Committee Hearing, October 19, 2006

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA JOINT COMMITTEES ON PUBLIC SAFETY AND PUBLIC HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES - - - Strawberry Mansion High School Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Thursday, October 19, 2006 7:10 p.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILMAN DARRELL L. CLARKE COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO COUNCILMAN JUAN RAMOS RESOLUTION 051155 - Resolution authorizing the Council Committees on Public Safety and Public Health and Human Services to hold hearings regarding the findings and recommendations of the "Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia," and further authorizing the Committees to seek advice and recommendations on how Philadelphia can reduce and eliminate crime affecting the City's youth. - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2

Good evening, everyone. AUDIENCE: Good evening.

This is the joint Committees on Public Safety and Public Health and Human Services public hearing. This Committee is now in session. I'm Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller and I chair Public Safety. Councilwoman Marian Tasco could not be here tonight. I believe this is our seventh public hearing out in the community. Before I get started with my comments, we'll have the Clerk, Mr. Derek Green, read the title of the resolution.

Resolution No. 19 051155, resolution authorizing the Council Committees on Public Safety and Public Health and Human Services to hold hearings regarding the findings and recommendations of the "Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia," and further authorizing the Committees to seek advice 3 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 and recommendations on how Philadelphia can reduce and eliminate crime affecting the City's youth.

Thank you. I just want to let you know that this is an official City Council hearing. I understand that it's difficult for people to attend our public hearings during the day, so with the help of Representative Dwight Evans, Councilwoman Marian Tasco and myself, we decided to hold these hearings during the evening at local high schools. We've held four Committee hearings last session all around the City and we are holding four Committee hearings this session. We were at Overbrook High, West Philadelphia High last month and this month. Tonight we're here at Strawberry Mansion, and on October 25th, we will be at Bartram Main High School. I'd like to begin by thanking 4 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 those who have taken an interest in Philadelphia and its problems with violence. I am joined tonight by Representative Evans, who has championed the Philadelphia's problem of violence for many years. He was discussing this issue when no one else dared. I'd also like to thank my other City Councilmembers that are here tonight, Councilman At-Large Frank Rizzo to my right all the way down at the end and Councilman Darrell Clarke, who we're in his district tonight. Strawberry Mansion is certainly a big part of the Fifth Councilmanic District, and you'll hear from them later. Other folk that you see sitting up here are Alicia Jackson from MEE Productions. I've had several calls today with people hearing about this hearing on the radio, and that's because of MEE Productions. Lots of people heard it. You have Fred Barnett from 5 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Don't Fall Down in the Hood and Dr. Leacock from Don't Fall Down in the Hood to my right. We also have 22nd Police District, Lieutenant McClain is over here on the front, and we have Laura Lawrence from CHOICE to my left. And entering the room at this time is Councilman Juan Ramos, who is also a member of Philadelphia City Council and he's a member at-large. As I stated before, unfortunately, Councilwoman Marian Tasco -- I haven't introduced Evans. Representative Dwight Evans down here on the end to my right. He's actually the architect of the Blueprint for Philadelphia. Unfortunately, Councilwoman Tasco, who is Chair of Public Health, is not here tonight. However, the role of the elected official is very time consuming and she wanted to be here, but was not able to. We're here today to discuss the 6 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia and its ten-year plan. There has been so much talk of violence in our City, from the many murders and other violent forms of crime, that we felt it necessary to convene these public hearings in the community to get the input from our constituency. Do you know that today we have reached 323 murders? We've completed 292 days this year. That means that we've had a killing pretty much every day. So since we only have 73 days left this year, how many more will be killed? We could say at least 80 if we stick to our present track record. We're losing more people here in Philadelphia than in Iraq, and they are at war. And certainly I think sometimes there's a war here. What is the problem? We have definitely passed last year's murder rate, and it's only increasing. We need to do something now to stop the violence. 7 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 I'm aware that there's only so much that we can do, but together, the community side by side with elected officials, we can make a difference, and I know you care and that's why you're here today. I've been working with Councilman Clarke, and together we have introduced seven pieces of legislation aimed at addressing the problems of violence, specifically with guns. Unfortunately, the State has the power to make these laws and will not let us control our legislation or legislate our own gun laws. Representative Evans has been working very hard trying to get out the word in the State legislature that we need your help.

Last month, we rallied to the State Capitol trying to tell the lawmakers that we are fed up and it's time for the State to give us the power to stop the violence. We had 3,000 Philadelphians demonstrate on the Capitol 8 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 steps. I do not want to steal Dwight Evans' thunder since he's working so hard on this, but he'll have more to say about this, I'm sure, later during his remarks. As you know, we cannot legislate attitude change. One of the reasons we brought these hearings to the community is to show the rest of our City that we are not indifferent. We need to go into the community and start from within. Gun violence is only a part of what we are here for today. We are here to show our young people that they are not destined to a violent end. We want to offer them other alternatives of taking lives as a way of redirecting disputes. We want to give them other options for their futures. We want to let them know that there is a bright future ahead of them and not one of doom and gloom. So with that, I'm going to 9 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 call -- normally what we do is, we call some of our Councilmembers for a few brief remarks before we get started with everyone else, and I'll start with Councilman Clarke. This is his district. Councilman Rizzo, then Councilman -- we're going to start with Councilman Rizzo, because he has to leave early. Oh, he left? Okay. Sorry. So we'll start with Councilman Clarke.

Thank you, Councilwoman. Good evening. AUDIENCE: Good evening.

I want to hear you. Good evening. AUDIENCE: Good evening.

Say it like we mean it. First, it's always a pleasure for me to be here. I actually had the pleasure as a teenager to sit in those seats, because I went to Strawberry Mansion, born and raised in Strawberry 10 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Mansion, grew up and lived in Strawberry Mansion all my life. Unfortunately, I find myself here tonight to talk about an issue that I wish we didn't have to talk about, is some of the violence in our community. Strawberry Mansion unfortunately has been hit with a number of violent incidents. We have some roaring situations between the 32nd Street Gang and the Westmont Street Gang, and it just goes on and on. So it's just a continuous struggle in this neighborhood. Having grown up in this neighborhood, I understand the importance of working with everybody in this community, and as Councilwoman Miller said earlier, it's not just simply about eliminating guns and simply about locking people up, because at the end of the day, if I didn't have the appropriate opportunity when I sat in those chairs in the auditorium, I would not be sitting here, if I didn't have people who cared 11 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 about me, people who nourished me, my parents and the people in the neighborhood who helped raise me, to make sure that I got adequately educated, made sure that I had an opportunity. So I want to commend Councilwoman Miller and Councilman Ramos and Representative Evans, who it's clear here that the Blueprint for Philadelphia -- because we understand that there needs to be a comprehensive approach. You can't just simply ask the police to roll up on you every night and arrest people with not really addressing the problem, the underlying problem of the inability to have people properly educated and inability to have people adequately dealt with in jobs and have people care about you. So tonight it gives me a pleasure to be here and to participate for a while in this very, very important program. Thank you, Councilwoman. 12 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155

Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Ramos.

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman of this Committee. It is good to be out of City Hall and have these public hearings here in so many different communities in the City, and to be here in Strawberry Mansion is very important for all of us, very important to me. And I echo the same sentiments of my Councilman, Councilman Clarke, that we sure don't like the idea of having to come and talk about this crisis, this epidemic of violence that has hit our streets, but it's reality. We can't duck it. We have to be able to address it. One of the ways we can do this -- and I know that State Representative Evans will talk a whole lot more about this -- is that we need jobs, right? Because I talk to young folks all the time and they look at me -- he's nodding his head. They ask me, 13 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Councilman, I need a J-O-B. I know that means a lot to us. It should mean a lot to us, because without a job, we can't get anywhere, unless we're studying in high school or in college. I want to make sure that all of you, just like those of us up here, that we had an opportunity to go and work. Believe me, all of us up here, we have not always held this type of job. You know what I'm saying? So we've done everything. I was a construction worker until just the other day, and it was very, very hard work. I've washed dishes. I've picked blueberries. I've done it all. But it's all about being able to have a job, have a career, have an education, and that's what we want to -- and I know you've heard it before and you hear it in school every day, but that's what it's really all about, getting an education, moving ahead, having a family, getting a nice job. Just recently, the School 14 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 District and the unions, the unions that train young people to be carpenters, plumbers, electricians, cement masons, builders of homes, builders of these type of buildings that -- I'm on this Committee to make sure that if you want to be a plumber, an electrician, a carpenter, that you can go forward, and nothing should stop you from being a plumber, that the school system will prepare you and that these unions that pay a lot -- believe me, you're in a union job, you get paid a lot. I know because I've been there. I'm still there. And you should be able to have that opportunity, whether you're male or female, to be able that if you don't go through to the college thing -- and please try and work hard to get to college, but that if not, that you learn a trade where you can have a nice J-O-B and you can raise a family and live in a safe neighborhood. So, Madam Chair, thank you so 15 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 much for giving me this opportunity to speak to these wonderful young people here tonight.

You're welcome. Thank you, Councilman. It's really good to see so many young people here in the audience. Representative Dwight Evans. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Thank you very much, Madam Chairperson. I'd like to first congratulate both Chairpeople, Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller and Councilwoman Marian Tasco. And the reason I'd like to applaud them is, well after the publicity of the cameras and all that stuff, they're kind of doing what I consider the grunt work. I was just counting. This is our ninth hearing. We started out in City Hall. We went to Germantown, Olney, Gratz, South Philly, Overbrook, West Philly and now Strawberry Mansion and next week Bartram. And you can imagine we've been doing this almost over nine 16 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 weeks. We've been going to neighborhood by neighborhood, community by community having these types of discussions. And the reason we've been having these type of discussions is to, as the Councilwoman said, basically have a dialogue and discussion and receive information from you. This is all being recorded, so they will have it on record, and it will give us some type of documentation so we can analyze it. The other thing that's rather unique about this is having the partnership between the Philadelphia City Council and the legislature. As the Councilwoman indicated, Councilman Darrell Clarke, as well as Councilman Frank Rizzo, as well as Councilman Juan Ramos, we recognize that we need to have a collective effort. Although we may not -- I would like to speak to the Committee of the Whole, because Alicia is going to speak specifically about the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia, which 17 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 I will talk about the concept of it. We had a session, it seems like, just last month. It was really early part of this month -- last month. She's correct. We had three days of discussion around the question of gun policy, and although I've said to people we did not get past one of the first things I thought was most important, Councilman Clarke and Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, was about giving Philadelphia its authority back, which was removed from the City about 11 years ago, but let me tell you what I think we did accomplish. We want to kind of raise the consciousness of this issue. This is not a problem just in Philadelphia. I just read in the newspaper, Councilman Clarke, that there was nine killings in the City of Harrisburg in the last couple days, nine killings in Harrisburg. In Reading, about maybe a month ago, a police officer was killed in Reading. In Allentown. So 18 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 I want to be clear. Although they may read more about us than we read about them because of the newspapers here, I'm just sharing with you, this is not just a Philadelphia problem. Last week, the President of the United States held a session because of what took place in Colorado, what took place in Wisconsin, what took place in Lancaster, and the reason he held it is because -- this is not an accident that we're holding these sessions in the schools. It's not an accident. We're holding them in the schools because it's really clear that no particular place is safe when you really think about it. So the real question is, what exactly can we do, as the Councilwoman stressed. The initiative called the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia really is trying to approach it from a public health strategy. We started it almost two years ago. We put it into the context of a ten-year initiative. And in 19 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 talking to both Councilpeople, we agreed that we had to kind of go block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, and we have to deal with the question of character and values, and particularly the aspect of values, about changing the behavior. But there's not just one single approach. Yes, we must do something about the gun policy.

Yes, we obviously need to have more police, but even if you have more police, having more police only works from a short-term measure. The police, as well as they may try to do what they do, they cannot and will not by themselves be able to solely be responsible. It is no question that we need them as a part of our strategy. So we need the police as a part of our strategy. We need the use from the public health department. We need grassroot organizations, but most of all we need to talk about individual and personal responsibility. We cannot also ignore that aspect as we approach it. 20 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 You know, there's an interesting statistic in the front of the newspaper today, Councilwoman. There was story about the dropout crisis. And there was a lot of people making a lot of noise about that, but I will tell you, there was nothing shocking in that newspaper, because the dropout crisis has been going on a long time. The difference before, sort of like what Councilman Rizzo said -- or Councilman Juan Ramos said when he said before there was an economy where if you dropped out of school, you could get that kind of job in that position, right? And he talked about laborers. Laborers are a lot more skilled. Even laborers are changing now, have a lot more skill. There was military. There was other places to go when people did not graduate from high school. So the dropout crisis is not a shock to me. I mean, I don't think it's a shock to anybody, but we got to do 21 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 something. So this is what we're trying to do. We have broken this up into three areas called primary, secondary and tertiary. On the primary side, what we're trying to do is make more investments on the early side of how we address the question of changing behavior. They kind of did this in the beginning of cigarettes and how they began to change the way we think of that. We so far have invested almost close to $35 to $40 million invested into this Blueprint. It's been invested in Gun Court. It's been invested in a number of other things that Alicia Jackson will talk about, but the main thing we've tried to do is really take it to the streets and take it to the people. So I want to particularly thank Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller and Councilwoman Marian Tasco and the other Councilpeople who are here, Councilman Juan Ramos and Councilman Darrell Clarke, because it's going to take this kind of 22 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 effort. The last thing I'll say in closing is, this is not something that you can start and stop. When the cameras leave and the press leave, it is not something that you just start and stop. We have an awful lot of work to do to try to rebuild what I call the civic infrastructures in our community. I'm talking about churches working together. I'm talking about families working together. All of those things it's going to take in terms of trying to rebuild what needs to take place in our community. So I want to thank the Councilperson. Donna.

Thank you. Thank you, Representative Evans. You are right, we do have to rebuild and continue to work on building and stabilizing our neighborhoods through civic infrastructures, through talking 23 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 and working together to solve issues. We'll have Alicia Jackson from MEE Productions.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. How are you doing this evening? AUDIENCE: Good evening.

Everybody doing all right? Although you all look like you're ready to fall asleep. But we're not going to fall asleep right now. We're going to get up for a minute, do what we have to do tonight and move on. Then we can go to sleep. Again, my name is Alicia Jackson. I'm with a company called MEE, M-E-E, Production. We're based here in Philadelphia. What I'd like to do first is really acknowledge the elected officials here and thank specifically the Councilpersons for, again, their effort in bringing this issue to the public, to the people, to the community, which is very important. 24 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 It's also important to say thank you to State Representative Evans for his backbone to step out in the forefront and say, we're going to do something about this issue, I'm going to make a commitment specifically to eradicate violence in ten years. We're talking 2016. Remember that year, 2016. We're really making a hard commitment to try to eradicate violence. Not only slow it down, but to actually get rid of it amongst young folk, young folk like the ones that are sitting here in our audience. MEE Production was brought into this project about a year and a half ago with the intent to drive the social marketing component of a prevention effort. As the Representative stated, we're trying to look at violence holistically. There are a lot of things going on with reference to violence from a criminal justice standpoint. You hear about the criminal justice aspect all the 25 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 time. We all understand the criminal justice aspect. What we're trying to do, again, is not only do away with criminal justice. We know we have to live with that, but what we're trying to do is actually be innovative and look at this from a public health standpoint. We're taking a model that was started in Boston by a woman by the name of Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith, who has the theory that violence can be prevented. So when we talk about prevention and public health, we're actually looking to change people's thought process with reference to this issue. We're looking to think about it very differently. With that said, we are starting this effort with a strong social marketing campaign. And when I talk about social marketing, I'm talking about, one, raising awareness around the issue of violence, violence prevention specifically. Two, not only raising the 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 awareness level, but also providing a level of education as to how we go about preventing violence. MEE Production as a communications company initially started its charge with this mission of developing a social marketing effort with research. We're grounded in qualitative research. With that said, we went into the community. We talked to the community. We talked to community-based organizations. We talked to parents, and we talked to young people to ask them, What does violence look like to you in Philadelphia? We all know what we read in the paper, but we wanted to go a little deeper than that. With that said, we had some very good findings that came out of that extensive research. That research is available to everyone free of charge. It comes in the form of a written report, as well as a documentary video. So you can get that research. Just let us know and 27 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 we will get that information to you. Some of the key findings in that research, one, were education. Education is critical. We must be responsive to the young people and their need to get a good education. You've already heard that articulated. It's up to the adults to make sure that we are holding our school district and our schools accountable to the education of our young folk. Everyone articulated that, from community-based organizations, parents, and young people themselves said that they're tired of going to school and going to sleep in school. They want their education.

They know that that is the way to a decent job, a nice home and a good family. They know that that's the universal values that we all strive for. So we want to be able to speak to that. The other key finding that came out is that parents need help with raising their children. Parenting is 28 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 critical. It's critical. With that said, we're going to be putting into place appropriate parenting programs as we move this endeavor forward. We acknowledge that. Another key finding is that young folk acknowledged that they wanted adults involved in their life. They want structure. They want boundaries. They want adults to step up to the plate. So we as adults have to be responsive and speak to what young folk are requesting. Again, those are some of the major findings. With that said, we went out to develop the materials. We've had radio ads on all through the summer. We started them in March. Surely you've heard of them on the various urban stations. We have print materials that I will share with you today. We will be launching TV public service announcements. In addition to the traditional way of carrying those messages, again, 29 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 around the importance of education, the importance of parenting, the importance of adult involvement, we're doing some non-traditional strategies where we are taking the message into the community by using peers themselves. We're recruiting peers to get involved in the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia. If you have some time and you want to contribute to this effort, we do have a peer program for all young people from to to get 13 involved with carrying this message into 14 the community. It is structured and it 15 is incentive-based, meaning that it acts 16 like a job, you will be compensated for 17 your time, which we respect and we value 18 that and we say we value you by having it 19 be incentive-based. 20 In addition to that, we will be 21 doing the same thing with parents. We will be recruiting parents to get involved in this effort to take the message to the home, to take the message to their neighbor, to take the message to 30 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 their community. We're organizing community-based organizations. We have organized approximately 450 community-based organizations in the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia. They've all committed to be involved in that effort by distributing the materials, having a dialogue with their constituency, displacing the materials in their organization and then defending this campaign to say, We support the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia, we support prevention, we support public health, we support making a difference in our folks' lives. With that said, we're moving forward to engage the faith-based community, and, again, we'll be launching TV PSAs in the fall. And we're approaching the fall. We're in the fall now, aren't we? So excuse me. We will be launching in November -- let me give you a specific 31 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 date, in November -- the TV PSAs, so look for those. And, again, this effort initially is to go into the community, raise awareness and provide a level of education around prevention. Once we do that, we will be coming behind the social marketing effort with the necessary programming in the community to support the young people and their needs. One, offering mentoring and tutoring, parenting skills, parenting trainings. Any other kind of programming that we see a need for, we will be actually putting into the community to make sure that the resources are where they need to be. One critical component -- and you'll hear from the young lady from CHOICE -- is a hotline. We encourage everyone to call the hotline. The hotline is a central focus of the campaign. The hotline specifically is 1-888-570-BLUE. Call that hotline. It is available with resources. If you need 32 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES.

051155 assistance, if you need anything as it pertains to violence and violence prevention, feel free to pick up that phone and call that hotline. com. It will give you all of the information that I have just talked about, as well as you will have access to the research. You will have access to the PSAs. You can pull all of that down via the website. And one last thing that we will be doing is, we will be launching a major youth service directory via an Internet disc. It's not going to be printed anymore. We're going to be pushing technology with this resource information, and we will be saturating the City of Philadelphia with youth services so everyone will have access. And, again, that's what we'll be doing. If anyone is interested in 33 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 joining the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia, the social marketing effort, again, from a prevention standpoint -- we're looking at prevention -- please feel free to call the toll-free number, check out the website and talk to me after this. Thank you so much for your attention. I appreciate it. )

Alicia, I think your information is getting out there. My daughter actually received an e-mail the other day. She said, Mom, do you want to be a part of a focus group? I said, From who? She said, MEE Productions. I said, No. That's okay. Why don't you join it.

We do focus groups all the time. We test everything. We do focus groups all the time.

It's sure out there, because she did get hers. 34 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155

Thank you.

There's lots of programs. It's wonderful that 400 community groups have volunteered to participate in the Blueprint efforts. One of the groups that's been joining us at every Blueprint hearing is Dr. Leacock and Don't Fall Down in the Hood. I love that name. When I first saw that name, I said, I love that name. So Dr. Leacock.

Thanks very much for inviting me again to be here, and, of course, we're delighted to be part of the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia and all that it stands for, because we at the Institute for the Development of African-American Youth, of which Don't Fall Down in the Hood is one of eight programs around the City of Philadelphia, we work with young people all the time, every day, who come to us because of very difficult experiences, either victims of crime or perpetrators of crimes 35 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 themselves, offenders. And I thought tonight, which would make a lot of sense, instead of me sort of talking in the microphone for the few minutes of which I've done the last couple times, I would sort of bring the young men that we work with every day on violent experiences so you guys, everyone here as part of the panel and in the audience, can see that this really does affect our brothers and sisters in the City. It really does affect our brothers and sisters in the City. And I thought I would bring the young men so you would see them. They are real. They have turned their lives around. We work with them seven days a week from morning until evening, help them get jobs, talk with them, mentor them, care for them, and then they turn around and mentor other young people in the community so we can in slow motion, hopefully shorter than ten years, make sure that crime and violence is reduced in our City. They're 36 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 charged with this responsibility, that they need to actively be part of this very, very difficult situation in our City. So instead of me doing my usual talk, I really want to introduce the young men. And then after the young men are introduced, I would like to introduce our Fred Barnett, who is one of our leaders in this struggle. We reach far and wide to find folks from every sector. If we got to go sports, if we got to go music -- I'm trying to gain a little weight. If anyone knows how I can put on a little weight, let me know. I'm trying. Anyone who can help us, come on board to make a difference. We can do it. We got to find everyone. And we are responsible no matter what. So let me introduce our Andre Chin and Harry James, and they're going to have the guys just basically get up and say their name and why they initially 37 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 came to the program. They have all turned themselves around, and you will see that they're young men like any of us when we were teenagers. They could be my sons, they could be my nephews. When they grow up, they're going to be our bosses. Andre, let me turn it over to you.

Good evening, everyone. AUDIENCE: Good evening.

My name is Andre Chin and I'm Case Manager for the program. As Archye has said and Alicia also, we're trying to work with these young men to turn their lives around. They have committed crimes, but what we do with MEE Production is talk about what they have done and we begin to speak about what they can do with what they have done. We look past their faults and we see their needs, and we try to help them to kind of look at the past as what 38 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 it was and go on to the future. We've been working with these guys for a very long time. As Archye said, we work with them seven days a week, but I say eight days a week and 48 hours a day, because it's a very tough task to work with these guys, and they need a lot of help, and we try to do as much as we can for them, and that's what we do at Don't Fall Down in the Hood.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Harry James and I am the new Program Director at Don't Fall Down in the Hood. I'm a transplant into the City of Philadelphia, but I'm very familiar with the problems that you're engaged in right now. I'm a life-long resident of the City of Chester, and I've been very integral into the anti-violence movement in that city. In working with these young men, the first thing that I found is that they really do want to be part of the solution. They're really tired of being 39 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 seen as the problem, and in bringing them tonight, we really asked them to simply think hard about what it is you want to know, think hard about why it is you're asking the questions and then put it forth, because you too deserve to be heard, and that is the only way that we're going to have this community, the Philadelphia community, change the outlook that they have on these young men. They're great young men, but we've got to take the time to get to know them, and fortunately, Don't Fall Down in the Hood allows us to do that. And you'll see tonight that they really do care and they really want to be part of the solution. The young men are going to introduce themselves to you and then they can address the panel with a few questions. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Why don't you stand at the mike so they can 40 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 hear you for the public record.

Why don't everybody that's going to introduce themselves just line up so you can just hit the mike and keep moving.

My name Dosmo Del Cruz. I'm here for narcotics.

My name Willy Torres. I'm here for robbery.

My name Kendra Hutchinson. I'm here for robbery.

My name is Demetrius Smith. I'm here for theft.

My name is Justin Thomas. I'm here for a gun.

My name Ali Richardson. I'm here for narcotics.

My name Noble Thomas. I'm here for assault.

My name Darnell Day. I'm here for narcotics.

Johnshull Reddingson and I'm here for gun.

Raymond Latine and 41 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 I'm here for a gun.

My name Jason Price and I'm here for narcotics.

My name Husani Wilson and I'm here for a gun.

My name Basille Johnson. I'm here for a gun.

My name Anthony Outlaw. I'm here for a weapon in school.

My name Angel Gonzalez. I'm here for auto theft.

My name Malik Lewis. I'm here for a gun.

My name Kenneth Holmes. I'm here for narcotics.

My name Brian Hicks. I'm here for assault and robbery. MR. McCLARY: My name Kadeem McClary. I'm here for a gun and narcotics.

My name Tyree Wallace. I'm here for a gun and narcotics.

My name is Tyrell 42 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Wills. I'm here for a gun.

My name Elliot Tinsel and I'm here for a gun.

My name Anthony Smith. I'm here for a gun.

My name Kevin Anderson. I'm a graduate of the program you just had.

My name Lee Griffin. I'm here for narcotics.

Thanks, guys. Let's give them all a round of applause, if we can. (Applause.)

All of these guys are essentially in high school still, in all public schools or in charter schools around the City. So I don't think that very many of them have already graduated. Right, Andre?

Yes.

They're still all in high school. They do have some questions to 43 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 ask the panel, but if they can wait until the rest of the panel have presented, Andre, then they can stand up and ask their questions. Okay? Let me introduce Fred Barnett, who is one of our leaders in this whole situation around violence and helping us mobilize the forces to reduce violence in the City. Fred.

Thanks, boss. Actually, the agenda states that I'm with Don't Fall Down in the Hood, but I'm with AVRP, Adolescents Violence Reduction Partnership. I'm the Director actually of AVRP. I took this job because I was tired of talking. I would go out to different schools and speak to kids, and I wanted to do something. And actually since I've taken the job, it seems that I've been talking more, but this gives me a chance to put my hands to the plow, and putting my hands to the plow is actually 44 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 doing something, and that's why I'm here. When you look at this panel of people, we come from all different walks of life. We've had different experiences. We've had failures. We've had successes. And through all of that, it has shaped the mindset of us and it has given us a perspective on how to approach this violence piece. Being a young boy from Mississippi, a small town in Mississippi, my successes and my failures have shaped my perspective, and my perspective is to come from the informal direction, and, that is, creating relationships with families, creating relationships with these young men and young women to allow them to be connected to their communities, to allow them to be reconnected to their communities. And the saddest part of all of this is just to see and experience all the victims and even the perpetrators. And I think that everyone up here is right just for being 45 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 here, but we all have a different perspective. And when I hear we need to take guns off the street, no disrespect, but I haven't seen a gun shoot anyone by itself. I've seen young men with guns shoot people. So inevitably we need to change the mindset of these young men. We need to change the mindset of these families. We need to go and connect with these people. We need to go and establish relationships with these people. We need to create research services for these people. We need to connect with these people in such a way that they are comfortable with coming forward and saying, Yes, I'm a 35-year-old young man and I have a 20-year-old son and I do not know how to raise him. We need to be practical. I believe in education academically, but I believe in a practical education, a life education, how do we better ourselves, what can I do to make me feel good about 46 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 myself. In turn, help me to get over the issues that I have, to seek help for the issues that I have. So I think collectively we all have directions, different directions, but together we can do this and together we can make a change. We need to be a stick of dynamite. Interestingly, if there was a stick of dynamite right here, if it went off, when the smoke cleared, things would be different. This may be over here. That may be over here. You know what? There's been a lot of sparkling, but we need an explosion, and when there's an explosion, there will be a change. We need to get up and do something. We need to allow our heads to connect with our hearts and allow our hearts to connect with our hands and reach out and touch these people. We should allow our hands, our hearts and our head to connect with our feet to get up, and that's something that we're 47 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 trying to do at IDAAY. We're going to the homes. We're visiting the families. We're visiting the young. We're spending time with them. I've been a mentor for two years, and I tell you, one of the greatest experiences is to be involved with a young man who did not want me to touch him and then one day have him come behind me and hug me. That's what it's all about. And I encourage every individual in here, every responsible adult to reach out and touch somebody. And I encourage every young man in here, let us touch you. Let us be a part of your life. Let us give you practical education. Let us give you academic education. And we're here for you. I'm here to put my hand to the plow.

AVRP, my staff is here. Most of my staff is here as well. They're doing the same thing. I thank everyone for allowing me this chance to speak. 48 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. )

Thank you. Now we're going to hear from really an important part of the Blueprint, and that's the hotline. Laura Lawrence from CHOICE.

Hello, everyone. I'm a representative from the CHOICE hotline. We are pleased to be a part of the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia. My heart is touched to see the young men in the audience, to see them trying to change their lives. And as a hotline, we are hearing on the front line the situations that take place and the cry out in the community, and we are there to be a help. We are there to be that vehicle to connect parents, organizations, youth with an array of services that can make their lives better. We have services in different organizations that are aligned together 49 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 for the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia, teen parenting meetings, teen parenting classes, parenting classes, mentoring services, GED classes, twilight programs. There's a number of things that people are calling in. We even have a cry for grievance counseling. And as a hotline and as trained counselors, we have equipped ourselves not only with the trained listening ear, but the information that takes place in people's minds. So we are adapting to the mindset as well. We are educating ourselves with Dr. Stith's model, with Safe and Sound's model just so we can be equipped with the things that take place in the community. As the guys stood up -- and this is personal for me, because I am a victim of a gun shot 33 years ago, October the 17th. It's been 33 years. And I am the mother and proud mother of a 19-year-old who went astray that I took the initiative to put away. I sent him 50 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 to Glen Mills. For whatever reason, he went astray, and it's okay, because just like you, he's been brought back. Hopefully you guys will continue on your path. Solomon went on to Glen Mills to redirect his mindset, and that's exactly what happened. He trained himself for months in optics. He's a 11 father of two children, two beautiful 12 children. However, he needed that. He 13 needed to be sent away. 14 You guys are up close and personal to the things that are going on. The hotline is there. I need to say that it was a success for Solomon to go away. He went through the REAAP program. He was in touch with things like AVRP and things like that. And I'm just at awe with all the services that are out there that a lot of people don't know. So this ten-year initiative is the best thing to me that has happened to the streets of 51 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Philadelphia. The phones are ringing. We have over almost 300 agencies that are really producing. We set in place site visits. These organizations are doing what they say they are doing. They're trying to be the helping hands. It's just amazing that this initiative is going forth. I am glad to be a part of it. CHOICE is glad to be a part of it. We are eager and -- yesterday there was an NBC program that went out, and we have been flooded with calls today, as well as last night, for people who want to speak to Alicia. She's just so well known. But it's working, and I say that to you young men to let you know that it's not just the panel of people sitting in the front of a room and then once we leave, it's like, okay, it's over. No. We are in it to win it. Solomon has come home in January and from the optics that he's trained in, he's working at David's 52 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Visions. He's a 19-year-old in the union making $13 an hour, which I wasn't 4 making $13 an hour. And I'm not saying 5 that just -- you know what I mean? Like 6 the Congressman said, he's done a lot. 7 We've all done a lot, and it just doesn't 8 happen by osmosis. It takes work. You 9 have to put in the work. You might have 10 to work at McDonald's. You might have to 11 sing a song. You know what I mean? You 12 might have to become a people person like 13 that. I did. 14 So, again, the CHOICE hotline 15 is there. It's available. We're excited 16 about giving the help. We're doing 17 different trainings in the different 18 schools.

We're even having organizations 19 come in and train us so we know how to better serve you. So the hotline is there, and I'm glad that we're here. I'd like to thank everyone for inviting us. And it's going to work.

Thank 53 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 you. (Applause.)

One of the things we want to do is to open the floor to questions. One thing I do want to ask is that I think we have to tell our young people -- we do want to make sure that everybody remembers Lieutenant McClain is here. What Police District is this? LIEUTENANT McCLAIN: 22nd.

22nd Police District. I'm from the Northwest part of the City, Germantown, Mount Airy, Tioga, Nicetown, Logan, Chestnut Hill. We're in the 14th, 35th and 39th, so I'm not real familiar with -- we just know that Philadelphia has a lot of police districts. Do you want to say something, a few words? But one thing, while he's 54 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 coming up, is that what's important I think for young people is to know that none of us are sitting here acting like we were perfect and didn't get in trouble as we were growing up, because guess what? We did. We got punished. We got cussed at and all kinds of things by our parents and my aunts and uncles and my grandmother and everybody else. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Lieutenant. MR. McCLAIN: My name is Lieutenant McClain. I'm assigned to the 22nd District. I've been here about two years. The problems of the 22nd, from my observations, two big major problems: The open air drug sales on the corners and the gun violence, without a doubt. Fortunately, we have a great Captain assigned to the 22nd, Branville Bard, very aggressive. In response to these drug corners, we have units deployed during 55 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 our peak times to make sure they're clear. We're keeping pressure on the drug dealers, making sure they're not comfortable. As you know, where the drugs are the guns. We want to prevent these shootings. One thing I always found frustrating being here, I would go to scenes and we could never get a witness to come forward. I didn't understand that, but now I do understand it. There's fear there, and the fear is real. But there's nothing to prevent anybody from picking up the phone and letting me know what's going on. Call me at the district and give us that vital information, because that's the only way we solve these incidents, is if people step forward and they tell us what's going on. You can do that just by picking up the phone. You don't have to see me on the scene. And a lot of people do it. Your friends and your neighbors, they do call me on the QT. They do care 56 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 about their neighborhood and they do stand up and tell me what's going on. We also have a tip line. I want to make sure everybody knows the number. 683-GUNS. If you have any information concerning any illegal guns on the street, we're the experts, we'll have people investigate it and they'll follow up on every tip that they get. Any time a child is killed, that's when people have to really take a good look at themselves and say, listen, we have to step up and give out vital information. I'm here available after the meeting. If anybody has any information they would like to come forward to me, I'll make sure it gets passed along. I'm here to listen to your concerns and I will respond with action. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you, Lieutenant. 57 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 We can now open up the floor. I think we wanted to hear the young men first.

Heather is our college student, one of our many college students who work with us. Heather, you want to have the young men come up and ask their questions?

Good evening. I'm Heather. I met you all two weeks ago at West Philadelphia High School. I have three young men that are going to come up here and ask their questions, so -- four young men. They're a little nervous.

A little shy.

A little bit shy. They ain't really shy. Come on, please, ya'll. Come on, give them some support. (Applause.) 58 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155

My name is Anthony Outlaw. The question for the panel is, what is the Pennsylvania legislators doing to improve the relationship between law enforcement and the young adolescents in my community? Thank you.

You want me to repeat the question? Say it slow. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Just a little closer to the mike.

Say it slow and louder.

What is the Pennsylvania legislators doing to improve the relationship between law enforcement and the young adolescents in my community? REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: That's a good question. I don't necessarily think that -- I guess what we basically can do is really training of police officers and commanders around sort of this kind of environment we're dealing with. One of 59 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 the things that Sylvester Johnson said, the Police Commissioner, is that traditional policing will not be the way to approach. I think there is a different kind of approach. And I don't know if the Lieutenant has any thoughts or feeling, but I know that there have been police officers or commanders who have viewed different types of approaches. I mean, you may not be familiar. These are like beat officers, and I don't know if they really use beat officers -- they still do it? Usually a beat officer is a person who would know people in the neighborhood, and the more familiar that particular officer is with people in the neighborhood, nine times out of ten they tend to be much more effective in approaching issues. So from the legislative standpoint, what we try to do is really provide training sessions to police officers. We try to have schools that 60 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 are set up for police officers to look at the new techniques and what's available. Most of the local police are controlled by in the case of Councilman Juan Ramos, Councilman Darrell Clarke and Councilwoman Donna Reed, the City controls the Philadelphia Police Department. The State controls the State Police. There are 4,000 State Police, and the State Police, basically you see them in green and red -- I mean white and green cars, and the police, you see them in the -- what color is the car now? White. So basically the local Councilpeople here are dealing with the police, who basically deal with the State Police. But basically I would say, we put up money for training and development.

Councilman Clarke also wants to answer that.

Hello. 61 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Thank you. Thank you, Representative. Actually, Representative Evans is correct, is that the relationship between the local police and the Council is more so in tune than the legislators. We actually fund the Police Department in terms of our budget, so your local elected official has more of a responsibility as it relates to the police and the community. One of the things -- and I don't think there's any one answer to your question. There should be a lot of things done. I believe, like Representative Evans said, community policing, having the police officer interact with individuals, young people in the street, not by just locking them up, but when things are going well, having interaction with them, talking to them, showing some sort of relationship. One of the things that I think is important, and it's sort of an old-fashioned type of approach, and I 62 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 recently saw evidence of this in my Councilmanic District, a week ago at the Cozen PAL -- everybody heard of the PAL before, right? Police Athletic League. Back in the day, we used to get into that quite frequently. I happen to have a couple of PALs in our Councilmanic District that are very good PALs. One in particular is the Cozen PAL over in Francisville over at 17th and Wallace Street just off of Ridge Avenue, and we're fortunate enough to have one of these families who had a substantial amount of money and they took an interest in the location and they came in and they helped us renovate that facility, and as a result of that, we have local police officers. Actually, one of the police officers who runs the program is James Washington, who went to this school and grew up in this community. So he has a real relationship and an understanding of the neighborhood. And on a day-to-day 63 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 basis, people come to that facility, initially to play basketball, because there's a great gym there, and initially to get in other recreational activities. But because of that, they have an opportunity to interact with the police officer on a daily basis, and they formed that relationship, and I'm telling you, if you get a chance to go there and see how young people come in and interact, they're allowed to play basketball, but only allowed to play basketball if their homework is done. They're allowed to play other types of recreational activities, but only if they agree to learn the computer. So it's that interaction. And the police officers play that role in mentoring these young people, and they love it. I mean, you'd just be amazed at how the interaction is between police and young people in this community. So that's just one of the things that I think that we should look 64 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 at, having a common ground, something that the Philadelphia Police Department, who are individuals just like you, they just happen to be a little older and just happen to have taken that direction in their career, but they're the individuals, a lot of them grew up in neighborhoods -- most of them grew up in neighborhoods just like ours. They're required to live in the City, so they have a real sense of what the City is like. So I think if we can -- now the legislature can come. If they can help us get a little more money, they can play a role in this and help us expand some of these PAL centers along with Council. But I think that's one of the things we might be see expanding in the City of Philadelphia. (Applause.)

We have another response.

I want to echo 65 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 what was said with reference to the PAL. We actually heard that in the research, that young people really felt that PAL was a good thing in the community. So we started to engage the police in the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia to really make sure that these PALs are up and running in the community. There's one officer out of South Philadelphia that has been allowed by his Captain to really engage young people on a daily basis. It's Officer Greg Haskins, if I'm not pronouncing his name incorrectly, who is going to be working with young people on a daily basis, and he has been given this charge by his Captain. And if that pilot works, they're going to take it to other police departments. Again, to interact with them as they go to court, to interact with family issues, just to be available to young people as they need him. So we're starting to engage the police in the Blueprint for a Safer 66 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Philadelphia. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Donna, Madam Chairperson, what's good about what Alicia just said is, that puts it more on the front end, which the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia concept is what we call up front, rather than waiting until after the fact. Historically when people look at the Police Department, they tend to look at the Police Department on the back end, but what Alicia just described is -- in my view, those of us in government, the City and the State level, we have to redesign the way we invest our money. Obviously you need the back end, but you got to redirect from that front end, and it's a whole different thinking that we have to approach it.

Next question.

Next question. Speak into the mike and speak loud.

Hello. My name is Husani Wilson and I got a question for 67 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 the panel. What is the Pennsylvania legislature going to do about police brutality? And I feel that's an issue that is really never mentioned and nobody never talk about it and it happen every day.

Sometimes you have to make us aware of what's going on when it happens. It's better in Philadelphia now than it used to be years ago, and for a long time, it really died down, police brutality, most of us think, but when I hear from young people that they're being harassed or whatnot by the police, then we begin to know that it's still an issue. But if you keep it to yourself, nobody notices. I heard just yesterday from someone that when they were coming from Temple's gym at 16th and Susquehanna or Dauphin, I think, one of the gyms, that the police pulled up on them, made them roll the windows down and put guns to their head, and they hadn't done 68 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 anything. They were just coming from the gym playing. In fact, they were Temple students playing basketball. So it's kind like, wow, it's still going on. Years ago, many years, in the '70s, there was police brutality in the 14th District in my area and we had a big protest and did all kinds of things and testified in front of a federal panel regarding police abuse here in Philadelphia. It's not what it used to be, but it's evidently still going on. I don't necessarily hear it all the time. There are things that can be done, but we must know about it. Okay?

Thank you.

And there's a whole process, and I can't go through the steps right now, but maybe that's something we can have a workshop on.

Thank you.

Madam Chair, if I may, I came up as an activist 69 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 probably very close to -- how old are you?

17.

By the time I was 19, I was already an activist and I was an activist against police brutality. It was an issue that I was involved in and continue to be involved in at a different level. Today it's not that known, but a lot has changed. There are people out there that do the wrong thing, just like some of you have done the wrong thing. I've done the wrong things, right? But nowadays you can go -- and I know this is not the friendliest thing to do, but I'm just going to give you things that you can do, right? If you see anyone abused, if you see police abuse you or you become a victim of abuse, not something that you're making up, but that in fact -- just like Councilwoman said, a person was coming home from the PAL and a police officer pulled up and put a gun to his 70 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 head. It's not right. The police says it's not right. The Commissioner of the police says it is not right. You can actually walk into the Lieutenant's police district and file a complaint, but also I'm going to give you a couple other options, right? Doing that, folks are going to react most of the time just like you. I wouldn't want to go there. But there's a group that the City put together -- I think Donna Reed Miller and Councilman Clarke were around for this. I wasn't -- where this problem with police brutality had gotten to such an extent that we needed to do something by law, and because of the Councilpeople and the government in the early 1990s, there was this group put together called the Police Advisory Commission. These are folks -- and I was one of the first members of that Commission. You come to this group of people that are like people from the neighborhood and they go and take your 71 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 complaint, and you can go right to that group. You can call my office up. It is out there. They put it on radio. It's on WDAS. It's on all type of radios here in the City of Philadelphia. So you actually have places to go. If you know of anyone, call one of our offices and let us know about it. We'll tell you where to go. What I do in my office is, if you tell me that you have a complaint among the many things that we do out of my office, if you have a complaint about police brutality, I'll set up the meeting right there. And so things have changed. You do have places to go if you believe that you've been abused by a police officer.

And it's important to get information like the badge number or name, write it down, tag number or number of the car and the time as it relates to the car. Those are 72 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 important things. Trust me, we've been through this in the '70s, and you can probably do a whole workshop on how to educate the public. And I'm not trashing the police, but once the police know that people are educated in reference to what to do in those kind of situations -- I had a young man stop me the other day. He lives around the corner. Well, he hangs around the corner. He doesn't live around the corner. He drives a four-wheeler all day and half the night, and he drives everybody crazy. And everybody here knows that they're illegal to drive in the City, and everywhere we go as Councilmembers, we hear complaints about four-wheelers. So this one young man has a four-wheeler. There's four of them. The police know him. Everybody knows him. He stopped me. A lot of the kids in my neighborhood call me Aunt Donna. Aunt Donna, these police officers keep harassing us. 73 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 What are they doing? So he explained it to me, and I won't go through the whole story now, but the bottom line is, he wants to get off the corners. He wants to get his GED. He wants to get a job. But I told him, I said, You're riding that illegal bike through the street. The police can't chase you. He's smart enough that it's registered in New Jersey, so they can't take it, because it's registered and it's legal in New Jersey. So he has a whole bunch of things, but you have to get the information. And most of the time I believe if it's the same police officer, like it is in his situation, he knows exactly who it is, but it is important to get the information what you need, and you can get help. The other thing is, just don't have a smart mouth.

Thank you. We 74 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 need to continue on.

Just ask the officer from District 22. I've never been in this situation, but I know people who have. What information are we privy to? What questions can we ask? I mean, I've seen a lot of movies where a gentleman is stopped or a lady is stopped and they ask certain questions, and police don't respond. So what information, what things can we do, say, for instance, if we're in a situation? Can we ask for the badge number? Can we ask what district he's from, or what steps do we go through once we're being harassed or once someone is being harassed? LIEUTENANT McCLAIN: First, I'd like to say every complaint is fully investigated by Internal Affairs. So if you come in and make a complaint, it's not put in the trash can. We can't get rid of them. They are fully investigated by Internal Affairs. 75 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 When an officer stops you, you could ask why you were stopped. Let the officer do his job. Officer safety is paramount. You see that two days ago an officer was shot in the mouth down in South Philadelphia. It's dangerous out there, a lot of guns. The officer can give you his badge number, the reason for the stop, but ask these questions at the completion of the investigation. I think that's the best way, so he can get through the investigation safely and then proceed that way. What happened at 16th and Susquehanna, I don't know what happened. I'm not familiar with it. From what you tell me, the officer is acting on information that he received. He doesn't arbitrarily go up to a car and pull guns on people. That's my read on the situation. They received information about an incident, and maybe they matched the information or the description, but 76 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 that's probably what happened there. It wasn't arbitrary pulling out guns on innocent people.

It's a car with out-of-town tags, tinted windows. They made the occupants get out. They searched. They looked for guns. They looked for drugs. There was none. LIEUTENANT McCLAIN: Right. There's always that balance. I mean, you want to protect the rights of the citizens and you want to go out and get the criminals, and we always try to maintain that balance. It's a tough job.

I just want to make one suggestion, and, actually, this is to the Councilmembers. As it relates to the Police Advisory Council, following up on Councilman Ramos's response, it's probably something that we need to look at to mandate that there is a representative from a youth organization or something, because right 77 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 now I don't think it's structured. I think primarily -- (Applause.)

-- it's a group of adults and there is no young people on the current Police Advisory Commission. So we probably should require that it's a little more representative of some of the people who find themselves involved in some of these problems. So we will make sure that we address that locally and among the City Council and possibly a mandate that there is -- I think since we're kind of like in control of City Council, we mandate that one of the memberships or a number of the memberships be set aside for members of the youth groups or something like that who are representative.

That's a good idea.

Thank you.

You're 78 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 welcome. MR. McCLARY: Hello. My name is Kadeem McClary and my question for the panel is actually responding to one of the topics that Mr. Evans had appointed. When you said that the guns aren't firing themselves, it's the young people behind them. Working on the mindsets of young people, my question is, what can be done to change the mindset of young people to stop them from being the cause of these guns being used? Because from my experience, I personally believe that counselors from these programs is better in placement and has a more stronger impact.

Yes, and you're absolutely right and it is the mindset of young men. I think that that's something that actually needs to be changed. I think one of the biggest issues is learning or knowing how to resolve conflict. There's not anything wrong with being angry, but when you react in a 79 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 certain way, you get yourself into trouble. I get angry all the time, but I know how to resolve conflict, and I think we need to be educated practically on that. We need to be educated in such a way that when we're in a situation, know how to get out of it. We need to be educated to the point of where we take certain classes where there is anger management or what-have-you and we seek the help, the young men seek the help. There are a lot of -- as someone on the panel said, there are a lot of services out there, but, unfortunately, a lot of the community don't know about those services, and one thing that we want to do here at IDAAY is bring the services to the community, and with AVRP, that's exactly what we're doing. So you're absolutely right. Counseling does help and it is definitely the mindset of the individual, not the 80 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 gun itself. But I am behind taking guns off the street. Don't get me wrong. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: One of the things I want to say, this has been an issue that I ran the losing campaign on and I tried to educate people. I want you to understand something, when the Constitution was written and that Second Amendment was written, it was written in a different time, and I've tried to explain to people that people think that the answer is that everybody should have a gun. We should be Baghdad. We should be Baghdad. Now, do you think anybody is safer in Baghdad? Because in Baghdad, everybody has a gun. Everybody has a gun. They walk the streets outwardly. You name it, from kids to -- everybody has a gun. And at some point -- and I really believe this, not just in the state, but in the country -- we have to come to the realization that the combination of that weaponry being 81 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 available and even from the aspect of road rage, something simply as somebody trying to cut somebody off, that unfortunately they don't attempt to negotiate or have a discussion. I would argue we're going through this in an international way. There's a nut with a nuke. There's a nut with a nuke in North Korea, and I'm trying to explain to you, the same way we talk about on an international level those with nuclear weapons. Now, it's ironic that as a country we're arguing again he shouldn't have this nuke. The fact of the matter is, it don't take much for somebody to get that. That's the only point I'm trying to make. And that anger management aspect is the first thing that somebody -- I was listening to the number of young men who said they had a gun, and I'm trying to understand the psychological aspect of having a gun. Is it about giving you a sense a power, a 82 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 sense of control? And if it gives you a sense of power and control -- because one of two things are going to happen. Either you're going to get hurt or somebody else is going to get hurt. Either you're going to get hurt or somebody else is going to get hurt. So even when we're trying to deal with this as mental health -- because I do see this as a question of mental health. I really do. I really do, when people think that because you do have a gun and the sense of power that you think it gives you, when in reality, it could be one of two, you're dead, that person is dead or you're in jail. And I just think that we need to talk about that. I mean, that's why for me there needs to be some form of regulations about -- we are pushing a policy in Harrisburg to say that you can only buy one gun in a 30-day period, 30-day period, which means that you still could get 12 guns a year. If you get the 83 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES.

051155 family pack, you can get 24. Family pack, 24, kids, whatever. I was on the radio station, I was on the BBC radio station in London. They asked me to do an interview, and when I told them about one gun a month, they said to me, Are you serious? In London, they're much more stricter. In Japan, they're much more stricter. So the attitude is, we figure we get a minimum when we say one gun. So I really raise some serious questions about having a discussion about this and really people understanding when you have the amount of weaponry that's on the street and when people have very short fuses, and it don't take much, they looked at my girlfriend, they took my wallet, they took my watch, they stepped on my shoe, they did whatever, and then death is a result. When the Lieutenant was speaking, look, I got to give the police -- you want to talk about 84 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 dangerous? It is very dangerous if you walk out on the street and you don't know the kind of weaponry that they have versus what the weaponry you have. So I can give you an argument about, well, it's not the gun, it's the people. I think we just have too much weaponry. That's my own personal opinion. I don't ever think in my lifetime I will ever see that there will be a mindset, because, unfortunately, I got to tell you -- President Reagan, there was an assassinated attempt on him in, I think it was, 1983, '83, '81. You know, it's interesting. It shows you that not even the President of the United States, who had an assassinated attempt on him -- and what happened was, his press person was the one who got hit. And then that came about the Brady bill. Thirteen years it took to get that passed. So to me what that shows is, here you got the President of the United 85 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 States going to a particular thing that happened. So the level of violence that we have as a society, we really got to have some real serious conversation about that. )

Just a question for you young man. You mentioned that counseling does help. I'm very adamant about hearing from you guys, hearing from teenagers. How has this program helped you? MR. McCLARY: For one, I think about almost everything before I even make my decision now. A lot of people are in for making bad decisions and not thinking. So they educate us mentally, too. And, two, they also show us that there is people out here that care about us, because basically we feel like everybody is against us. And like a lot of reasons why people got guns on the streets, I don't know how ya'll look at 86 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 it, but we have guns based on emotions. It's either out of greed, anger, sympathy and fear. Like a lot of people don't live the life we live, and the program basically just opened up to us and see how we feel, and once you get open with somebody and you grow a relationship, then you can be open for help.

There you go. That's it right there. (Applause.)

How ya'll doing?

We're doing all right.

My name is Malik Lewis. I would like to ask the panel, I would like to ask the Pennsylvania legislators, how can ya'll help reduce the high level of guns and drugs in our neighborhoods? ) REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: My sense of drugs is, I don't think that is an issue that if anybody up here has -- I 87 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 think there's two aspects of drugs. Obviously there's individuals who choose to sell drugs. That's one aspect of it. And then there's individuals who use drugs. And I think that clearly there is two different strategies that you're approaching. The whole aspect of individuals who choose to use drugs, historically the way we've been trying to deal with it is looking at it as a disease and an addiction and trying to basically use a health approach rather than a criminal justice approach, but a criminal justice approach can still be used, but primarily when people are using drugs, it's tended to be used from an addiction. From the sale of drugs, obviously that is a crime, because drugs are not legal. At least selling them is not legal, and it's clear that in terms of the attachment we have there is the criminal justice. Now, Alicia just said to me 88 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 about jobs. I kind of got mixed feelings about that in this respect. I do understand that we need to create more economic in jobs, but I have never seen somebody force somebody to sell drugs. Let me repeat that. I have never seen somebody force somebody to sell drugs. It's a question of a choice. Now, I'll be the first one to say to you that I understand about the aspect of the economy and the jobs and the quality of jobs, but what's unfortunate, which I think some people don't want to deal with, is that question about personal responsibility. And I don't think you can get away with that. I think today more than ever before -- there's no reason for somebody to shoot somebody in the head for no reason at all. I could tell you about -- I represent West Oak Lane. It must have been on Ogontz and Tulpehocken about a couple weeks ago. A guy riding his bike. Just driving his bike. He rides between 89 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 two guys who just start shooting at each other. They shoot him in the head. He had a family. Now, unfortunately, the first thing somebody thought was because he was an African-American male, the first thing they thought was he was involved in drugs, and when they investigated, he was not involved in drugs. He was just on his way home, and two individuals just started shooting and he got shot in the head. Now, who has any justification for that under any circumstances? Nobody. How do you explain that kind of behavior? So I think that we got to start speaking to this issue. I think that we got to start speaking to this issue, because that is just not acceptable behavior, not in a civilized society. And I don't care if you turn around and talk about the system is unfair or races or sexes and it's just not right. The 90 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 fact of the matter is, there is no 3 justification under any circumstances, unless somebody is coming directly at you. It isn't. We got to speak to that, too. We got to talk about personal responsibility. I don't hear enough of personal responsibility people talking about. Because, unfortunately -- there was a story in the Inquirer a couple weeks ago and they were talking about they had about eight African-Americans and one Latino and they were talking about each of the ones who had gone to prison at 15 was in there for life. I don't think anybody understands what it means to be in prison for life. At most of your ages that you're in, I don't think anybody understand what it means to be -- and in this state, let me be very clear, in this state, you serve your time. There is no such thing as parole. You don't get out on parole. There's 43,000 people in the Pennsylvania system, 91 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES.

051155 and the fastest growing group is African-American men. Prisons will be built. More prisons will be built. More prisons will be built. More individuals will go to prison. So don't let anybody tell you that they will not be broke.

Can I ask you a question? When you said it's like 4,000 people -- REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Forty-three thousand.

Forty-three thousand black males in the -- REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: No. 17 It's 43,000 in total. The fastest growing group is African-American male.

Well, when you said that, that all of us in prison, I think that's because if you go in the suburbs like in Abington, you won't find no 23 liquor stores every three blocks away, but if you go in South Philly, you'll find a liquor store every three blocks 92 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 away, like a deli. You go in Abington or Darby, you won't find none of that, or like in Sharon Hill, you won't find no 5 liquor stores, no people with guns on the corner like that. But if you go in the hood, like the hood, like really like in South Philly, West Philly and North Philly, you will see all that. Why is it only in our communities? (Applause.) REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Can I ask you a question? Has anybody forced you to go in that liquor store?

No, but -- REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Can anybody force you to go in that liquor store? Seriously, one, you would not be old enough to go into that store, because the law is you must be years of age, 21 so you can't go in the liquor store.

If I could interrupt, please. You said that no one forces you to sell drugs and no one forces you to go into liquor stores, but 93 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 no one forces you physically. No one is going to push him into a liquor store. No one is going to push him on a corner, but there's other economic, socioeconomic issues and just social illnesses within North Philly, South Philly, West Philly that forces these kids on the streets. They're forced into selling drugs because they're not getting a proper education. They're forced into liquor stores because they don't have people supporting them and around them. Like I think -- I just got real upset when you like said that no 15 one is forcing these kids. These kids are in like -- (Applause.)

Like these kids are coming from homes and coming from like areas where they're not able to thrive and live. They don't live in Abington. I never grew up in the hood. I had people supporting me, and because I had people supporting me, that's where I 94 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 am, I'm in college. These kids don't have that same support. They have liquor stores on every corner, like they said. Those are the things that are forcing them. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Do you think -- (Applause.) REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Excuse me.

There are --

Like it wasn't a question. I don't have a question. That was my comment. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Can I finish up first, because the purpose of -- and the Chairperson -- this is good discussion, because --

It sure is. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Because I have a different point of view, like you --

Listen to the 95 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 youth, please, ya'll.

Well, that's what we're doing. We are here to listen to the youth and we're here to respect everybody's opinion. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Exactly. The only thing --

Ya'll politicians get to talk all the time how you felt. Please, listen to the --

Excuse me. Didn't I call on them before you?

You sure did.

So that was the purpose, so we can hear from them. We wanted to hear from them, and we're doing that. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Excuse me for one second. Excuse me one second. Can I say something for a second? Because I think it's important. Obviously I've heard you. I have a point of view. You have a point view. We have a point of view where we 96 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 agree to disagree. If you're listening to what I'm trying to express to you --

There's murder and mayhem continues in our City --

Ma'am.

Excuse me. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: The only point that I'm trying --

They keep talking over and over again, spending millions of dollars. We have more murder and mayhem in Strawberry Mansion in the last three months than ever. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: The point -- (Applause.)

I'm going to shut up and leave out of here. That's what I'm going to do. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: The point --

Ya'll are not listening to these youth. 97 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: The point that I'm attempting to make -- and I heard your message loud and clear. The only point that I'm attempting to make, and I hope ya'll listen to this carefully, please. I'm going to say please.

No. Ya'll talk too much. Ya'll talk too much.

Mark.

You need to listen. Ya'll talk too much. Ya'll need to hear us. Ya'll need to hear us. This is a hearing for us, not for us to hear ya'll.

Excuse me. I need to say something. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: The reason that I --

Dwight Evans, can I say something? REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Sure.

Young people, I was talking to Donna Reed Miller right 98 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 here and she's indicating that we need to set up another session where we can really come and talk and listen, and what Darrell Clarke said is brilliant. We know we do this all the time, right, guys? When we settle in in our classes, we don't find adults listening to you guys. They're not listening. You guys are frustrated with this stuff. (Applause.)

But you do have a group that's beginning to listen here. Dwight Evans is the biggest supporter. He is the biggest supporter here. So although I know there's a lot of anger around this kind of topic and Darrell Clarke is seeing, we need young people on these committees so you guys can be heard. I hear the frustration, but let's let him finish the comment and let's figure out -- we do need to get out of here. We do have a bus waiting for us, because all you guys need to be home 99 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 by 9:30, right? So let's hear Dwight finish his comments and let's figure out how we can connect to being with Donna Reed Miller so we can continue this dialogue at another time and let's be respectful for a second. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Archye, thank you. I want to thank you for that. I don't want you to lose one thing that I think is very important, and I'm going to keep going back to it, the issue about responsibility. I'm going to --

Let them hold responsibility. We heard --

Mark. Mark.

Can we -- REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: I'm going to keep raising that word, and the reason I'm going to keep raising that word is because I want you to really understand this. I've been in the legislature since 1980. We started out with 8,000 people in prison. I'm trying 100 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 to explain to you that these policies that are being passed, when you start talking about 40,000 people in prison, predominantly the vast majority are African-American males, I'm trying to explain to you that I don't think that that's the way we want to go. Now, the reason I talk about responsibility is because you want to avoid prison. Now, I'm going to be the first one to say to you, I don't believe that the school system is providing the kinds of options of education. I'll be the first one to say that to you. However, I still want to talk about the issue of responsibility. You cannot -- now, I understand folks applaud and they do all that. At the end of the day, may it be drugs, may it be guns, may it be sex or any other aspect of it, folks, you got to look at the aspect of responsibility. You can't ignore that. You cannot ignore that. Now, you can say all you want 101 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 to say to us. You can applaud. You can make yourself feel good, but at the end of the day, you still can't ignore the fact about responsibility. I said this to Councilman Ramos, I said, when I looked at that line, you know the level of pain personally that it brings to me to see the vast majority of African-American male and I think I saw two Latino males standing in that line. Do you understand what that means for a community and a neighborhood? Do you understand you're not going to grow a community or neighborhood if you have that many African-American males going through what's happened? You're never going to grow a community. You're never going to grow a community. So you can ignore that. You can say whatever you want to say, but the fact of the matter is responsibility. Now, I'm not saying what government got to do, but I ain't trying to tell you -- 102 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 do me a favor. Listen to what I have to say, because I grew up at 16th and Sydenham. I grew up at 16th and Sydenham. I understand that. So I'm saying to you, I'm trying to give you the benefit of my knowledge and my experience. That's all I'm trying to do. It's a choice that you will make based on what you hear me say. You can choose to listen to it or you can choose not to listen to it. And if you make bad choices, if you make bad choice, there's going to be consequences. Come to the mike. Why don't you come to the mike.

But, Dwight, I got to say, though, on behalf of my young men, they have to be taught these things. They have to be given the resources. My guys are getting frustrated just listening. I mean, you're our greatest supporter and I personally know that, but my young men here, I can feel the energy, because I work with them. We worked with 103 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 700 of these guys over the past nine years, and I'm telling you, they -- you know what I mean? You are right, it is personal, but it's personal responsibility after you have been taught, after the school has been right, after the streets have been safer and the police doesn't harass you. You know, these guys, they have a lot of anger because they just have been given a bad deal. That's all I got to say for these guys, but I don't want to -- guys, we don't want a riot here, right? Let's go back to the classroom and get support, and we'll come back to City Hall.

Before you leave, we do want to say that we're glad you came.

I want ya'll to sit down and listen. I want ya'll to hear me.

To the young people that are leaving, thank you 104 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 for coming. Thank you for sharing your questions, and we do want to continue this dialogue. All right? REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Thank you for coming.

Thank you for coming. We can continue on, because we do have to be out of the school by a certain time. The next person can step up to the mike.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Mark Ensley. I am a youth worker with the AVRP program. I currently have one of my young partners here with me. Came from a Home and School Council meeting before I came to this meeting. They don't know about AVRP.

Who doesn't know about AVRP?

Parents, administrators, teachers.

You're 105 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 talking about at the School Council?

The hood in general. I start there and go to the hood. Point being, which leads to my question, what is being done to increase awareness about this program so that it is a household name that people know that it's something to be tapped into? Before that question, I have to repeat the brothers' questions that came up here, because we had one response directly to their questions. The rest sounded like a filibuster and political rhetoric. They asked, what are legislators doing, not what they are trying, what should they be doing, but what are legislators doing to improve relations between law enforcement and young people? I heard about a beat cop, et cetera, but the question was, what are legislators doing? The second question was, what can be done to change the mindset? What can be done? I'm sorry. That was the 106 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 third question. The second question or the third person, how can you reduce the high level of guns and drugs in our neighborhood? I know this is being recorded, so I'm asking you, please read the transcripts, answer the questions directly and stop telling them what they need to do, and tell us what ya'll are going to do.

Well, you may be --

Can I say something about how the message is getting out? REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Mark, how do you think you're getting paid?

Thank you.

I'm here by the grace of God. I could lose my job after what I did tonight. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Mark, my question is -- 107 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155

So God be the glory. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Mark, my question is --

But I'm here for the kids. I'm a youth advocate, first and foremost. I know legislators pass bills to get money down to these programs, but the answer -- and listen to the kids directly. That's why they're shooting each other. That's why they're not listening to ya'll, because we're not listening to them, and I feel their frustration and their pain. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Mark, I'm answering your question.

You asked me a question. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: I'm asking how you think you're getting paid. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Oh, seriously, Dwight -- REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: No, seriously, Mark. 108 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155

Legislators pass laws to allocate money for the budget for the City to spend on DHS or who do not have a job, et cetera. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Exactly. You asked the question. You asked the question. You said what exactly are legislators doing --

I repeated their question so that you could think about it. My question was, what are ya'll going to do to increase awareness of AVRP so that it becomes a household name? That's my question. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: I just explained to you, if you're listening to me, if you're listening to me, I just explained to you what we're doing. The program that you're working for, we are funding, 100 percent from the State. I want you to understand that, Mark. We are funding that program.

That's past tense and present. I'm asking about the future 109 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 to increase awareness. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Mark, you know what --

I heard about MEE Productions. Great. We need more of that. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Mark, we have invested $30 million. Your program is one of the programs being funded.

I understand that. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Well, if you ask me a question and you want to be fair and you ask the question about what exactly are we doing --

To increase awareness.

Your program is inside the database. It has --

It's not in the streets. It's not in people's minds. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Mark --

It's got to start somewhere.

As Director of 110 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 the program in North Philadelphia and, Mark, you being my -- WAYNE: You're the advocate. You get out there and you educate the people. Don't ask --

I am. I am. I am, brother. I carry a big black book bag with brochures. I go to Home and School --

First of all --

And I come here to hold our legislators accountable, which I here from the people that I go and do the outreach. They say, Hold them accountable, and that's what I'm doing here now. I'm not --

Let me ask you the AVRP piece. Excuse me, Dwight. As Director of AVRP, our clients are being referred to us. So, Mark, you know yourself we have a responsibility as AVRP in North Philadelphia. Because we are funded, we 111 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 are funded, which is them helping us, which is the State helping us. At that point, they are giving us the responsibility to become a disease, a good disease, and to go to the homes and to do the intakes and to do the assessment and for it to spread. We've been given a responsibility and the power to do that. Now, the other questions State Representative Dwight Evans can answer, but from an AVRP perspective, it's our responsibility. It's my responsibility. I'll take responsibility to spread the word in our areas. And I understand how you feel, because you've experienced some things and you do have a heart. You're one of my best workers, and you have a heart for these kids, but at the same time, too, let me and you and the staff take on the responsibility to spread the news about what we're doing, because we are funded and we have the money to do that and we have the time to do that and 112 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 resources to do that. So the other questions is for everyone else on the panel, but AVRP, it's our responsibility for our areas. REPRESENTATIVE EVANS: Mark, let me finish and I'll read off and give you a copy. Safer Neighborhoods in the City, million; Violence Reduction 10 Partnership, 250,000; Witness Relocation, 11 a million; Local Police Task Force, 5 million; Parent Involvement, 1.7 million; Pennsylvania Injury Reporting, 1.5 million; Patrol Philly Interstate, 7.5 million; Gun Court, 700,000. Twenty-eight million nine hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. The program that you work for is under the category of $11 million. You don't receive $11 million. So in order for him to do what he does, we pass the buck to him. We pass it to the City Council. They, in turn, are folks like yourself. Your job is just as Wayne said, for you to go out there and 113 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 advocate. That's what you do. That's how you get paid. I don't know you, and you don't know me. We first can't have a level of hostility towards each other. I equally want to do something about violence as much as you. Now, I understand your anger. Your anger can't be no more than my anger when I see the level of what's happening in this community. So what I ask you to do, first thing we should do is to listen to each other and, in my view -- you said something about political rhetoric. I don't know you and you don't know me. So it's hard to make a judgment about somebody you don't know. That's all I was trying to say. And I still go back to the part about mutual respect for each other, because if you don't have mutual respect, we will never be able to solve anything. And I don't have a problem with your passion. I think your passion is correct. The only aspect is how you 114 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 channel passion when we work together. Now, we have done of these 4 hearings, 11 of them. We've been to 11 5 schools. Eleven schools we've been to. 6 We've been on listening tours in the 7 City. We had a session in Harrisburg 8 three days on guns. We did that. Now we 9 collectively have been trying to do 10 everything that's humanly possible. The 11 only thing I might tell you, since you're older than the ones that left, how we conduct ourselves is very important as how they conduct themselves. That's all I'm saying. And I'm not questioning your passion. So I want you to be clear. I'm not questioning your passion.

Also, can I add, too? When I first started to talk, I mentioned that just because the simple fact that we're up here at this panel means that we want to help, and I think that there are different components in resolving this issue. I think the Councilpeople bring something, we bring 115 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 something, AVRP brings something, State Representative brings something. We all bring something different, which is why different people are here to work on resolving the issue. Now, the thing is is that you can't talk to me about legislature because I don't know anything about legislature. All I know is that, hey, we're here to connect and service the people, and they're in place to put forth legislation and change laws. Now, to pose different questions that he can't answer that I can answer, let me answer them. Pose questions to me about legislature, I can't answer them. So what I'm saying is that we're all in this together and we're coming from different directions, but we have the same goal.

And I just need to augment this. You go to look around the room now. All the young folk left. Who is here -- wait a minute. 116 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155

I have my youth partner here.

Okay. And that's fine, but I'm still beyond that. Can you just listen? Just listen.

I have to take them home.

And that's fine, but I got one comment. It's about adult involvement. We know what young people are doing.

See, Mark --

Adult involvement.

-- she's speaking to you.

I have to call his mother to let her know why we're past 8:30.

And his mother should be here so you would not have to call her. It's adult involvement. We have to get adults in this game. We 117 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 can't solve all the young people's problems at a minimum. We have to be able to engage adults in this game. So when you go home and you talk to your neighbors, the next hearing, have adults at these hearings. We got to have adults in this game to assist us with working with young people. It is about adult involvement. (Applause.)

This is all about the community, parents, elected officials, everybody. It's not just one group.

And it's not young people.

And if we're not going to all do this together, it's not going to work.

Donna, I just want to say something for a minute. AVRP, excellent program. The moment I saw brochures and I heard when the Mayor revealed this program, 118 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 excellent program. I can't get enough of your brochures, because I've done mailings, I've given them out on corners. I got some left in my car. They're being translated into Spanish. We've talked to parents. I personally have talked to parents. Drugs are all over the place. When you least expect it, they'll pop up. They popped up in my neighborhood, right? And I don't live too far away from here. But this is a very good program, Mr. Barnett. It is a program that we need to get out, and we all have a role to play, whatever that role may be. We all have to make sure that these programs get out to families that can utilize these programs. They're funded by the State. We believe the City Council and the City give each good programs. Let's make them work.

But the key to what you're saying is the word "we." This is a "we." This is not about 119 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 just elected officials. This is clearly --

We all have responsibility.

Yes. Yes, ma'am. You're next.

Good evening. Buenos Noches. I'm Kristin Shipler. I'm the Director of the Civic Engagement with Congreso de Latinos Unidos, and I'm here to talk to you tonight. I brought written testimony, but I'm not going to bore you with it because this night has been really interesting. And I'm sorry the group had left, because I did have a few suggestions on how the youth can come to the table a little more concretely and to talk about another point that I have. Congreso is an AVRP program. We have just extended our program, so we're very excited to expand that effort in the Latino community. We have mentoring programs. We have leadership development. We're a part of the 120 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 Coalition to End Handgun Violence. We have a Latino Juvenile Justice Network. We have substance abuse programs, mental health programs, domestic violence programs, parenting programs. We have a Youth Advisory Commission. We have truancy programs. We have an E3 center. We have workforce development. We're really trying to address violence from a holistic perspective, and I'm glad to hear that everybody is looking at that as well here tonight. There are a couple of suggestions that I wanted to give the youth, but I guess I'll go ahead and say it so they end up on the record. The Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth are trying to bring a Youth Advisory Commission to the City Council, and I think they're signing petitions right now. Anybody can sign that petition. If they want to bring youth to the table with City Council, this is really one concrete way to do it. 121 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 We also are holding a Know Your Rights workshop in -- we're in the 24th and 25th Police Districts where we have a lot of violence. And the Latino Juvenile Justice Network on November 18th from 7 to 4 o'clock, we're having a Know Your 8 Rights workshop with the Police Advisory 9 Commission. They are working with our 10 Youth Advisory Committee, who are 11 co-facilitating, preparing everything, so 12 that kids and parents, because you mentioned bringing parents to the table, everybody is going to be there so that they know their rights in the interactions that they have with the police. And we also have a Police Youth Task Force, and we met with Commissioner Johnson about this. So I think that's important to know. But one thing I don't think that we've mentioned tonight, which is really important and what Congreso is seeking to do -- and I should have 122 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 mentioned that we are a Blueprint partner. We had 50 workshops and touched over 700 youth with the Blueprint, and it was a really great program, and I would personally like to see how we can continue that work with you all. But we also --

It is a ten-year program, so you do have --

Yes. So I'm very excited that hopefully there's still an opportunity for us. But one other thing that I want to mention is that we need to celebrate youth. We had a Hype Festival over the summer that the youth planned and created, where they had music and art and dance, and we took over a street block just to celebrate youth, and I think we need more of those kinds of opportunities. When the School District is only offering physical education one time a week -- these kids have a lot of 123 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 energy. You saw them moving in their seats. They need more outlets for sports. They need more outlets for recreation. We need more recreation centers in some of these neighborhoods where we're working. And so that's what I would like to put forward, and thank you for listening.

Thank you. There are plans, for example, in my district, the Waterloo Recreation Center is actually going to end up being a real cultural and arts hub with dance right now that's going on, dance, voice, music lessons. We're getting ready to do a recording studio. We're going to do culinary arts. It's a big old rec center with lots of space. So those kind of things are going on. Maybe not in every neighborhood, but that's a place where they're going to look for children from City-wide to attend. So there's lots of things going on that we all may not know about 124 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 collectively, but we do know individually, and eventually once these programs are up and they're in the directory, like MEE Productions is putting together, then that's how the information and word will get out.

And then one other way that we're celebrating youth, because we know that that's a critical component, the Blueprint actually has a major component called the Great Vine, where we will actually be highlighting what young people are doing in the community. The difficulty about spreading the word is that the media only gives us the negative. So we as a community will start to spread the word about the positive, because we know that a small segment of young people are doing the bad things, but there's a larger segment of young people that are doing some wonderful things. With that said, we're going to 125 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 put that out there in a newsletter, on the Internet and try to get them in the media with reference to telling their story. If you know of young people who are doing some positive things, you want to either submit their story in writing via mail or submit their story through the website, www.phillyblueprint.com. They can submit their story. Anybody can submit their story. Again, we want to highlight the positive.

Great. Can I respond to that real quick? (Loudspeaker in background.)

We're not sure who that message is for. However --

I just want to mention that there's a bilingual Latino magazine coming up for youth. It's called Motivos. It's coming out in November, and I think it will be really important to highlight the Great Vine in that magazine.

We couldn't make 126 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 that cutoff in November. We're trying to prepare for February. I talked to her. She has one coming out in February. We're going to make February.

I do need to say it is 9:10.

Yeah. Good evening. I just want to make this point, get on the record, please.

All right. Thank you.

I just want to reference your Blueprint that Representative Williams -- I'm sorry; Representative Evans talked about. I notice here you have No. 2, Violence Reduction Partnership. It wasn't funded in 2004. It wasn't funded in 2005. Here it is. It has the lowest amount of funding from everything else. It only has $250,000. So when you start referencing that, that's what I want to look at. It's supposed to affect the 127 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 mentally ill people, the people that are illegal and all out of order. Why isn't that funded? That's my first question. Secondly, you talk about parents being here tonight. I will say it's, what, 150 people here? This whole auditorium should be filled up. You all did not do a very good job of outreaching. When you want to run around, having people come to picnics and whatnot, you do a major job of running it over and over and over on radio. I seen it in newspapers. I get e-mails, all of that. But if you were interested in parents coming tonight, you would have done a better job of outreaching to the parents so they could have been here. We have had more murder and mayhem in this very community within less than a mile from this very school, and for people not to have filled up this auditorium shows me something is out of order. You all do a lot of talk and you all are the professionals. You have the 128 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 money to be able to tell somebody, look, we're funding this, that and the other. Whatever you're doing, it's not working. So we need to rethink it. You need to listen to youth and others that are not in your little small circle of people that think all alike. Ya'll all think alike. That's why you have murder and mayhem in our community and we not getting no resolve. I am not willing to accept what you all are offering, with all due respect to you. I hear you. I hear you talking. I'm willing to work with you. I'm doing my best as a business owner reaching out to the youth that come to my door. I'm at Lambert and Susquehanna Avenue, in the heart of the neighborhood. That's where I live. I'm not going anywhere and I'm willing to stay and do whatever is necessary, but you all definitely must listen, and then you must put money where it really can be effective. 129 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 For instance -- and I'm going to get off with this. In the 22nd District, you talked about Captain Bard. Captain Bard was full in the lead with the Narcotics Division. I know darn well with drug corners from years ago, he 8 should know much more about what the heck 9 is going on on these corners than the 10 average citizens. Then when these boys 11 and girls that have information and want 12 to play around with illegal guns and 13 whatnot, you all know more about these 14 people than we do, the average citizens. 15 Why isn't something being done about 16 illegal guns, as those youth asked you 17 all, and drugs all on our street? You 18 all know how this stuff gets in. We got 19 stop and go's on every corner. That's a 20 State agency law that they came through. They came down by State law. I'm just saying this to you all. You all want us to work with you all? Don't play us stupid. Thank you.

Your 130 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 comments are the last comments because we have to leave.

I just want to say something to this young lady so she hears me. I represent Men United for a Better Philadelphia, and we're all over the City. You're speaking about Lambert and Susquehanna, which is a notorious corner. We have been to that corner several times, 20th and Susquehanna, Lambert and Susquehanna, Uber and Susquehanna, 18th and Susquehanna, 18th and Cumberland. We're out there all the time. So I don't understand where she's coming from saying that we're not giving help. We're getting help from the political arena, and without your help, Men United can't exist. And I had to say it, because I was going to leave, but I'm tired of hearing this rhetoric about what you're not doing. What they need to do is go to school, get their education, get off those corners like we ask them to. Then the violence will go down. But they 131 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 won't go to school. I'm also the Coordinator for -- I'm the Regional Coordinator for Safe Schools and Safe Corridors in North Central. I cover ten schools every day. We have men stationed around the school every day, every afternoon. And the violence in Strawberry Mansion only arrives because the people won't step up and speak up. And she's from Susquehanna Avenue? When the young man got killed at Uber and Susquehanna, she never uttered a word. Never. Now, I wish she had stayed here so I can tell her that. Thank you all, Councilwoman Reed.

You know I see you out here all the time with Men United and on everything. You're available and you're around. Wayne, are you trying to get to the mike? WAYNE: Yeah.

One 132 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 minute. WAYNE: I'm the only one probably coming here that don't get no 5 money.

Thank you for coming. WAYNE: I just want to say, Rep, that listening to the young men speaking tonight and where, once again, they didn't want to take responsibility, right? Because he get paid for that. And I would like to provide some training to him and your other guys that you got as advocates. They need some organizing training so they can go out there and organize the folks to do the right thing.

Thank you. Thank you all for coming. Again, this is an official City Council hearing, and this joint Committee of Public Safety and Public Health and Human Services is recessed until October 25, 2006, 7:00 p.m. at Bartram's Main High 133 10/19/06 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 051155 School. Again, thank you all for coming. (Committees on Public Safety and Public Health and Human Services adjourned at 9:15 p.m.) - - - 134 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on October 19, 2006, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)