PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — As the rate of gun violence continues to soar in Philadelphia, some community members personally affected by gun violence feel the city is falling short in preempting the surge of homicides.
Stanley Crawford, whose son was killed in a 2018 shooting, believes a return to a more aggressive form of stop-and-frisk policing should be part of the solution to get more guns off the streets.
"What we’re getting right now is not working," said Crawford, the executive director of the Black Male Community Council of Philadelphia. "If these young brothers are walking around with free will to carry guns and unleash them on our community, we can’t be the source of making them freer to do that."
The conversation around the stop-and-frisk policy was reignited in City Council last week by Council President Darrell Clarke in the wake of the stray gunfire incident on the Parkway on the 4th of July.
“There are a lot of citizens in the city of Philadelphia that talk about when are we going to look at stop and frisk in a constitutionally enacted way. Those are conversations that people have to have,” Clarke said.
Council Majority Leader Cherelle Parker supported the idea of using "every tool we have in the toolbox."
"We have to implore the use of it to make the city safer," she said.
The policy came into more widespread practice during former Mayor Michael Nutter's term, but it fell out of favor for disproportionately targeting young men of color. Mayor Jim Kenney campaigned against it in 2015, and police stops of pedestrians and vehicles have dropped during his tenure.
Rates of violent gun crime during Nutter's second term were much lower than they have been in recent years. This year already, the city has surpassed annual homicide counts in every year from 2013 to 2016, so Clarke's sentiment seems to be resonating with more people, even as other city leaders denounce it as a misguided step backwards.
Joel Seay, co-founder of the Jarrell Christopher Seay Love and Laughter Foundation, says he is on the fence about a stop-and-frisk policy, but he leans toward supporting it. “I’m really for it, with restrictions and with police discipline,” said Seay, who also lost his son to gun violence.
His concern is that young adults who have permits to legally carry a concealed firearm will be caught up by more aggressive policing.
“Our children are armed now just to be safe,” said Seay, who believes the practice should be limited to only officers highly trained to remove racial bias from their actions.
'Still haven't completely repaired'
In response to Clarke's comments, Councilmembers Helen Gym, Jamie Gauthier and Kendra Brooks crafted a statement rejecting what they see as a racist, ineffective practice.
“When we look at the policing that was happening, and how it was happening, it caused an enormous rift between the police and the community that we still haven’t completely repaired,” Gauthier said. “That’s a part of Philadelphia’s history that is not good. In fact, it’s the reason why we have been under a consent decree for about a decade now — because we were sued by the ACLU."
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Gym points to studies showing that a blanket increase in stops isn't effective and that no matter what you call it or how you tweak it, it should be a non-starter.
“When we have been sued, when we have been told by courts, when we have been told by constituents — you are not putting a better face on a bad policy,” Gym said.
Police officers in Philadelphia do use stop and frisk in some cases, such as when they see someone participating in an obvious criminal activity. In fact, last year, Philadelphia police said they took about 6,000 guns off the streets, the most in city history.
Gun prosecutions under District Attorney Larry Krasner, however, are down. As part of his efforts to reduce mass incarceration, he has deprioritized seeking charges for non-violent gun offenses.
Krasner and other progressive advocates such as Gauthier, Brooks and Gym say police need to build greater community trust, and leaders need to provide more resources to attack the root causes of crime and poverty.
Meanwhile, many people in the community are crying out for some sort of immediate lifeline.
South Philadelphia community leader Anton Moore says focusing only on underlying long-term issues lacks the urgency needed for the moment.
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“When a senior citizen can’t go to the store because they are afraid of being shot, we have a problem! When a parent can’t take their kids to the park to play, we have a problem!” said Moore, who heads the group Unity in the Community. “This is not a game! If you come into the neighborhood and talk to people that are going through this every day … they want something done."
Moore is not a fan of the old style of stop and frisk, and thinks it should be tweaked to reflect targeted community and police intervention. He says better city services, like clean parks and expanded library services, are worth fighting for, but of little use to many people living with daily trauma.
“A person that’s blowing your head off ain’t coming to your park and library You better believe it. And if you think that’s true, play with these guys on the street today,” Moore warned.
Riya Saha Shah, managing director of the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, hears those concerns, but she worries about the impact more aggressive policing would have on children, especially since many shooters have been teenagers.
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“Even if kids are not arrested, I think the concern is that contact with the police, that contact with law enforcement, is very traumatic for children, particularly young Black children,” said Shah.
She fears that a greater number of police interactions will be a recipe for more problems.
“A [cisgender] white male, their interaction with police may be different, whereas a young Black child who is being stopped by police, their instinct may be to run.”
Shah believes a return to a more aggressive form of stop-and-frisk policing will undermine any faith in law enforcement that may exist in the communities and cause too much trauma. Meanwhile, Philadelphia is on pace to surpass last year’s record homicide count, with little end in sight for what's become a daily barrage of shootings in neighborhoods across the city.