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By Erik Alsgaard
UMConnection Staff

On a warm, late September Friday night, near one of the meanest streets on the west side of Baltimore City, a small group of police officers, clergy, politicians and concerned citizens gathered at St. James UMC. Dozens of eyes, connected to dozens of people sitting on row house steps or idling on a street corner, watched warily as uniformed officers entered the church. One person was overheard to say, “Wonder who died?”

Death is not uncommon is this neighborhood.

“I have done too many funerals,” said the Rev. Iris Farabee-Lewis, pastor at St. James, speaking of her seven years at the church. “I believe that if we can teach our children how to live, not how to die, we’ll be helping make this a better community.”

Farabee-Lewis knows that the issue of crime and violence is a matter of the heart and spirit.

“We only have one spirit, and if it’s dominated by evil, then the spirit is terrible. We need more people with the spirit of Christ in them, and then they’ll think twice before they pull the trigger,” she said.

Her church, located on West Lexington Street in Baltimore City, is in the heart of struggle. Farabee-Lewis was the reason for the gathering on this Friday night. She posted flyers in the neighborhood and personally invited the people who came to talk about the problems of crime and violence in the neighborhood.

The goal: to have the community, police and clergy all working together.

“Baltimore City has been divided,” Farabee-Lewis said. “But violence is all over the city. We’re trying to bring together a partnership to offer training on how to work on the violence problem.”

“I’ve heard many stories about the problems,” said State Delegate Melvin Stukes as part of a panel presentation. Stukes has been in the state Assembly since 2007, and is a member of Beechfield UMC in Baltimore. “Yes, there’s a lot of money for programs, but it’s kind of like baptism: if their heart doesn’t change, all you have is a wet sinner.”

Years ago, Stukes said, things were different. Then, parents and children bleached their front steps on weekends; cars and floors were washed; trash was picked up; weeds were pulled; homework was a joint effort between parent and child.

“There is no excuse to have the front of your house looking like a trash bin,” he said. “These are small things that make a big difference in the neighborhood. Where there is trash all over the front yard, people think, ‘They don’t care, why should I care?’”

Stukes said one solution to the violence and crime is to get back to the basics of discipline, “where parents run the house, not the children.”

The city of Baltimore finished 2012 with the sixth highest homicide per-capita rate in the United States, according to the Washington Post. Even though the actual number of homicides is declining, it still is one too many. And, many of the speakers said, the police can’t do it on their own.

“It breaks my heart now to drive through certain segments of the city,” said Pastor Armstrong, a chaplain with the city’s police department. “God has not left the neighborhood. He asks, ‘Where are you?’”

Community engagement is key to reducing the crime rate, said Captain Bernard Douglas of the police’s Community Partnership Program.

“A lot of people sit on the sidelines,” Douglas said. “The question I ask: Are you making a difference? Being engaged in the community is important.”

Noting that this year alone, there have been 220 non-fatal shootings — “unsuccessful homicides,” he called them — Douglas said there is a lot involved in fighting crime. But to him, it’s worth it.

“If I can go downtown and not see a dead body in the morgue, that’s a win for me,” he said. “Be consistent. Don’t be distracted by all the things people say about community work.”

Officer Quinise Green shared a vision with the audience, saying that the department wanted to start a trauma response team on the west side, similar to the one started earlier on the east side of the city. These teams would be comprised of trained individuals who go out into the community to show care and support for residents. Green said the program has “proven very fruitful” in East Baltimore.

“If we can get both East and West Baltimore crime reduced,” she said, “the rest is easy.”