Day. [@pcgvr/6ABC]

Official advice

• Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw addressed carjackings in the city and shared tips on how to protect yourself. [Facebook]

Grassroots

• A small group of community activists gathered to brainstorm new ways to prevent violence in Philadelphia. [NBC10]

By the numbers

Chart: PCGVR.org

• 48: Shooting victims reported last week in Philadelphia, up from 42 people shot during the previous week.

• 112: Philadelphia shooting victims this year through Sunday, running 32.1 percent ahead of last year’s pace.

• 226: Gunpoint robberies reported this year through Sunday, up 91.5 percent compared to the same period last year.

[Philadelphia Police via Google Drive]

• 32: Total 2022 homicides in Philadelphia through midnight, representing a 19 percent increase vs. 2021.

[PhillyPolice.com]

• 39: Guns recovered at TSA airport checkpoints in Philadelphia last year, a new record.

[TSA.gov]

Public information

• The next city briefing on gun violence in Philadelphia is scheduled to take place today at 1 p.m. Listen live on WURD Radio 900 AM / 96.1 FM or watch live online. [Facebook]

• The city recently published an update on the Group Violence Intervention program, which aims to reduce gun violence that involves members of neighborhood groups. [phila.gov]

Looking further

Assessing the ways Chester’s Partnership for Safe Neighborhoods program has succeeded

• Local, county, and state officials touted the results since the Nov. 2020 launch, including fewer incidents of gun violence.

whyy.org • Share

• Newark’s Trauma to Trust program works to get police and community members to come together and work to develop a shared understanding. [The Trace]

• The New York City Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice committed $2.6 million to study the effectiveness of the City’s gun violence interruption programs. [jjay.cuny.edu]

• Pittsburgh Mayor promises convene a roundtable of providers, activists, and city agencies not only to discuss the problem or research the problem but also to make connections with those already doing this work to develop and implement concrete recommendations. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

• St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones is crediting an intervention program known as Cure Violence for helping to reduce the city’s homicides by more than 25% in 2021. [St. Louis Public Radio]

• You don’t have to be in Missouri to learn a few things from the weekly newsletter from Seeking Solutions: The Missouri Gun Violence Project. There’s a subscription link near the end of the first section and in the next tweet threaded below. [The Kansas City Star]

Racial disparity

New Data Show Dramatic Increase in Arrests and Prosecutions of Black People for Carrying a Concealed Weapon

• The number of arrests for carrying a concealed weapon has quadrupled in Detroit since March 2020, and 97 percent of those charged with the crime are Black. Advocates are now calling for the county prosecutor to drop all concealed-carry charges. [Neighborhood Defender Service/Detroit Free Press]

neighborhooddefender.org • Share

• Black Americans made up only four percent of the population in Iowa yet accounted for 39.8 percent of gun homicides in the state between 2015 and 2019. [Center for American Progress]

New resources

Saving Lives: Ten Essential Actions Cities Can Take to Reduce Violence Now

• Amid a rise in homicide, diverse CCJ panel urges leaders to reject “us vs. them” politics and collaborate.

counciloncj.org • Share

Reducing Youth Gun, Gang, and Group Violence

• New guide for local government, law enforcement and community stakeholders as they implement new strategies and refine existing ones.

www.urban.org • Share

Watch your language

• Major media outlets can’t stop describing police violence as ‘officer-involved’ incidents. [The Huffington Post]

Closing thoughts

When I decided that I couldn’t keep a gun, I came face-to-face with the question of death and I dealt with it. From that point on, I no longer needed a gun nor have I been afraid. Had we become distracted by the question of my safety we would have lost the moral offensive and sunk to the level of our oppressors. – Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Join with us

• We are very grateful to the network of community representatives, journalists, clinicians, researchers, officials and other collaborators who have been supporting our work and now everyone is invited to register and join our Slack team to continue these conversations. [PCGVR]

Did you enjoy this issue?

By The Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting

Better gun violence reporting could enhance public understanding and support for effective programs and policies to prevent shootings and hopefully save lives. But what does the most ethical, impactful and empathetic reporting look like?

The Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting was launched to explore the hypotheses that changing the practice of news reporting can prevent gun violence. Since then, our research has refined this focus by identifying harmful reporting practices, asking what best practices would look like and how they could be implemented. Now, we have organized our work into three closely-aligned programs:

CREDIBLE MESSENGER REPORTING PROJECT

Our community reporting project trains, compensates and empowers people impacted by gun violence in Philadelphia to produce and distribute news reports on its root causes, their lived experience and possible solutions from the community perspective, with guidance from professional journalists.

RESEARCH AT THE CENTER

Our interdisciplinary research collaborative is exploring the intersection of gun violence, impacted communities and the media. Our Director of Research Dr. Jessica H. Beard is a trauma surgeon who cares for gunshot patients at Temple University Hospital and researches public health at Temple’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine. Her work is supported by a three-year Stoneleigh Foundation Fellowship.

BETTER GUN VIOLENCE REPORTING

Our professional development program strives to help journalists covering gun violence find a more diverse selection of experts, the most reliable data, evidence-based solutions, inspiring past reporting, strategies for community engagement, professional networking opportunities and additional resources. Representatives from every major Philadelphia news organization have participated.

VISION

We strive to model ourselves after other organizations that have dramatically advanced the practice of journalism. Within five years, we hope to support a small staff with a long runway for continuing operations and a strategic plan for sustainability.

Until then, we plan to continue supporting voices from the community, publishing research that informs best practices and building networks of journalists who believe we can all do better, make a difference and stop the violence.

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