I have some catching up to do with recaps from events that happened on Monday night and last night, so I better get started.
After spending the early afternoon with Chaka Fattah in West Philadelphia at one kind of crime-related event, I went to North Philly to sit in on an entirely different kind of event with Dwight Evans. Here's the recap of the event from the Daily News's Bob Warner:
Another mayoral candidate, State Rep. Dwight Evans, met a different set of critics yesterday [Monday] - 20 juveniles who have gotten into trouble with police for carrying guns, knives or narcotics.
Meeting in a classroom at Temple University, where the youths are enrolled in a court-ordered counseling program called "Don't Fall Down in the 'Hood," Evans sought their advice on how to stem the city's problems with guns and violence.
"The most important responsibility of government is to provide safety and security," Evans said. "If I'm fortunate enough [to become mayor], I want to remember what you tell me."
Several of the juveniles suggested the government should improve job and recreation opportunities, but none gave Evans much specific advice.
"In our neighborhood it's all drugs, guns, violence and shooting," said Tyrell Woods, 17, a junior at West Philadelphia High School who got caught carrying a .38-caliber snubnose revolver at 48th and Market streets. He said that it's easy to buy guns and that many youths carry weapons not to victimize others, but to protect themselves.
Evans met with the group for more than an hour. He said the message he heard was "how much these kids want a sense of hope and optimism," while living with a sense of fear.
Only a couple of the youths were old enough to vote. Their reaction to Evans?
"I would say he's out of touch," Woods said. "It's hard to understand the neighborhoods when you're sitting in an office."
Click "Continue Reading" to get my perspective of this event.
Evans seemed best at reaching these young men when he was in story telling mode, telling them about where he came from, how he grew up and what his neighborhood was like. His experience as a teacher seemed to serve him well and his easygoing style encouraged a level of participation from these kids that they probably would not otherwise have been willing to give. Evans questioned them about why people in their neighborhoods seem so willing to turn to violent crime, a question which he'd ask many more times throughout the evening.
One participant answered simply: "abandoned houses." Evans pressed him for details. Keep in mind that many very smart people have written extensively about the effects of high concentration of abandoned houses on the psyche of the neighborhood's residents and on the local economy. It seemed that this kid, who probably had never read those high-minded treatises written by people who live very far away from his neighborhood, had somehow come to this same understanding just by experiencing it. Well, sort of. "When people get killed, that's where they dump the bodies," he said. Another chimed in, "yeah, or people use them to hide out in" after they commit a crime. There's something you're not going to see in any psychological paper studying the effects of abandoned buildings.
I'll admit it. I don't spend too much time in the places that have been hardest hit by the waves of disinvestment, drugs, abandonment, violent crime and murder. I can't imagine what it's like for these guys, some as young as 13, who deal with this every day. And these are the lucky ones. They've already been caught with a gun or other weapon or drugs and now they're being given a chance to wipe their record clean if they can complete this program. So in that classroom, I became a student again and tried very hard to learn what it must be like for them.
Evans's next question was, basically, why does someone have to use a gun? And in their answers, I learned a few more lessons. Answers ranged from "they're easy to get" to "it gives you power" to "if you shoot someone people respect you" to some people carry guns because they have to because of the environment.
When I was a kid, growing up in a fairly diverse neighborhood (according to racial and economic indicators) in Upper Darby, I didn't know where to buy drugs, alcohol and certainly not a gun. Admittedly, I wasn't one of the "cool kids" on the block, spending most of my time playing street hockey, going to the pool or playing some pick-up baseball. But there, in that room, I heard a 14-year-old explain in pretty good detail that you can get a "dirty gun" for 40 or 50 bucks or a "clean gun" for 200. When you think about the situation, it almost makes you wonder how more kids under 18 aren't killed by gun fire than the 21 that met that end in 2006.
The event continued for another 2 hours and included such depressing moments as when Evans asked how many of the guys had grown up with their father's living in the same house (about 4 out of 20). And, while we in our offices may think that small schools are a wonderful thing, these guys pointed out that the schools are "so small that everyone knows who everyone is and where they live." Meaning that a lot of fights that start in the school are continued outside, often with violent consequences. That's not to say that there aren't a lot of benefits to smaller classrooms but, clearly, simply reducing class sizes isn't going to do much to solve the problems with the schools unless a whole host other problems are dealt with.
After talking through a lot of these problems, Evans went into campaigning mode... and that's where he lost them. He outlined the 4 parts of his crime plan. When Evans explained that he intended to hire 500 more police officers, eyes rolled and one participant piped up, "that's not gonna do nothing, man." In fact, as I look in my notes, I see that that's where I wrote, in big letters, "They see through the bullshit!" I could go the whole rest of the campaign and hear Evans talk about that 100 more times and not witness the brutally honest, gut reactions that came from these kids whose lives are most affected by violent crime.
Evans said he'd get back to that and continued with his plan. Unfortunately, he didn't "get back to that" and the room lost out on what could have been an interesting discussion about the effectiveness of police. I, for one, would have been very interested to know why the general sentiment was that more police wouldn't stop the violence.
Evans spent the rest of the time talking about his record. Slowly, the attention of the students drifted to other places, though some remained focused on what he had to say. In the end, these guys got an agreement from Evans that he'd let them visit his office in Harrisburg and everyone had pizza, except for me and Bob Warner.
So yes, I'd agree with the sentiment of the student quoted in Bob's story. While Evans' background puts him more in touch with their plight than most other 50-something career politicians, it's still been a while since he's actually walked in those shoes. What's important, though, will be whether he took what he learned from that night, and from countless other such events that he's probably been to, and can apply them should he become mayor. Will Mayor Evans (if that happens) convene such a group?