COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA JOINT COMMITTEES ON PUBLIC SAFETY AND THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Monday, April 29, 2019 2:21 p.m. PRESENT: COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. - CHAIR COUNCILMAN WILLIAM K. GREENLEE
Ladies and gentleman, good afternoon. This hearing is now called to order. We have with me myself, Councilman Curtis Jones and Councilman Greenlee. I first want to thank you all for coming out to this very important hearing. This is a continuation of the first hearing where we had the Mayor's Office testify March where they 10 were presenting their anti-violence reduction 11 strategy by Ms. Garrett-Harley, who is the 12 Managing Director for Public Safety. 13 Today's floor will be given to our 14 community activist who provide -- to provide 15 public comment on the Mayor's plan. There 16 are -- we view you as our boots on the ground. 17 We view you as the front line, and want to get 18 your insights and comments on that Violence Reduction Plan. Want to welcome you and thank you for what you have done and what, God willing, you will do in the future. I also have -- Councilman Green, would you like to say anything?
If not, we are going to begin the hearing. Ms. Williams, would you, please, announce the first panel to testify.
The first panel to testify, and just know that we are going a little bit out of order from your witness list, would be Bilal Qayyum, Mike OG Law Tabob and Stanley Crawford.
Thank you. Please approach the witness table. Always say your name for the record. We are not going to put a limit on testimony if we are within, like, eight to ten minutes. That would be great. But thank you. (Panel approaches Witness Table.)
Good afternoon, Councilman Jones and Councilman Greenlee. My name is Bilal Qayyum. I'm President of the Father's Day Rally Committee. I am glad, Councilman, you said that there is no time limit. I can give my Fidel Castro speech. " And I think everybody in this audience and this Council today probably feel that way, the way I do. My testimony is going to be more about recommendations. We all know the problems. We all know that 95 percent of all shootings in Philadelphia are Black and Latino. And we can talk about the numbers, but that's not going to solve that. So, I want to get right into my recommendations regarding the plan that the Mayor and the staff -- that staff produced and also some other things I think can be done to help resolve the violence problem in the City of Philadelphia. First of all, in the plan, it's a part that talks about the economic impact of violence in the City of Philadelphia. And I've been talking about this, as you probably know, for years. And it was a national study done of ten cities, and Philadelphia was one of those cities that showed that if we cut violence around 10 percent, we can save roughly probably 17 to 20, million. If we cut it about 25 percent, 25 we can save 65 up to a hundred or plus million dollars. That was a national study done. And I think that since it's in the plan that Council -- now this might sound strange for folks but -- because you know I'm not that big about study and stuff. But I think that Council should consider doing a study on what the real economic impact in the City is today. I did have conversation with the controller about this issue couple months ago. And she was willing to look at doing the study, an updated study on the study that's done before. Because I think it's going to be very important that the more data we have, the more information that's accurate about what is the real economic impact of violence in the City of Philadelphia. I think it would be important to this Administration and the City Council. So, that's my first recommendation. Second is that, I think it needs to be more discussion with the City Administration around the messaging of the violence campaign in the City of Philadelphia. I did talk to Deputy Managing Director -- I get your title right -- Harley before about this. I know that the Health Department had put money out around two years ago. And they had a campaign where they were shoot, now what. And I know they want to -- the City is looking at renewing and doing that messaging again. A lot of folks I talk is not necessarily think that's the best messaging we should be sending out. I think it should be more dialogue about what the messaging would be. Deputy Managing Director said that will happen. So, I think that that's one of the recommendations. Third recommendation about the plan. 3 million in the budget for Department of License and Inspection. I really believe under the violence prevention five year plan, I really believe that Council and the Administration should look at -- that the money should be in the regular Department of License and Inspection budget anyhow. I don't support/agree it should be in the violence prevention. I know it's, you know, arguments on both sides about cleaning up lots. Greening neighborhoods would help reduce violence. There's been studies about that. But I just think that I'm not opposed with cleaning or tearing down properties. Matter of fact, I'm a strong supporter of that. I just think that that money should be allocated in the regular budget or L&I. And I don't understand why they didn't ask for that. That's another discussion. The fourth recommendation I have is that in the City of Baltimore last year, they had a ballot question that was introduced by City Council members in Baltimore where the created the Baltimore Youth Child and Children's Fund. And it was a ballot question put on the ballot in Baltimore for the citizens to vote for.
And 80 percent of the citizens in Baltimore voted favorably. So, they created this Baltimore Youth Children Fund of $10 million per year. So, it's a fund that continues on. It's just not a one year initiative. It's every year for ten years. That money goes to community-based organizations and groups working children and youth in the City of Baltimore. I know that I shared this with you and Councilman Kenyatta and Councilman Clarke and also Councilman Green and Councilman Sanchez. And I noticed Councilwoman Sanchez has said that is having her staff to kind of look at it. I think it's a great opportunity for the City, what they did in Baltimore. And I don't know the exact percentages, but they -- the ballot question allowed for the residents to decide that some of the money that is collected for property tax would go in this fund. But it was a small percentage. It wasn't affecting any kind of initial programs that they using property tax dollars for. I would love to see City Council do that. My understanding is you probably have enough time to consider to do that before you adjourn for the summer. And it could be a ballot question in the November election. Let the citizens of the City of Philadelphia decide if it should happen like they did in Baltimore.
It's $10 million per year. And they have actually started giving out grants to organizations in Baltimore. And if you look at the list -- and I can give you the information in Baltimore -- some of the grants up to 2/300,000 dollars. So, they not small grants. And in all fairness, it kind of looks like what the City is doing now with the Grant Program. Targeting grant program they have out the 500,000 that groups can apply for now in the City with the Urban Affairs Coalition. So, serve -- but it's much more money. Ten million is a big difference than 5 million. We are, understand, three or four size the City of Baltimore. So if Baltimore can figure out how to spend $10 million, I don't understand why the City of Philadelphia can't come up with 10 million or more annually going to this fund to support community-based organizations. The fifth is something that's an old issue that has been talked a lot about. Sueton Achmed, you know, came up with this idea about social bond proposal. Where we float a bond same way we float bonds for infrastructure in the City of Philadelphia. But you will float a bond for community -- going to groups working in the City, community-based organization, community development corporations. Sueton's proposal is actually asking for $600 million proposal bond to float a bond. And I have that information. I can share with you and all the Council members about what that concept looks like. My sixth recommendation is, the City of the Philadelphia and it's City Council seriously needs to look at creating a job initiative using dollars that I'm not sure where it would come from, to be honest with you. You know, it could be debated back and forth about surplus dollars. But we really need a job initiative. And a job, slash, I'm saying training. Because a lot of job -- a lot of young men that we need to target to help them get off the streets or get them work are not prepared. We got to be honest about that. So, we got to prepare them. But we need to look at how we can create a job program. Example is school districts has announcement to clean up these schools for lead and other issues. I am hearing the figures from 5 billion to 7 billion dollars. So, we are talking about thousands of jobs. I think for every billion dollars, if we use a formula like $40 per job or something like that. It's $4 billion. You can create over a thousand jobs. A thousand, 1500 jobs. Can you imagine having 5,000 jobs in the City of Philadelphia created now that can help -- targeted to neighborhoods where all the violence is going on to create employment opportunities. That's -- and my seventh recommendation, which is my last recommendation, but it's something that is constantly debated. Council has to take some bold moves. Council cannot sit around now and let business be as usual. When developers come in the City of Philadelphia and they are doing projects, they are getting tax breaks, they are getting tips and all that, we have to make sure that they, in fact, are committed to minority participation and also work. Which means that we have to have a draw-the-line-in-the-sand kind of position, as far as I'm concerned, with the unions. If they are not hiring minorities -- when I talk about minorities, particularly Black and Latino. I'm not talking about women. I'm talking about men and women, but not so much, you know, the W/B standards that you seeing constantly. If they are not doing that, then that project should be stopped or, up front, be very clear to these developers that they will not receive any assistance in the future. I just think that we at the point now if we really going to -- serious about resolving and solving problems of violence in the City of Philadelphia, we have be serious about it. We can no longer sit around and talk about it. We got to put, like, Tip O'Neill once said, former Congressman, once said: You can always tell how serious an elected official is by looking at the budget.
If there is no budget amount that is really helpful to resolve the problem, then it's not serious. And I think, once again, everybody in this City wants to resolve this problem about shootings and homicides. Now I know that I looked on the television the other night. When you get old, you can't always sleep right. So, in the middle of the night, sometimes I wake up and I can't sleep. So, I turn on interesting the City's channel and look at City Council's hearings. So, I looked at the hearing the other night with the DA on testifying about his budget. And Krasner talked about violence now being a flatline if you look at the police statistics. There is a spike into shootings and homicides compared to previous, you know, last couple years. But I remember when I first started 30 years ago with the Father's Day Rally Committee first started, we stood on the corner of Broad and Girard and called for a peace movement in the City. We was 501 murderers in 1989. And I think in 1990, it was 531 or 36 murders; 385 plus were black males. So, I know and understand that the numbers we see now are not compared to those numbers back in the early '90s and even the late '90s because of the crack epidemic. But at the same time, when you go into these neighborhoods and you hear from the neighbors the number of gunshots that are taking place and the number of folks who are being shot, you know, those numbers we don't talk -- we always talk about the homicide numbers. The last time I looked at the numbers I think was something like 9 -- 800 -- no, less than that. I'm sorry. We are averaging around 11 to 1300 shootings per year. Back in the days when we first started, we were averaging anywhere from 17 to 18 to 1900 per year. So, I do -- I am well aware of the drop. A lot of it has to do with community-based organizations out there really doing the work. A lot of it has to do with the police. I realize the good work the police do. I always talk about how a lot of folks are not dead because when the police come on the scene and see a gunshot victim, they pick them up and get them directly to the hospital. The hospitals are some of the best trauma hospitals in the country. So with the police doing that, once you get to the hospital, the trauma. And thank God, the third reason is I think half of these suckers don't know how to shoot, so they are missing folks luckily. So if you look at all that, I believe that us working together, once again, Council really taking bold moves this year. That means you have to fight with the Mayor, then fight with the Mayor. The Mayor has to understand that the neighborhood folks are suffering. I know too many young men that I know who have lost -- of my friends, who have lost children to violence. And that is something I thank God never happened to me. And I thank God it never happens to me as being a father of five kids, fourteen grandkids and now two great grandkids. I have been very lucky. But a lot of my friends have not been lucky. One of them is sitting next to me right now. So with that, I'd like to just end my testimony. And consider my point that City really considers -- Council really considers to look at the Baltimore Youth Child Fund and consider that, you know, that you -- we do it in the City of Philadelphia. And once again, let me just say this. Politically, it's an easy move for y'all because it's a ballot question. So, you just take the position, put it on the ballot, and then let us organize and get the citizens to vote for it. With that, I end my testimony, Councilman Jones.
Thank you, Mr. Qayyum. We are going to hold questions until everyone in the first panel gets to testify, if that's okay with you.
Good afternoon. My name is Michael OG Law Tabob. My name is Michael Tabob as a citizen. My name is OG Law as a community pro-activist. And when I say pro-activist, because what I learned the hard way is activism should actually be called reactivism. Because we wait till something happens and then we react to it. And if anybody know boxing, whoever throw the first punch and connect in the round usually wins that round. So, if we keep reacting, we will not never get in front of the problem. So, I became a national pro-activist taking what I learn here in Philadelphia for the last 15 years dealing with trauma before the hospital right there on the street. I became a pro-activist because of that. And now we are beginning to get in front of the problem. Okay. What I learned in this situation is we have to look at this thing from the perspective of a surgeon and a trash man, okay? So, you got this top of the line surgeon. He's in the hospital. We going to pay him $900,000 a year because he such a great surgeon, right. When he cut you open, you going to be right. We going to pay the trash man $10 an hour. But if the trash man stop cleaning up the trash in the hospital, all the surgeons' patients will die because the hospital will become toxic. So, that means that the surgeon has to recognize the necessity of the trash man. I stand here in representation of the trash man. Some people think our children are trash. I think that one man's trash is another man's treasure. So, I look at you guys as surgeons. Y'all cutting open the communities, the budgets. I stood in the top of the big buildings in City hall and saw the eye view of the powerful. I can see why so many things get built and pushed around just standing up in those big rooms. But I hope the guys in the big rooms begin to recognize the necessity of the trash man or we will become like what the Bible described in the Old Testament, the statue that had the gold head, the silver body, the legs are iron but the feet was made out of iron mixed with miry clay. And what that's talking about is the foundation that's holding you up is weak. So, you can have all the big luxury up the top all you want. If you don't begin to take care of the bottom that's holding up -- look, if it's the upper 1 percent, it got to be a lower 99 to hold you up. Now if we hold you up and your cup runneth over, then it will become like the champagne glasses and everybody will get spilled an full. So, I want to talk to you about solutions. The young people have given us a hand, and we haven't utilized it. The young people created their own jobs based upon Camden, New Jersey and began to go to the gas stations and pump gas. The only thing is they don't have a Sunoco shirt. They don't have a Getty shirt. They don't have support. They actually get the managers chasing them away. And I am telling you as a person 15 years on the front line, when a person grown or young goes to a gas station to pump gas, that's the first step before they go commit a crime. Most likely, robbery because they used to dealing with the public. In other words, why fight against these young people when we can take a page out of Camden, New Jersey as a solution immediately. Imagine if it's 5,000 gas stations in Philadelphia, you got three shifts a day. You got three gas pumps and you got all these people in these halfway houses and these community centers that will take an entry level position job, which will provide you the instant gratification and the Band-aid we need to keep them alive until we get to the hospital so we can sew this injury up and deal with the bullet wound, okay. Now also, I wanted to talk about -- this is -- sorry, I don't see as well anymore, y'all guys. Safety tips in the time of trouble. I am consistently watching these videos. And I stand as a professional safety.
You wonder, how does OG Law be online in the trunk of my car with my son, stopping him from shooting somebody and he's still alive, but these other guys keep getting shot or hurt during the process? Because these young people don't have training, okay? And what I was saying -- I'm sorry, safety tips in the time of trouble. So, it's training. We need to be able to train people. I give you example. How many times you watch the video of a lady walking down the street during the time when she is going ready to get abducted in the car or you heard she got raped, but they show the tape of her walking down the street. Now, one safety tip that I learned in the street that works 90 percent of the time that can prevent a victim for a woman or somebody in trouble, even if it's somebody that's about to get shot that's running, you ever notice that they always run past all the cars that's standing there? Each car got an alarm system in it. If you shake the car, the alarm system is going to ring. The one alarm is going to trigger the alarm of the cars next to it. So in other words, that's just one of my many safety tips. Like I teach the young people, stop wearing two headphones in your ear because you can't pay attention to what's going on around you. I believe that we need to be begin to provide information with graphics that appeal to young people and old with information that can help keep them alive immediately at the same time while we begin to develop these programs. Finally, I want to say that from building a budget standpoint, I believe that if we were to tap into -- what we looking for -- I would like to tap into the businesses. I'm a give you an example. Every business is in business to make money. Every time the police come to a community, the drug dealers don't make money. That's an illegal pharmaceutical distribution business that goes out of business. So, the drug dealers don't necessarily like when the police come, so it's bad information to say that the drug dealers doing the shooting. It's not. It's people in poverty and people in pain that's even robbing and killing the drug dealers now. If anybody know the streets, it's been a lot of major drug dealer, old heads murdered lately. And so --
I'm sorry. If you know the streets -- I was looking at Mr. Ross because I know he know what I'm talking about. It's been a lot of old, legendary drug dealers that's been murdered lately in the streets. There is a power shift taking place right before your eyes in the streets. And if you don't have your fingers on the pulse of the City, then the only thing you can do is make an educated guess with the lives of our children. So, that brings me back to my close, which is the surgeon recognizing the need for the trash man. I have years of information. 9 Just as many people as Mr. Ross can tell you 10 that he solved the murder of crime, I can tell 11 you how I prevented one at the Chinese store 12 almost twice, three times a week in between all 13 these deaths. And I can tell you how it was 14 done. Sometimes I have to give up my last $40 15 in my pocket. Because I have my pack in the alleyway, and he stole it. And so, this is just one example of how I know for a fact that we can prevent a killing for $40. A police officer was murdered two years ago for $38. Right after I sat in front of the same City Council and told them that $30 a day in somebody pocket can prevent crime. But we will spend 50,000 on an event to discuss it. Mr. Curtis Jones had the courage to give me a little leeway in the community at 60th and Master. I did a pilot program called the Handyman Program. The neighborhood thief, who I left the equipment with who his family used to be ready to killing because they be robbing them, last time I seen him he still got the saw and the drill that I put in his hand because we looked at our children like phones. You can download applications in your phone. You can download an application in your child. You can delete an application from your phone. You can delete an application from your child. We downloaded the handicap -- excuse me, the Handyman application into our children on 60th and Master. Now they have guys who get hired by the neighborhood block people to clean out the alleyways because Mr. Curtis Jones made the suggestion of, that's supposed to be the safety route for the old people to get through. So now, we got people interested in these new jobs. Some of these older people only need they steps fixed. I had twelve kids in a moving van. And everybody wanted to hire the moving van with the young black children that was trying to stay alive. So, there are small initiatives and things that we can do together. There is information that I would like to present and provide that will tell you -- like for instance, I won't be long. I hope you take this food for thought because it can keep somebody alive. The young black men has a meeting with me. And I learn why they don't listen to us older black men as a whole, and it became a trend. They really feel like we abandoned them, and it's that simple. When we were in prison and they was out here fending for themselves when they got into they school fights and they dealt with it by they-self and they caught venereal disease and they was by they-self, they felt like they had to become a man by they-selves. And when we come out of jail, giving them advice -- and if you look at the movie The Cage, where I contended for an Oscar this year on Vimeo. We shot a film called The Cage in CFCF where we showed the phenomenon. But we have to get excited about the things that we do positive right now. I have a cape that's under your table. I drew a seven-foot picture of Nipsey Hussle. And I will show you why people spend thousands of dollars to discuss how to get these young people engaged with positive activity. I took $150 -- and I've already been to two states, and I'm invited to three more -- with some fabric, some markers and Gorilla tape. And I would love to share this with you, but you might not believe it work. So, I drew a picture of Nipsey Hussle with a regular No. 2 pencil, seven feet tall. I put The Marathon Continues. I put Crenshaw Blues on it.
I took it to The Apollo in New York City. I end up performing at The Apollo. The young people like to see the old head rap because they love that I speak their language. When they saw Nipsey Hussle, they saw that their old head respected and appreciated their culture right now. So, now I have their loyalty. I have their ears. And I have other 3,000 signatures on this cape. Now, the cape is going to be the longest cape in the world. The longest cape in the world right now currently on record is held by a guy named Blue Peter in Europe. I actually have a longer cape than that I did for the Eagles, but now we have this Nipsey Hussle Marathon cape. We can get in front of it or behind it. But by the end of this thing, I am going to have over a hundred thousand signatures of these young people who actually want to live. And I am doing it from the grass roots perspective to show, again, maybe you need the trash man. Because I know for a fact that if the grant writers would team up with the people who do the dirty work, we can actually make your program real by providing you the evidence data -- excuse me, the evidence-based data by providing you the proper programming that works. And y'all would actually be able to implement the proper structure for these programs to work. And it would really be that simple. It's sad. I want to say this, and I'm a close with this and I'm done. But y'all think about this. When I walk in the door, I know it's like a elephant walk in the roomy especially when I got my jail suit on. I done intimidated some of those powerful men in the room for years, walking in here with my chain swinging, looking all crazy. But you know what, I got all y'all attention. Meek Mills put me in his video. I got 70 million views with Meek. I shot a film called Fight Hate with Love that won the Cannes Film Festival featured in Time Magazine and Vanity Fair, Washington Post. 5 million people being -- gain the right to vote all with this jail suit. And you know what it's called? It's just performance art. I just got -- guy told me when I was in the jail cell, to take jail outside of jail and show you jail before you got to go find a hard way yourself. All these years, you had nothing to be afraid of. All these years, you could have reached out to me and done some great things together because I'm coming from an angle of I did 15 years. I developed programs that would have worked for me that I never had. But when you going to wrap your mind and your budget around that? You know it's going to work because I'm not only the President of the national LOVE team, which stands for Live Over Violence Everywhere together, everyone accomplishes more; I'm also a client. I know some of y'all done looked up my record to find how crazy -- did he really do it? He's chained himself to the Love Park sign for a week straight. I made history with that, by the way. Even though they got mad at me in Philly, I ended up speaking behind Dr. King pulpit in Alabama at the 50th because of that. It was just performance art. And guess what? The kids love it and it works. I appreciate it much. If -- I'm not the only one. This man gets stressed out. I feel so bad but good for this man because imagine -- this is a bad analogy, but it's an old joke. But I'm going to use it. And they always chastise me anyway. But imagine throwing up a bucket of chicken in Africa where they ain't got no food at. What all the people going to do? They going to fight each other for that little bit of chicken, right? This man is a man who in the night hours while everybody else sleep, he got 15, 20 people on the phone with one bucket of chicken. And he be trying to keep everybody straight, and it's pulling him apart. And he old head. And I appreciate that he cared. But I'm saying, it would be nice if everybody really did a little bit before like Joel said, you might end up opening the door for your child's killer and then you will be like me. Like Chante Wright who y'all forgot.
Chante Wright, my ex-girlfriend, got shot in the throat twice, shot in her back because she came back from Florida to be in the witness protection program. And she got killed less than 48 hours. You remember that? You remember you walked with me through that when they killed my girl when I was out here trying to stop violence? They shot her in the throat twice and they shot her girlfriend. Remember her grandmom died in the hospital the day after that? That's what I went through. That's what changed me. So when I say become a pro-activist, it's so that it can avoid you from going through the pain that will make you do something about it to help somebody else. Don't y'all see the pattern? All the people who run the best non-profits have they foot up they behind the worst. Why don't we think proactively. An ounce of preventions is worth more than a pound of the cure. Peace and love.
Councilman Jones and Councilman Greenlee. My name is Stanley Crawford. And I come with the other perspective of what this meeting is about. My son, William Crawford, was murdered September 8, 2018. He was 35 years old. Had five children. It was a Saturday morning around nine o'clock in the morning. He was going to his sister house, and was ambushed, shot once in the right temple, once in the jaw and shot in his chest. My sister -- my daughter, his sister, opened up the door. And can you imagine going down at the bottom of your steps seeing your brother laying there, for all intents and purposes, dead? And my grandson comes out and see my son laying in the street dead. So as a result of that death, me and my other son, we was on our way going somewhere. Matter of fact, we might have been on our way to her house. And to hear her scream over the phone and to have that pain and misery in my spirit, so this topic that we are here for about violence, reducing the violence -- to some people it might be a theory. It might be something that is just a part of the everyday existence. But until you experience this, it's not no joke. You know, I was here when they had the hearing and the officials, the department heads come up. 5 million over six years to help with the violence in the City. You know, since -- it's been almost eight months. Matter of fact, May the 5th will be the eighth month on the death of my son. I'd also like to give some context to it. You know, my son, I raised him from 3 as a single father up until he turned 18 and started doing stuff on his own. I remember taking him to school every morning and then picking him up every afternoon. I made sure that whatever love he had from me as a father, he got. And to be sitting up here today, man, and to really be going through what I am going through as -experiencing. See, there is a point where people say you experience something. But when you are in the experiencing process, it's a whole different animal. You know, I remember this Saturday we had a meeting at the organization that we created as a result of the death of my son. And I was chairing the meeting. And I was -- unbeknownst to me, I was breaking down as a result of just speaking about my son. And you know, also experiencing the rippling effect that this -- his murder caused throughout my family. My family is a loving and caring family. A great big family. And to see my daughter every day telling me, I miss my brother, right? To be with his children and knowing that they, themselves, missed their father, you know. And to be a part of this whole experience of losing a loved one to violence. That's why when you hear me speak, I never say my son died. I never say -- other than what the truth is, he was killed. He was murdered. And I don't want to put no soft meaning to what occurred to him, right? So as I started to really contemplating and experiencing that, something came over me. And something came over me that I need to do something to help another family from not having had to have this experience, you know. Because like I say, it's nothing I can do to bring my son back. But what can I do to make sure that, number one, my son death was not in vain? And number two, to help another family from not having this experiences? As a result of that, on January 5th, I put a call out. And the call was answered. And we have the minimum of 30 to 50 brothers that come out every week on a Saturday from two to four. And we meeting for almost five months trying our best to put an organization together that we can get out into the community and make a difference. And that's the Black Male Community Council of Philadelphia. We going to have our first call out, which would be May the 11th at Imhotep Charter School. So, this is something that's -- that we are talking. I heard the brother talk about solutions. And I hear Bilal always been in the solution category. But what can we do? One of my thoughts was this.
We as black men in the community have to realize that ain't nobody coming to our rescue. And we sitting -- and I was guilty of it, too. I'm not saying that I was not guilty of this. I would look at the news and hear about the murder. And I never went past the person who was murdered. But my experience has now shown me that that one murderer might affect the minimum of a hundred or so people. So when we look at TV and say it was one murderer, then we really don't realize how many people is affected by that one murder. Now just take the murder, the person who was murdered, let's look at the murderer. When the murderer is caught, if they are caught -- that's what I'm getting captured -- I am going to get into a little bit of that, too, because the police commissioner is here. I have done some research as a result of the death of my son. And some of the statistics even add to my -- not -- my pain and agony. I give you example. The Chief Inspector son was killed, what, about a couple, three weeks ago? Right away it was a $35,000 reward put out that same day. Then in two or three days, that person who murdered that Chief Inspector son was captured. If a -- White folks get killed in the Black community, you can bet your bottom dollar within a week or so, that person is going to be caught. If a police officer is killed, ain't no two days, one day. They going to get caught. But when us in our community, like my son -- my son was killed eight months ago -- almost eight months ago. I know people family members been killed. Zacharia's son was killed in 2017. Unsolved murderers. In 2018, it was 60 percent of the murders in 2018, out of 351 is unsolved. There is a article right here that was by Bobby Allan, December 28, 2018. In that article it states that sometimes the solving of a murder depends on the enthusiasm of a homicide detective. So when we start looking at what's taking place realistically, if I was a murderer and I will -- and I did business in Philadelphia, I take my chances. Because 60 percent of the murders in 2018 and over ten-year period, 45 percent of the murders was unsolved. I talked to a sister just the other day. Her brother was murdered in 2000. This is 2019. His murder is still unsolved. So, what I am saying is this, Councilmen and Councilwoman, not only do we, the public, have to experience the loss of our loved ones, now you have statistics like this that is even add to our grieving. And then I hear -- sometimes I hear the politician, hear the -- hear the police giving excuses to us why our murders can't be solved; but I don't hear that when it comes time for solving other people murders. And then, we the victims of the murder is now charged with not coming forth and doing what we -- what they say we should do. It's not a no snitching culture with -- inside of our community. There are other parameters that I can't speak about right now at this particular meeting that is involved with why it could be hazardous to your health. The brother spoke about it. His old lady spoke up, got murdered. So I am saying to the panel, I am coming not from the monetary perspective because I thought Bilal did a great job speaking about the monetary. But I am talking about from the experience as a human being that has to sit up here today and know certain things that I can't say at this meeting, and know that my son murder is not even, to the best of my knowledge, being given any attention. I tell you, Councilman Jones, at this point, nobody is calling me. Here is my son been murdered. I done talked to people. And right now, the only people I talk to, nobody is calling me back. So, I am sitting here, man -- I'm sitting here. And one thing I say is this. The murder of my son, I made a commitment to him. I'm a do whatever necessary that I have to do to make sure my son murder don't become a cold case, okay, because I love my son. And my son did not -- he don't deserve to be a cold case.
And if we going to be sitting up here talking about violence, you cannot leave the murderers in our midst with the comfortability of murdering and there is no consequences. So you know -- you know, I just like to talk a little bit now about the Black Male Community Council of Philadelphia. And, Bilal, we had -- and I went to Bilal house about three or four weeks ago Bilal. And I thank Bilal, because he gave me an audience about three hours, was me and him talked. And I am not bitter to the point that I want to do anything to cause anybody else's family any harm. But I am a human being. And I do have some humanity. And I want to be able to do whatever I can to make sure another family, if we can help them, not have to have this experience, man. So the Black Male Community Council, on May we have a call out at Imhotep Charter 11 School. Here go a couple of palm cards that they can give out. And the goal is what? To get the black men to come out of these buildings, come out of these masses, come out of these churches, come out of these institutions of higher learning, come out of these sports arenas and let's get back into the community and get in the streets and start being what I call, show our women, children and elders that we out there trying to help them and protect them. So, the Black Male Community Council is -- came up with four specific things that we going to be focusing on: Security, cleanup, mediation and education. And we picked five hot spots that we going to be working in: 16th and Susquehanna Avenue, 12th and Huntingdon, 16th and Wingohocking, 58th and Baltimore and around 23rd and Reed in South Philly. These the five hot spots we working in. The goal is to get a hundred Black men -- and we want Black men. We don't want women. We don't want other nationalities. We want Black men to come out of these buildings, come out of these institutions and let's put a hundred Black men in each one of those areas. And let's -- the hundred Black men is going to do this not one day. Not -- we going to do it from Mondays to Saturdays, from sun up to sun down. And we want to be in the community doing security, cleanup, mediation. Because this is another thing. Listen, a lot of these young brothers have a problem with what -- with another young brother. The reason why we having this murder is because they don't have any options. It's Joe Blow dealing with an issue with a gun. And he know the other brother deal with the issue with a gun. He got to get his gun. Because if he run into the other brother that deal with the issue with a gun, they going to clash. And one of them gonna wind up dead and one of them gonna wind up in jail. So, our goal is to put mediation team together in each one of these hot spots so when they do have a problem, they may choose to come to us and say, old head, I got a problem with so and so. Can you help me? I don't want to hurt him, and I don't want him to hurt me. That's the mediation. So, what we doing is trying our best to reach out in the community. And our model is boots on the ground. I heard you say that when we first started. Boots on the ground, all hands on deck and consistent consistency. See, our thing is this. If we are out there cleaning not -- I mean, every day we got a cleanup committee that goes in and keeps this area spick and clean every day, that's going to change the spirit of the people. And if we did it for 90 days, the first 90 days, people will get used to being in the clean environment as compared to a dirty environment. If we have an education committee where we call it the Black Male Round Table on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we put a call out to Black men in that community that you can meet at such and such a location, and let the old heads and the young boys have a discussion on something that's pertinent. So, this is our four 90-day boots on the ground, four area action committees. And we hope to make a difference. And the goal is to be consistent.
That means that not after the first 90 days we going to stop. We going to be assessing all the way through the process, and we going to be recruiting all the way through the process. So if we are successful, we can duplicate this in other areas. So as I just sat up here and shared with you my personal pain and agony, out of that pain and agony, I pray that it gives some type of solution. Because if we keep sitting the way we sitting and we don't do anything, we know we going to keep getting the same results. So, that's basically what I have to say today to the Council.
Before I respond, I want to recognize Helen Gym who is here and joined us on this committee. And first and foremost, I want to -- I want to give you my sincere condolences for your loss. As you know, my nephew Terry couple years before you, before even Zack, was murdered in that same general area. His murderer has not been found. I want you to know that that rippling effect is not just a hundred families you are talking about on that day, but seeing my grandson off on his prom was his son.
And so, it's -- it's a rippling effect that like a peddle in a pond, it goes far and wide. You don't know all of the impacts it will have over a period of time. That absence of a father creates almost a generational impact that you wonder why at a certain age when his manhood came, how he's beginning to react to things. So, my condolences. I got two of your goals. One was security. The other was cleanup. Can you give me the other two?
Go ahead. Okay. The other thing that I like about -- well, Bilal gave seven different recommendations that we are going to explore and take all of them seriously. One of them we need to take a look at to see if, you mentioned at the state level they might -- particularly, you know, it was yours OG about the gas stations and whether or not that is something that has to be authorized above our pay grade. But if it is not, if it is something some action we can take, I think we should explore it at least that idea. It comes with other unintended consequences like insurance and this and that, but we have to figure that out.
I just would like to say, I wouldn't mind taking the trip over to New Jersey. They are very open. I work with a lot of youth in Camden. And I'm not saying me, it could be anybody. Let's go talk to New Jersey and find out how does that work. Because my mom don't like to get out her car to pump gas. She like going to New Jersey. So, they figured out how to do it. Let's -because think about it. It could be 15,000 jobs entry level overnight that will empty out D and Erie halfway house, empty out Germantown Avenue. And all the youth that already do it will have a position.
I have heard you mention this before. You gave a little more colorful analogy at your poetry slam. You kind of -- I remember the other part for polite TV, okay. But I got the other part, too, what you said. So, question. Do you think this is an organized effort by the elements that are committing these crimes?
Well, when I was here for the hearing, you talking about the effort that you guys is putting forth?
Oh, without a shadow of a doubt. I think -- I would like to have a audience with the police commissioner. As a result of the death of my son, I have uncovered some information that has astonish me. And this violence we are experiencing is not as simplistic as we think it is. And as a result of what I have uncovered, there is layers that is taking place that is unknown to the public, number one. And also, I believe to some of the law enforcement agencies, you know. Because at the end of the day, you know, we think that every murder is over some frivolous girlfriend/boyfriend or just some simple argument. And what I uncovered, it's not as simple as that.
You should have a private conversation. But one of the things that disturbs me -- and I wanted you to know that it just doesn't just affect people on that side of the table, it affects us all -- was that in one instance, it was almost like a winkety-wink, well, you know, he was in that lifestyle.
Well, you know he was out there. And to some extent, I can process that information. But the tears of that mother ain't no different than the tears of other people's mothers. And closure is like an important thing for the kid. It's an important part of this. Because kids go around with a grudge. I tell people, it's not the one that's popping off, oh, I'm -- he's tearing off clothes and running out. It's the one that ain't saying nothing that you better watch. Because he's internalizing his hurt, and it may manifest itself later that night or some other time. And these kinds of things, it's almost sometimes Hatfield and McCoy. I have two neighborhoods -- and I will let other people talk. But two neighborhoods, 54th street and 58th Street. And some of the back and forth is generational. So, we have to -- we have to do some things different to try to combat this. Now, witnesses are important. I'm not -- never going to not acknowledge some things we can do better. One of the reasons why we aggressively went after the camera program is that it doesn't put anybody -- camera is fearless, and it doesn't lie. It's right there. You view it for yourself. But the key of it is not just cameras but intelligence behind the cameras. The begot. He begot and they begot and put those -- the detective thing together to be able to solve some of these things. Sixty percent unsolved is unacceptable.
Can I say one thing? One thing is this, Councilman. I was talking to my daughter yesterday. And I was explaining to her when a person get a cold, they get a cough, they get a fever. They get sneezy and runny noses and whatever have you. But it's the virus that is causing all of this to occur. And if we don't get into the virus, we going to keep just looking at the running nose, the sneeze and stuff like that. When we look at this violence, and this is something that I didn't see that occurred, Councilman and Councilwoman is this. Okay. Take a person like myself. How am I sitting down and forming a council and conference where we can actually brainstorm and get to the virus as compared to just dealing with the cold and the symptoms? You know, I will give you an example. I raised my son in, I believe, an upright manner. Right. But what was it that was -- that superceded what I was putting in him and we not dealing with that element? Like the brother was saying. You can't tell a hungry person not to feed themselves. So if you don't create a program like Sueton Achmed was talking about. If we can take $300 million and tear down buildings, we can take another $300 million and put in this new program that we got. But we not putting $300 million and building up people. So, when Sueton Achmed is proposing a bond issue that will help build people, we have to consider that, too, as part of the solution. And as a result of us looking into having a conference and getting together and then looking and seeing what we can do for the total situation instead of just the 300 -- just think about it. Let's be real. $31.5 million over five years, and then you giving 6 million of that to L&I. So when you take that, you only got 29 million left, really million. If you got 23 31 -- just think about it, $31.5 million over 24 five years. That's $6 million and something a 25 year, right? Now you taking 6 million of that which really breaks it down to 25.5 million. And then 12 million of that I think you giving to the police department, if I'm not mistaken. So when you start to really divvy it out, then you got the administration fee going to come out of there. By the time it hits the streets to the people we say we going to help, we really giving smidget -- we really what we doing, Councilman, we are putting spit on the inferno. You understand what I'm saying? That's what we doing. So, we have to be serious. And we have to really sit down with people like Bilal Qayyum, people like myself who can sit down. And let's come up with a practical and applicable short range and long range -- medium range and long range plan to help the people we supposed to be trying to help.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to all three of you. And, Mr. Crawford, I think we all share what the Councilman said about the condolences to you and your family and what you've had to go through. Mr. Qayyum, if I could ask a little bit more about the Baltimore situation you talked about.
I know Baltimore has a lot more serious problems down there, too. It was a cover story in the New York Times about a month ago. So, this -- this fund, is that like sort of an umbrella over all the different programs? Is that how it's being --
It's a fund that is -- it doesn't come through City government. They created an entity to manage the fund. And they then issue RFPs where groups can apply for it. And it's -- once again, was $10 million per year that the fund creates through the -- whatever percentage, and I don't have the percentage -- of whatever percentage was taking out of the real estate taxes. But the important thing was that it was -- they was struggling with how to help groups in Baltimore, same way we are struggling in the City of Philadelphia. And this was a Councilmanic action. Council actually did this. It wasn't the City of Baltimore Administration, the Mayor. But the good part about it is that they also -- this fund, I understand, has a technical assistance part of the operation to help the smaller groups who have -- struggle to try to, you know, sustain themselves. But it's a great idea when you think about $10 million in the pot that's every year. So, organization gets in and is doing great work, they don't have to really worry about sustaining themselves to continue to do that work every year. I mean, they do other kind of fundraising and stuff. But it's a great idea.
Yeah. Whatever the percentage is that was voted on coming out of the tax dollars, the property taxes, that is what -- the dollar amount was 10 million for the year.
Thank you, Councilman. Chair recognizes Councilman gym.
Thank you very much, Councilman. Mr. Crawford, we prayed for you and your family. And thank you for being here to share your stories. One of the things that we've been working on a bit has been taking a look at young people because while victims of violence can range all across any age group, obviously, often times as you noted, people who perpetrate violence within communities, one, are often victims of violence themselves. Can often be victims of violence themselves. So, they endure significant amount of pain, trauma, feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. And then secondarily, they are young. They skew young. You know, they are -- they sometimes have their first interactions through our juvenile justice system. I've been working very closely to take on the issue of youth in residential treatment facilities. We've been very aggressive about making sure that young men and women who go into these facilities are actually taken care of. They have rehabilitation and health. That if we are going to separate them from their families, that we do it for short periods of time and not for years on end. That's been a really important issue. But I do worry that we don't have those kinds of, you know, programs that we are really thinking through. Really quickly what I will also say is, we have been aggressive about shutting down abusive facilities like Wordsworth or like a Glen Mills where it's a physical facility where young people who are already struggling with a lot of issues in their lives are faced with aggressive behaviors, abuse, some -- many times physical abuse where they are subjected to physical restraints, choke holds, strip searches, solitary confinement. This is not rehabilitation and health. We spend an enormous amount of money, Mr. Chairman, on this area, over a hundred million dollars on the City end, and tens of millions of dollars on the School District end. And we need a lot of more. So, I'm curious about whether, you know, some of the recommendations or suggestions are targeted towards younger people in that category between the ages of, I don't know, like to 28 8 or 15 to 30 or somewhere in those areas where 9 they are just -- they are very high risk. They 10 are also very vulnerable. They are also very 11 impressionable and they can change. It's not a 12 fixed life for them. 13 And of course, because they are so 14 young, one of the hallmarks and psychological 15 things we know about young people is that they do think of life in very short time frame. They don't think of it as years down the road, I 18 will get my degree. I will do this. I will 19 make my plans. I will have a pension. I will 20 do such and such. They do think very short terms. So, helping young people through a period of time when, you know, they are maturing, their brains are developing. They are making -- you know, they have the capacity to think of better choices is a really important issue for me. Chair Children and Youth on the Public Safety Committee. We are trying to figure it out on the residential treatment side. I am interested in hearing some of your recommendations on how young people who are most vulnerable and also in highest risk category are being part of the solution to coming up with, you know, what are the things that we are hearing? And what additional supports can we do for them?
Well, I want -- just quickly. I appreciate your attention and your. I am right there with you as far as -- I think in short, we know it's a mental health thing. So, I do sidewalk therapy. We can't be scared to look at the truth about our children. The first step to fixing a problem is acknowledging that the problem exists. We dealing with parental pride a lot of times where the parent won't even admit. Now, if I can't tell you -- I'm out on the streets. Everybody can go online and see it. If I am or somebody else out there on the street with your child can't even tell you about your child, you won't -- you don't believe that this is your child, I mean, if somebody say they getting C notes for deep throats, what do that mean? And if they wear a pink wig when they say this and then your daughter start wearing a pink wig just like the girl that says she get C notes for deep throats, you ever thought that your daughter might be getting C notes for deep throats? Or is it too heavy for you to realize that your daughter might be one of them girls that cost $40 for a perk. Can we talk real? Can you handle the truth about your children? Can you handle that she might leave out your house with this outfit on, go down the street to her girlfriend and turn into a whole another person before she get to school? Can you handle the truth about your own child? Because when I go to these funerals, I see the parents are still lying at the funeral. You knew he had a gun under the pillow. You saw him online. These kids is publicly disrespecting you now, so come on man. But when you get to the funeral, you still lying. Now, how can we as real people fix a situation when everybody is still lying about the issues that's going on? I didn't want to be that harsh. But honestly, these are the conversations that are going to have to take place in order to get to the rotten core of the issue. Look at this, don't air out your dirty laundry is the new talk. My grandmother used take my dirty laundry and hang it out in the air to get the cool summer breeze. But now you rather me go to the store and by some fake cool summer breeze in the bottle while you telling me don't air out my real dirty laundry. And we wondering why this thing is stinking up the place. I want to get real with somebody that want -- if anybody want to get famous, because a lot of people want to get famous. A lot of people want to be looked at as smart because they can type grants. I type 70 words a minute, by the way. Learned in prison. But my point is this. If you are opportunist even, then come holler at me Mr. Opportunist because you can get famous for stopping this violence. Oh, I used to love the attention I got when I was a criminal. And now that God allow me to become a hero, it feels just as exhilarating as when I was a criminal. Look at this. I could be right here in court right now with a murder case right now. I shot people, I know when I get to jail, I'm going 8 to be known as a rider. I might get to holler 9 at one of the guards. And if I can get some 10 drugs in the jail, I can have it my way anyway. 11 But look at this. Now my young people 12 going to be able to look online and see me 13 standing up here fighting for they lives as a 14 hero. These are the things that make the 15 impression and gave you access, excuse me, sir, 16 to the street government you are talking about. 17 The one that the people -- the warden in prison will come to certain inmates to squash the beef because deep down inside, they know it's only 200 officers and 2000 inmates. You can't really contain it when it don't want to be contained anymore. So, you can go find the container. So, it's an invisible street government that prevents crime and violence, that's underfunded, thirsty. And again, it's going to be like the tower, heavy at the top. Now last thing, and I'm going to shut up again and then I'm going to walk out. I'm going to --
SOS is a movement and not created. It's called Summer Onto September. We have people lining up on board. Our goal is to simply help our children make it from summer to September, safe, sound, alive and free. And we have some great activities and things that they can be a part of and including making them some money. Because look at this. The school will tell them, hey, sell cookies, cakes and candy bars that rot your teeth and give you diabetes. The lady at the front door going to snatch up all the bread. We going to give you a paper airplane that you can -- look, you just raised us 8,000 in candy and you get a paper airplane. But the kid really see the bag. These kids are smart. They looking at, like, the old lady at the front desk the one with the bag. So now, you got this hungry kid thinking about robbing the old lady at the front desk because they using all 500 of us to go out in the community to sell candy like we don't know sugar is a drug. And they collect all the money. They all break it down. Then they give us a little airplane and a Yo-yo from 1974. You think these kids is stupid. How about you send me into the school. I create the same seven piece of paper brochure, but I take the kids positive promotional products that you didn't see me teach every kid in the City how to make T-shirts. Why did you do the OG Law? Because it was the underground economic stimulus program I created. And it worked. They all eating. Every time you go to my youngins and get one of your T-shirts made, it was me in the background teaching them how to do it, pulling the strings. While I'm saying is, you want glory? This is your 15 minutes of fame. Now, God put this burden on my back and it's heavy. Sometimes I feel like I got the cure for HIV in my pocket, but I can't believe it. I got to watch the people I love die. If Michael Jordan can be that good at basketball and Kobe Bryant can be that good and Serena Williams can be that good at tennis and we can identify these players, read they stats and all that. You mean to tell me, you don't know who the hottest internet sensations are at keeping our children out of prison and early grave? You don't know OG Law with the jail suit? You don't know we famous for helping to save our children? Our record is sending kids home. If you can identify the running back and the basketball player and -- stop worrying about being smart. Identify the best plan God gave to somebody anointed. And since you appointed to the position, let the anointed work with the appointed and get this work done. And stop playing with the lives of these people. We don't need another meeting. We need to back what already work. I love y'all. I'm done talking. Thank y'all for letting me have my 15 minutes to talk. See, wasn't that bad. Ain't nobody get hurt or cuss.
It's good. Ms. Williams, can you read the next panel. Thank you for your testimony, guys.
Brandon Jones, Darren Toliver and Nija Muhammad. Brandon Jones, Darren Toliver and Nija Muhammad. Is Ruben Jones and Darryl Shuler, step up. (Panel approaches Witness Table.)
Thank you for your patience. Please bring the mic close to you. State your name and begin your testimony, please.
My name is Nija Muhammad. Thank you for having me to come, Council. And I thank everybody that is here. I was looking forward to have more people here. I think, you know, something of this magnitude, there should be many and much more people here concerned about the issues that is going on here in Philadelphia. Once again, my name is Nija Muhammad. I want to start off -- my brother Stanley Crawford, I know exactly how he feel. I had lost my son 2009. He was driving down as a passenger down 95, right in the outskirt of the Philadelphia. And he had got stopped from the State Police. And from that point, he got tased six to seven times. Three days later, he died. From that point, he was -- the remains of it was bury at Mt. Mariah. As you know, the cemetery had been abandoned since 2011. He's buried right there on 60th and Springfield Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia. And City Council Blackwell, she been really working with me, working in that area. I have -- I had been working there since the closing of the cemetery. I had started off, as you know it, it became to be like a jungle in that particular area. In fact, that are on 60th and Springfield is the area where Muslims are buried at. So, it's really been a horrifying view to look at, you know, a cemetery such of that magnitude that look like -- at that time looks like a jungle. So, I started off with a the residential lawn mowing in one particular area where the remains of my son was. And I was blessed to get a commercial one that you walk behind, which I was able to get more -- I can cover more as far as cutting the grass. And then later on, I was blessed to get a Zero lawnmower. Where, in fact, I pay out of my own pocket to make that happen. So today, 2019, this is very beautiful cemetery. Every year I had a annual call out that the community would come out and they would support the clean up and things of that nature. I was able to put a beautiful sign up there that gives a quotation from the Holy Koran. Also, there are benches that are out there where people can sit down and reminisce and just think about the loved ones. It's very, very beautiful. So, I just wanted to say I feel for brother Stan. And what makes me move like I moved to do what I do, I mean, every two weeks I go out there by myself and I maintain that area. It takes me about three hours to do that, but I do it by myself. And people in the neighborhood say, wow, you must really love your son. And that's one of the things that really moves you is love. And that's one of the things that Brother Stan Crawford that moves him is love. So you know, I take my hat off for him. Also, I wanted to -- I see that the Police Commissioner is here. And I thank him for being here. You know, there is a lot had been going on within the major cities of United States with things like racial profiling and things of that nature. I understand that there would be at least 50 new police officers that would be coming or will be hired. And I would ask if the Police Commissioner Ross, if he can do a psychological profiling on these police officers. Because I think it's very important that a lot of people who want jobs, they just want jobs to get paid. And then you have people just want to be involved into other activities, may not really be a part of the job that they supposed to be doing. So, you have a lot of crooked cops that is not just here in Philadelphia but throughout the whole United States. That they come in not just to uphold the law, but they come here to do other things that they should not be doing. So, I think it's important that the Police Commissioner of the FOP, that they would really look into people who they hire because they are important. Some of the issues that I really believe that is going on here in the -- particularly in Philadelphia, is the educational system. As you know throughout Philadelphia, the City, many of the public schools had been shut down for whatever reason.
And of course, you have many teachers who had came into -- to be a teacher. They didn't come in to actually to be a teacher, but just to get paid. So, you have a lot of people who want jobs, but they not really sincere of what they do. I think the problems within the crime here in Philadelphia is education. And then, we talk about jobs. Okay, we need jobs. But mainly, we need education. But even when you are in a community, a poor community and have a school -- schooling in the public school and you have teachers that really don't care, don't really love the children, it can bring about bad results. And these are the things that have been happening again not just here in Philadelphia, but throughout the whole country. And I think we need teachers that will be able to look at children and love them like they own. Many of the public schools, we have many children in schools where fact in one room 25 you can have or 30 children in the room. Where in fact, it doesn't really good. I really believe that it should be less children in rooms. And also, should be the same male. All boys in the same classrooms up to the age of 5 as the same that should be all girls in the same 6 classroom up to the age of 16. 7 There have been statistics that working 8 in that fashion, it really enhances children 9 tremendously. And again, I think that's one of 10 the issues that we have here is the educational 11 system and people who are -- comes in position 12 of being teachers not really loving their 13 children as they should. 14 I may add that there are many mothers 15 and fathers, particularly that may not do a good 16 job at home. And I think one of the things that we need to do, too, is we need to visit homes and see how parents are living. Sit down and talk with them. Talk with them what's going on with your child? What's going on with your children? Have council meetings to see what -- the kind of environment they live and how they live. I think it's very important. But what disturbs me is that everybody should be aware of it. It was a -- it was on international media that there was a young woman who had a child. And she -- she lied, fabricated and said that she lived at this particular address where the school was much better for her child. And they found out that the child did not live there. And the result of that, she had got arrested. And then that creates another problem there, too. And you know, they looked at her as she was a criminal. But basically, the root of that whole thing is love. And she wanted her child to be in a more better environment, a more better learning atmosphere. And you know, many of the people looked at her as a criminal. Of course, you know when you go in and look at these other communities where people paying higher taxes, property taxes, they looking for the better -- they have better schooling. And in that fact, you know, the place that she lived was more so of a poorer community. Where in fact, she wanted the best for her child. You have $30,000 per year annual on gun violence. And that is a crisis in America. 6 billion in shooting, gun violence, where people are being taken to emergency and medical care. And that is a crisis that we have. So, I would say that the solution to the issues that we have is the educational system that we have here. And that we have to really look back into and study that is -- it would be very good if we can have less children in rooms and also to have people, good teachers that would be able to love their children just like they would love their own. So, that's one of the issues that we have. And just in my closing, I know that the NRA and the MBA -- in 2015, the MBA wanted to do a add that was around December of 2017 or '16 where they wanted to do an add for gun violence. Didn't want to get particularly into as far as put the guns down or we need to stop selling guns. They didn't really want to get into that part.
But I think, you know, in order to really make a change, we have to step on some shoes. And even though that we have the NR -- the N -- the gun association, that we need to really sometimes, you know, do what's right. And that's one of the problems that we have. And when you have people who is robbing and stealing, they not doing it for joy. They doing it because lack of education, lack of jobs, things of that nature. And you know, when you have a poor education, that you going to have as a result of that, everything is going to follow behind with that. So as I had started in the beginning, again, I would hope that when these police officer come into the City of Philadelphia, that they would be more lenient and that they would understand that there are issues that we have concerning about the violence that we have. And if Commissioner Ross can do somewhat a one-on-one on each one to so where they at, that would be beautiful. And thank you for allowing me to speak.
Thank you for your testimony. We are going to allow the panel to speak and then we will ask questions.
First of all, I wanted to say thank you, Mr. Muhammad, for your words. I really appreciate it. And I can't, unfortunately, just finish out even though I am very interested in hearing from Mr. Jones. But I will be absolutely following up on testimony. Because I'm interested in some of the community investment/reinvestment work that you are doing. And in particular I wanted to follow up, and if you speak to it I will be following in and my staff are here. About that question of young people, you know, involving them. A lot of the work that we did around our youth in residential placement and treatment facilities started with a hearing with young people themselves talking about what their experiences were like in these facilities and why we needed to do -- take so much more action to reduce the number of young people in those kinds of facilities, many of them are for profit. But also, to ensure that the time that they spend there is really focused in on rehabilitation, health, getting them the educational support and services that they need, and then figuring out reintegration back into family, school and community and other opportunities. So, I know you have a lot of experience in this area. I know you've worked with young people and, you know, really appreciate and value your experience, Ruben. And so, I will be looking forward to hearing your full testimony and then following up with you. Thank you.
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Ruben Jones. I currently serve as the campaign coordinator for Close the Creek. I am also Executive Director for FrontLine Dads, Inc. I'm also a long time resident of Philadelphia having grown up here in 2002. I returned home from serving a 15-year prison sentence only to have my youngest nephew murdered, shot in the head. So when you talk about unsolved murders, and we talk about street violence, it hits close to home for me personally. I have also had a young cousin who was murdered as a result of domestic violence by her boyfriend at the time who murdered her in front of her children. So, you can imagine the traumatic shock that exploded in my family as a result. But as a community organizer and activist who's been leading the charge for violence prevention for years in this City, I just want to touch on a couple things that I hope will resonate. And I hate to -- you know, sometimes I feel like I walk into a room, and I am always the most cynical person in the room or angry or frustrated or whatever. And while I applaud the efforts particularly of this commission and Administration making strides towards, you know, making these community grants and the Police Commissioner and the efforts he's made, what I do want to stress is that we can't continue to put Band-aids on broken bones. And I say that to say that we are in a crisis. I served on the Mayor's Transition Team back in 2015 and so. And I served on the Public Safety Commission of that Transition Team. And I handed in a report that said, you know, due to the violence in this City, we need to declare it a public health crisis. We need to pump money not into -- I don't say this to demean anyone's effort, but not into basketball games and not into, like, this feel good stuff that happens in the moment but really infusing resources into neglected communities. And I say that because we spent a lot of time knocking on doors and talking to people in the corners and moving through these neighborhoods who don't feel that City government has been responsive to their needs, who don't feel a relationship or connection to the leadership and the City. Who don't trust the police and don't feel valued and don't feel that their humanity is recognized. And that's thoroughly entrenched in a lot of these communities that fly under the radar. It's thoroughly entrenched in the community or what we call that subculture. Because we can talk about the mainstream. There is a whole culture in the City that exists below the mainstream. They not on social media. They don't cash checks. You know, there is an economy and there's a culture that exists. And I think sometimes we overlook that. I want to say that until we can really, really make people feel included in this City and feel humanized by the leadership in this City, that we will continue to have these kind of spikes in violence. We can introduce programs from 2013 to about 2017. I worked in a program called Focused Deterrence which got a lot of accolades publicly. In our first year, there was more than 50 percent reduction in gun violence particularly in South Philadelphia. And every newspaper and every tv show did a story about it. And it was great. So, you think that that would be the kind of program that would increase in support. But unfortunately, the support decreased. So, it went from 150,000-dollar investment from the City down to 120,000. We met monthly with the Police Department. I don't know if Commissioner Ross is still here. We met monthly with the DA's Office, the Mayor's Office, all these kind of public entities. But the one thing in almost five years in that capacity that we did not meet with was the Commerce Department, the business community.
And though the record will show that every month I came to those meetings saying here is what we need, which was involvement in the unions, involvement by the Commerce Department, involvement from the business community, those cries fell on deaf ears. So even though we promised these young men jobs and opportunity -- and I'm not one to say a job is the end all, be all to ending violence. I recognize that there are people who have worked at pretty decent jobs and still commit a homicide, and still committing violence. I'm not suggesting that a job is the plan to end violence. But what I am saying is, when an individual has an opportunity to earn a living, a decent living to make money to provide for their families, the mindset changes. You take an eight-hour shift. That's an hour for travel and an hour back, that's ten hours of the day that's gone. So, you sleep for eight. You know, that's eighteen hours. You got a small window. And usually, you don't fill that window with nonsense when you got to get up and go to work in the morning or the baby needs Pampers or when your girlfriend or fiance or wife is saying, let's go to the zoo on Saturday. It shifts the culture for that person that's living beneath that mainstream world we exist. And we pull them in. I still have -- I resigned from the job a year and a half ago, going on two years ago. I still have young men coming to me and calling me, you know, Mr. Ruben, you know, I need job. I lost my job or whatever. And it wasn't because I was so great. And it wasn't because -- it was simply because somebody built a relationship with them, right? And I'm not -- I'm from South Philly. But the people in South Philly who create that entry to build these relationship it flourished. And some of those young people are not still on that subculture vibe. They are, you know, doing well and thriving. That's the investment we have to make. It has to be individual, and we have to stop looking at quick fixes. It's not going to be a quick fix. You know, it's going to take a long time -- long term investment over a period of years that's going to cross the boundary of different Administrations. But if we can't really envision that instead of using violence as a political ploy to gain points with the public or to gain votes, then we are doing a disservice to those communities that are suffering. I grew up in North Philadelphia. And North Philadelphia used to be a hub of industry both with Bud and Tastykake. And there would be a thousand of jobs that are gone that aren't coming back. And those communities when you add tax abatements, when you add all these other things to those communities, connected gentrification, we see how the resources have been depleted from those areas. And so, we see school closures, right? We see violence escalate because people don't feel like their lives matter. They don't feel included in this process. And this is why they don't vote, right? We lucky if we can get a 10 percent voter turnout in this City. So, we got to begin to really look at the big picture. Again, when we talk about quick fix solutions, the reality of what I want to say is -- because we've been over the last -- I came home in 2002. Over the last 17 years, we have invested in teaching young people particularly, violence prevention strategies, conflict resolution strategies. Because if they aren't learning those things, it's easy for somebody to pick up their phone when they see a fight and yell out World Star. And capture that fight on the video that goes viral. Meanwhile, you know, we get stuff like students dying in bathroom fights. We get stuff like kids jumping on one kid. And we see the 4 results of that. 5 So, if we don't teach young people in 6 particular how to think better and be leaders in 7 their communities in a voice of reason, if 8 nothing else, don't jeopardize yourself. Just 9 be the voice of reason. Yo, John, it ain't 10 worth it. Don't trip.
But they don't -- they 11 may not have those skills natural. It takes 12 tutelage. It takes mentorship from adults who 13 are willing to invest in them to do that. 14 So, I say that to say I welcome the 15 City's initiative to address some of this violence. Yes, we do need jobs for young people, but we need jobs for adults, too. Yes. We do need an infusion of resources, mainly capital. And the City has to learn to trust its citizens. Right now Councilwoman Gym mentioned our community reinvestment strategy. We are pushing the City to -- this is a separate conversation, but we are asking the City to invest --
Okay. So, let's talk about. We asking the City to reinvest to save from closing the jail. And the number that was given to us was $15 million. So, that $15 million could be infused in resources and supports in those neighborhoods who need it most. And we are not talking neglecting any part of the City. But there are some parts of the City that need it more than other parts of the City. We can show you video of walking through certain parts of North Philadelphia that is so trash strewn -- I was talking to a friend about what it looks like in some areas. And unfortunately, I liken it to a war-torn City in the mid east. That was an unfair kind of assessment. But mentally, that's the only image I could conjure up to get this person to see the devastation that is happening in the City as a result of abandonment. There are places in North Philly that hasn't been redeveloped since the Martin Luther King rise in '68. So, we talking about over 40 years, going on 50 years that these neighborhoods have been decimated. And Mayor after Mayor has come, elected official after elected official has come, DA after DA has come. And people have made promises that have gone unkept because we are the silent minority that are -- that often gets neglected. People felt like they are uncared about. What I want to suggest is, and really put on the table, is supporting the community reinvestment to engage these communities that are directly impacted with resources that are faired not to City agencies but to those community organizations. The brother was just talking about they had 30, 40 men, Black men meet for the last five months to come up with the strategies to improve their community, right? And that's exactly kind of thing that we are talking about that we can't rule from the ivory tower anymore. We have to come down and walk amongst the people. Even Jesus Christ himself, a man who could walk on water, who could turn water into wine, could feed -- you know what he did? He washed people feet. He acted as a servant, right, because that was his mission. And we got to dismiss this whole ivory tower mentality and make sure that the people at the very bottom feel included in this City. Or we will continue to see erupts f violence. We will continue to see this discontent. We will continue to see this apathy that don't even allow people to participate in the voting process, let alone engage in a political process. So, I will leave it there because I got so much more to talk about. I know we short on time. But I do want to talk, just mention that we have to mentor youth. That's at the top of the list. We have to invest in these communities that have been neglected. We have to engage in people not within the ivory tower but at the ground level, and we got to trust people. I know it's hard to talk about money and not talk about accountability. But we got to trust these community leaders on the ground who have been engaging communities out of their own pocket for years. I know people feeding hundreds of people from their kitchen with no 24 grants, with no funding, with no support whatever. Just taking what they got to make it work because their community has a need that they can feel. I know men personally who are mentoring young people out of their own pocket. Everybody in FrontLine Dads is volunteers. Ain't nobody getting paid, right? So -- but there is hundreds of other organizations across the City that is doing the same work. And I just want to really amplify that work. Because if we -- in fact, I want to invite Council. And I know everybody here is from the City, and I'm kind of shooting from the hip. But I want to invite Council to just walk through a few of those communities that I'm talking about, right, outside of your district. People living on less than $10,000 a year. People four or five children in the home, right? People with no real resources, making a way out of no way.
And the local school got closed and now they kids got to catch a bus, right? The rec center is in shambles. There is no 21 supermarket within miles, so they only can go to the poppy store or jump on a bus and bring back what they can carry. These is real. Then we got people returning home from incarceration, and the family taking on the added burden of supporting them while they transition. This is real. Grandmoms raising her grandbabies not because she really want to, but because she has to make sure that baby is okay and they thrive. I see so many of these older women with these six year old grandsons. And they walking on the cane and they barely can make it. And she can't even control him, you know, because he's -- I got a nine year old. I know how wild and rambunctious he is. And it's like -- it's the cycle just repeating itself. So, I just want to urge -- and I appreciate -- I want to personally say a thank you to you, Councilman Jones, for taking on the fight for community reinvestment and leading that charge, but also putting your heart into this work as a leader, as a committed public servant. And that's the example that we got to set in order to really, you know -- Moses and Martin Luther King both told their people we going to get there. I might not be with you when it happens, but I am going to make sure I do my part to get us there. And that's the kind of leadership we need. Because everybody wants the accolades. Everybody wants the award. Everybody wants the accomplishment of saying, I did that. It was my this, my legislation. It was my decision. It was my -- but the reality is -- I went to a training. And I forget the sister name. I apologize. And it blew my mind. She was talking about the situation the African-American community is in. And she showed us how like this theory of change that she had. And she was like, it takes three generations -- and she broke it down. Like from slavery, she broke it down. It was like every time we have a collective cultural setback, you got to press reset. And you still talking about three generations from there to kind of erase that damage and that trauma and course correct. And it blew my mind. Even if we started today picture perfect, it's still going to take us three generations to get there. That's what I'm saying. Stop putting the Band-aids on stuff. Let's really think tank our way into a long term solution.
Well, first of all, thank you both for what you do. Sometimes you might think you are out there by yourself, alone on an island, but you are not. What you do matter to the ivory tower folks because we can't do both and do appropriations and do law making. So, somebody has to be the boots on the ground and we appreciate that. I will take you up on your offer. I have done and learned more by going into neighborhoods, getting people's life examples to teach me on what needs to happen from that seat. There was a group as a result of a murder. And there were no -- there were victims and more victims. There were victims and more victims. Meaning, that both moms who were raising kids in the same neighborhood have to see each other at the corner store, are traumatized because now we have beef. My family, your family, all the cousins and brothers. There is going to be more confrontation. And they might want to diffuse it, but it's difficult because of close proximity in which they live. And the level of what you call frustration in everything, it's not just that. It is the fact that we can't find employment for these boys. It's the fact that they are giving up hope. It's the fact that it's Wednesday, and I got to figure out what to eat until Monday because that's when the stamps come. And all of that creates that pressure cooker.
That when I saw this boy and he saw me and he disrespected me, that baffles my mind. You can't dis -- I'm not going -- I'm going to go that way, say have a nice day. But they -- you know, it's like that pressure cooker pushes them together. So, I understand exactly what you mean. And one -- in that same case, it was a bunch of -- it was maybe one or two people that were of adult age in the whole house. I don't mean adult, I mean teens adult. And they were 18 fending for cousins, brothers, people who just 19 flopped in. And it was almost like in their 20 mind, Robin Hood. And we -- everybody outside 21 of this house, that's on y'all. Y'all victims. We got to figure how to feed ourselves, keep the lights on and et cetera. That deep poverty that you speak of, 10,000 in a house is going to put a lot of pressure on people to produce. I don't know what you going to do, you better go get some money. So, what I hope to do is look at your reinvestment aspect of where with the savings of the creek, what we should do. And I like the idea, support the idea that to reinvest that money where the problems are. We have -- inmates are coming from to try to close the spigot. So, I look forward to working with you. I want to come out and see what you do, too. I, personally, what part of town --
We talking about North -- Bobby. Can I call Bobby up real quick for a second? Just to break protocol because --
Before we do, hold a second. Do we have any other panels to testify? You're the last. Come on up.
I want to talk about -- we talking specifically around Broad and Erie, which is an area we've been doing a lot of work at, right? We've been partnering with Zion. We held some political.
But we also did, we walked in neighborhood. And there are some very specific -- everybody loves Max's Cheesesteak, right? And we know CLC is on the other corner. And we know Black and Obel used to be at the other corner. We ain't seen or heard, neglect. I know we talk about the human trafficking. Like, there is a lot of sex work in that area. There is a lot of drugs. There is a lot of heartache in that area. I just want to give Bobby a moment to really --
Absolutely. Absolutely. You want to me share about that area.
First, let me say this. Which many people don't know for me, I witnessed my mother murdered at the age of seven. The age of seven I also tried to commit suicide twice in order to join my mother. My grandmother who was on the run for the entire part of my life because she wind up murdering my grandfather who was a domestic case that led her to run from Burnt Corn, Alabama to Philadelphia as a safe haven. So, she didn't understand how to deal with the trauma that she went through let alone the trauma that I went through as a seven year old kid. Them moving me from Erie Avenue up to 63rd and Jefferson where I wind up living with my aunt. And there was no treatment. There was no treatment for me to receive because they didn't understand how to deal or cope with their trauma. It eventually led to me being one of those persons that we were referred to as an orphan. And I wind up learning my life skills in the streets. And those streets activity eventually led to me going to prison at the age of and sentenced for murder and sentenced to a life sentence. I served a total of 29 years. And I've only been home for one year and four months today. However, while incarcerated I took advantage of those opportunities in there not through the institutional programs but the human potential programs of bettering myself. And that's what brought about my transformation as a man, particularly a Black man, to do something better for myself by writing my own narrative and eventually coming back to the streets and share that. Because I was sentenced with a life sentence but overturned that due to the juvenile ruling from the United States Supreme Court. However, since coming home, I have been blessed with the mentorship of Ruben Jones mentoring me in the areas of being a community organizer. But more importantly, I like to say a human potential resource. And to use those skills to teach and train our men and women in our communities how to better themselves. Because what we are looking at, we are looking at the face of depression. But more importantly, they speak about the violence. And I must say this, no pun intended to anyone, yes, there is violence. But the bigger problem in order to address the violence, we must realize that there is something that's driving that violence. And it's a violation. A lot of our people in our communities are victims of certain things whether it's the educational system, whether it's the criminal justice system, whether it's the poor or lack of parental guidance. There is something that is making them a victim to find themselves in the streets to identify themselves with something that they are not familiar with, but they are adapting negative behavior patterns. So in addressing that, you had asked the question, was it organized. And I sat there and I thought about your question. You know, and yes, it is organized. The violence is organized. The miseducation is organized. You know, the lack of parental guidance is organized. We are looking at institutions in our community, whether they are North Philly, West Philly or South Philly or even inside of City Hall. Everything is organized. Just as we as community organizers and you as elected officials, you must organize. But more importantly, connectively with those of us not just with boots on the ground, but also eating out of our helmets every day to save the quality of life that exists in these communities where people are being killed. Where people are afraid to come and stand up as community people and say enough is enough. So, I do believe 100 percent this is a good start. But I believe that start must go a little bit further. And when I say a little bit further, there is an unspoken language in the City of Philadelphia. They fear us. They fear us whether they are Black or White. They fear Black men standing up.
They fear Black men taking steps to productively change the narrative in our community by not properly funding programs that are capable of transforming the quality of life in our communities. I know you, personally, from the conversation I have had with you with Ruben with regards to what we were working on. Not everyone share that desire that you have expressed or share that passion to see that transformation. And that's what I mean when I say it's organized even from here. Not everyone is willing to organize collectively that's in the elected position who is a backpack carrier of every life in the City of Philadelphia and they are responsible for it. So, since they are not carrying it, it's an organized --
-- disconnect in existence. And I wish that it can come from the elected people that's in these positions with you, Councilman, as well as us that's in the community with our boots on the ground and eating out of our helmets to save the quality of life.
I am going to share this with you. You can use that. But also use us and use us in the proper manner to change the quality of life. When you looking at Erie Avenue where we hosting these events, we have right now, we about to start mentoring out of our own pockets. It's a shame for me, personally. I see everybody left. I got to say that, and I hope it's on the record. Everybody -- everybody left. You know, no pun intended. But that's because a lot of us in the City of Philadelphia, we suffer from amnesia which is a total and complete loss of memory. We forgot how to live. We forgot how to take care of one another. We forgot how to give back to one another. But more importantly, we forgot how to collaborate and uplift our community as a unit. And this is why you see we come with speaking points, then we depart. We remove ourselves from the problem sometimes. But then there are those that don't remove. And we must reward that with the proper tools. We in the war. War of ignorance. That's the number one thing. Lack of intelligence strips us. And this is what you see down Broad and Erie, my neighborhood where I was birthed at, you know, you see violence. However, you have an institution that came out on faith and welcomed us from Close To Creek. Y'all can facilitate any programs y'all want in our church. We are conducting judicial candidacy forms. We are conducting Councilman and women forms. We are conducting mentoring programs. We are about to start one right now for the summer which will be geared towards teaching and training the young men and women in these neighborhoods to get them off the streets how to productively think with a mentoring program we created called Awakening Our Manhood. AMH is the theme of it. That's the acronym for it. However, we are not funded. That's because don't nobody believe in us. We believe in us. I know you do.
It's people in here that aren't in here that do believe in you. And they -- we are trying to tip the balance to make sure that that reinvestment happens. It doesn't matter as much if they are standing here because half of them watch it on TV, but it's in the stenographer hand right there. So we -- and the Mayor even watches us. But what I want to say to you is, there is one other aspect I want to add to it. Entrepreneurship. If you can't find a job, create one. In another life, I used to write business plans and fund businesses. There are different things that we can get those young people employed by their own hand from everything from exterminating to painting to all kinds of jobs that we should start to figure out where the startup capital can come from. And once they get going -- because a lot of the things you learn on the street ain't all bad.
100 percent. And I want to 10 add this to you. This is where we at. This is 11 what the community hub that we speaking about 12 with the reinvestment, going back into youth for 13 our people. 14 I mean, when you're speaking about the 15 entrepreneur, it takes a certain language to reach the people today. I mean, they don't speak the language. They don't understand when you and I, we may speak, you may say the microphone. We know that's an adjective describing a noun or something. They don't perceive it as that. If you speak the word "the" to them, they may take that violently. You are too assertive with that. They may react in a certain way. But we sit there and say for those of us that know how to articulate ourselves and speak a language to the people that they are receptive to, utilize that. Because when you are looking at the youth today, they want money. No matter what, these young children out here, they believe they are entrepreneurs when they getting into the drug games no matter what. They may only be moving 8,000 dollars or G-pack as it once was called. However, they still see and perceive themselves as the boss of their reality. We need to match that, but match it with something productive when you are speaking about the entrepreneur skills.
That they don't have to order or required to look over their should in fear the police arresting them. They don't have to fear someone trying to rob them because they are highlighting that potential that defines him or her as a young man. But more importantly, a productive young entrepreneur. So, we have to learn how to teach that to them. Ruben contacted an individual that was going to teach the children IT pro bono and then place them in apprenticeship. And then from appr -- and paid apprenticeship. But nobody seeks to invest in the ideas. And that's something that we really have to attack and address or whatever. And I just want to add this real fast as closing. You have an example. I was explaining to Ruben today. You have Knox Transportation, a formerly incarcerated juvenile life for him and his wife. And I mean, my brother and sister, they started their own transportation service. And with this transportation service --
They take them to the prisons, you know. And what they do now, they taking people to medical trips. So, they are incorporating the mentorship program into it for the youth. But also upon completing the mentorship, you immediately go into employment with Knox Transportation and have a job as a driver. That's an entrepreneur skill from a formerly incarcerated person. But that's an entrepreneur skill that is being enhanced in our community that needs to be highlighted along with everything else that's productive.
And I just want to say really quickly, and since the room is empty, I can say to everyone who is here. But speaking to the mic, the program that we, you know, submitted to the Mayor's Office -- and I don't want to bash nobody, but I want to be honest because that's the only way I know how to be. I know that's caused me to burn bridges and lose some political allies. But I'm not going to be fake and phony for anybody, right? I'm not going to cow tow and bend to appease the Mayor. He's a man who put on his pants the same way I do. We put together a proposal, right, to have the City gift us, if you will, or at least support the project to take over school that was closed since 2013, Thomas Fitzsimmons. We got the auto industry. So, individual has auto shop who is willing to teach the young people that basis so they can, A, get a job with a sustainable living; or B, become -- after becoming certified mechanic, starting their own business. We have a tech company. That company is actually out of Baltimore who is willing to -- we were going to kind of extend them to Philly to teach these skills to young people, to give them a stable living with jobs that started at $50,000, right? These -- and I will be respectful. But his team said to us in our last meeting about three weeks ago and told us there was a misunderstanding about what the proposal was. We met with them about, what, three to four times. We had other conversation with his team. We emailed in black and white the proposal, spelled it out. In our campaign, we always talk about community reinvestment ran by the community, not City agencies. So, that was a slap in the face. That was a gut punch. That was a sucker punch if I ever felt one to say, I don't believe in you. I don't want to support this because they didn't want to give $15 million, even though that's the number you gave us, that's the commitment you made verbally. And I kept telling my team, it's just a verbal commitment. We got to get them to sign the paper because you didn't trust formerly incarcerated Black men to lead a project like that. You don't know that we got OIC at the table. He don't know that we got Impact Service at the table. He don't know that we got all these NC tech companies and all these other people at the table. But because he saw a Black face with a criminal record, he pivoted on us. He did an about face on us, right? And this after almost a year, about a year of our campaign of meeting and talking and engaging with this man about putting those resources from -- and we not talking about resource from the City. We talking about -- we not talking about a new tax. We talking about the money that you've been putting into a prison. Now you talking about all the time those, I think, eleven ZIP codes that 80 percent of our population --
Ninety percent of our population come from and return. So, we pinpointing those specific areas for you to say here is where our help needs to go. And they looked us in the face and made some other promises that still haven't come to fruition. Told us to start smaller. Oh, that's too big of a project. We going to give you a list of City-owned buildings that you can explore. Three weeks later, still haven't got it. We going to give you some parameters in which to pursue, give us some outcome. How many people you going to serve? You know, just general specific number all these things. So, that's a good way, right, because publicly it serves good face to say, well, they wasn't ready. But when I tell you we got, first of all, our organization is a $20 million organization. OIC has a long tract since the '60s with the history of Leon Sullivan, multi-million dollar organization. Impact Services is the biggest reentry transformation program in the city, multi-million. So, you going to tell me all these experts at the table, just like you said, Black people was too overqualified to work in City government. You saying all these people at the table aren't able to pull this project off? So, it's a slap in the face. And I just want to say, our pinpoint mission is to take the resources specifically from closing the jail and putting them back in these neglected community to create affordable housing, to create employment, to satisfy public safety needs, to give safe recreation. We did surveys. We went in and out of these neighborhoods, knocking on doors and talking to people on the corner and having them complete a survey about what was missing in the neighborhood, what they needed in the neighborhoods, what they wanted to see happen from City government. Did they feel like City government was responsive to them? All these things. And this is the information that we are bringing back. We are not -- we both are blessed and privileged even to have a job that we can pay our bills for with -- in comfort and not have to worry about and still working within the community. We know everybody don't have that privilege. And we get that. So, we not asking for money for ourselves. We ain't one of them tap dancing Negroes that's coming shucking an jiving and trying to take no back pocket payoff. We here to serve the community. And because the leadership in the City don't believe in that mission, we just ran into a brick wall about three weeks ago. I didn't mean to vent that, but I just want to paint the total picture of our mission for community reinvestment and how we trying to go about pinpointing those resources for the community that needs it most.
That is violent prevention when people are properly employed and properly serviced with the needs.
Well, I am sorry you hit a road block in that mission. But for clarification, government is not just the Mayor's Office. It's City Council. It's the courts. And we respect and acknowledge what you do. And it's not over. The reason we are having these hearings is to get on the record how people's opinions or how those savings, how that violence plan should look and how it should be implemented. And so, you know, honestly, you know, you're an acquired tasted, but I have acquired the taste. I know you don't dance when there is no music, laugh when it ain't no joke or scratch when it ain't no itch. And therefore, I respect you.
I want to thank you all for coming out and giving your testimony. This concludes the business of the Joint Committee of Public Safety and Special Committee on Gun Violence Prevention for today. Thank you all very much for your testimony.
Thank you. (Committee Hearing adjourned at 4:28 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. -------------------------- ANGELA M. KING, RPR,