ASK THE MAYOR

Earlier this year, the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, a program of the Obama Foundation, named Newark a ‘My Brother’s Keeper Model Community’ for violence reduction. We asked Mayor Baraka about it. Here is what he had to say:

Why is it so important to focus on young men specifically?

Mayor Baraka: “President Obama started this when the incident happened with Trayvon Martin. And he said that Trayvon Martin could have been his son if he had a son. So, from that became the impetus for him to start My Brother’s Keeper—trying to target black and brown boys who oftentimes are higher on lists that we don’t need them to be high on: high on unemployment, high school dropout, incarceration, all these… and we are trying to figure out how to change that trajectory.”

What was so exceptional about what you did in Newark that would make you a model community?

Mayor Baraka: “I don’t even think I like the way you asked that question (smile). Actually… we reduced violence in the city, (in 2013) we had 113 homicides. Last year, we had 50, while the rest of the country was witnessing huge spikes in violence and crimes. We didn’t experience that in Newark. As a matter of fact we arrested less people, and see crime going in the other direction.”

What do you think is the biggest contributor to violence reduction in Newark?

Mayor Baraka: “We talk about violence and crime as public health. While everybody else was saying defund the police, we created more opportunities in the public safety area. We created the Office of Violence Prevention, Brick City Peace Collective; we put social workers in all the precincts and the youth house. We created safe passages to schools, hospital-based intervention programs. And, we are in the process of putting out a RFP to expand organizations and the work that they are doing. Preferably by July, we will be able to have these organizations working in the community in ways they haven’t been able to do before.” dN

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