Sharp spike in homicides in Youngstown demands communitywide response

The notoriously mean streets of Youngstown have grown alarmingly meaner over the short span of the past month. Since Nov. 5, six people have been slain in a troubling string of violent killings. Placed in perspective, that’s nearly half of the body count from last week’s massacre in San Bernardino, Calif.

At that rate, Youngstown would be headed toward 72 homicides within a 12-month span, a toll higher than that of cities 10 times its size. Clearly that level of indiscriminate bloodshed and senseless violence cannot be tolerated.

With that very message in mind, a group of public-safety conscious current and incoming Youngstown City Council members rallied outside City Hall earlier this week in a display of unity to say enough is enough. They also sent out an appeal for the city’s help to reduce the spate of killings that rips apart families and tarnishes the city’s image.

We commend the council members for their unified stance and lend our support to their urgent plea for communitywide assistance to staunch the flow of bloodshed.

Specifically, the elected officials called for stronger reinforcements for a program that has generated national recognition and respect for its multifaceted approach to steer young people away from a life of gang-banging and thuggery.

That program – the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence headed by Coordinator Guy Burney – is a partnership created in 2013 among law enforcement, social service agencies, the faith-based community and the community at large to lessen the amount of gun violence in the city. Its overarching and laudable mission is to “create an effective delivery system to offer individuals a circle of support enabling them to choose a nonviolent path in life.”

Among the many concrete tools it uses toward that end are support services to violent offenders willing to change, violence prevention programming, street outreach and intervention in the gang culture plus initiatives targeted at conflict resolution, mental health, job placement and educational advancement.

Councilwoman Annie Gillam, D-1st Ward, appealed for maximum community participation in CIRV at the rally Monday. “Anybody that needs help that has a dispute going on, and before there’s a killing and retaliation, needs to join this program,” she said.

CIRV NEEDS ASSISTANCE

Unfortunately, however, the recent and unpredictable upswing in gun violence within the city limits is straining the limited resources of Burney’s one-man department. Gillam and others at the rally argued for more assistance for CIRV, including a paid support staff for Burney and his volunteers.

“When you spend money on the front end, you spend less money on the back end” for incarceration of people who commit violent crimes, said Councilwoman Janet Tarpley, D-6th Ward, at the rally.

Tarpley’s logic is airtight. Unfortunately, however, given the city’s precarious fiscal health, its ability to offer any significant financial boost would be limited indeed. As a result, private groups, philanthropists and others should be encouraged to come to the aid of CIRV through donations, fundraising projects, grant-writing expertise and other volunteer efforts. The CIRV office is located at 26 S. Phelps St. downtown.

Of course, even with broad-based community engagement, CIRV alone cannot singlehandedly create safer and more secure neighborhoods in the city. Strong police presence, particularly in areas with high homicide rates such as the South Side, greater job opportunities for idle residents, more closely knit family structures and access to educational achievement all also figure into the complex equation of increasing the quality of life and decreasing the quantity of death by gunfire in Youngstown.

But CIRV’s singular mission of attacking criminal and gang behaviors at their roots has shown success in its short two-year history and holds greater promise for the future – if it amasses the critical resources it needs. Any and all city and Mahoning Valley residents yearning for safer and saner Youngstown streets should embrace and support CIRV’s noble objectives.