This article originally appeared in Street Sense Media.

By Karl A. Racine  

Imagine growing up in this city and believing with near certainty that you would not live to see your 18th birthday. 

Unfortunately, this is how many Washingtonians feel. As a father and life-long resident, I find it deeply troubling that our youth grow up convinced that they won’t make it to attend prom, walk across the stage at graduation, or have a family. As recent high-profile shootings have focused the city’s attention on gun violence, more needs to be done to address it.  

To be sure, we cannot break this cycle of violence overnight, especially in communities facing generational violence. And it certainly cannot be broken by one agency, one organization, or one person. It requires an all-hands-on-deck approach and everyone in the city doing their part.  

That’s why, back in 2018, my office – the office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia – launched Cure the Streets, a pilot public safety program aimed at reducing gun violence in several neighborhoods that have historically experienced some of the highest rates of gun violence in the city. The program takes a public health approach to gun violence: treating it as a disease that can be interrupted, treated, and stopped from spreading. By employing local, credible people with deep ties to these neighborhoods, we can detect and mediate conflicts, and prevent shootings.  

The Cure Team knows this work is not easy – but they do it because they care about their communities and want to end gun violence. Take, for example, Michelle Blackwell, one of our program managers at the Congress Heights Cure site. She’s motivated to do this work because she sees the results of her work in real time. For example, her team brokered a ceasefire between two streets that had been engaged in gun violence for decades. What felt like never-ending violence came to a halt because people in the community were empowered to create change.  

And that’s not all. 

Last summer, one of our target sites in Washington Highlands went 100 days without gun violence – a period of peace rare before Cure the Streets arrived. And even though the pandemic has limited in-person mediations, our team conducted 82 virtual mediations in the last fiscal year. This ongoing commitment to violence interruption through the COVID-19 pandemic likely prevented shootings in the target neighborhoods.  

However, violence interruption efforts are one important piece of a much larger effort to stop gun violence. Public safety requires a holistic approach, and this includes support for trauma-reduction services, workforce development, and law enforcement. For those of us – myself included – who didn’t grow up on the streets, it’s difficult to understand how a lack of investment in housing, education, and health care breeds violence. But without stable shelter or access to a quality education, a good job, or a doctor to treat physical, emotional, and mental health needs, many people turn to violence.  

When I speak to Cure the Streets workers on the ground about the root causes of crime, I continually hear the same chilling answer – people are just trying to survive. One program manager at the Washington Highlands Cure site, Jovan Davis, described street life – particularly when you’re homeless – as “survival of the fittest.” Without knowing where you will sleep at night or when you will eat next, some people – as any human being would – become desperate.  

Therefore, to defeat gun violence, we must invest in communities that are too often left out of conversations about D.C.  

For example: 

• Out of the 49 full-service grocery stores in D.C., only 3 are in Wards 7 and 8. In essence, there are three grocery stores for nearly 160,000 people. 
   
• At the height of the pandemic (April 2020) the unemployment rate in Wards 5, 7, and 8 reached 14.3%, 16.5%, and 20.7%, respectively. These reflect the highest unemployment rates in the city. 
   
• There is only one hospital that serves communities east of the river – and it is being forced to close by 2023.  

Let me be clear: While a lack of resources is never an excuse for violent crime, failing to acknowledge and address the root causes of why people commit crimes will only lead to more violence. The late author and civil rights activist James Baldwin once described the structure of the inner-city as “a nearly irresistible temptation to criminal activity.” And the statistics above bear out that conclusion.  

As I have said before and will continue to say: All of us have a role to play in stopping gun violence and eradicating poverty, trauma, and hopelessness among our most vulnerable. Gun violence is a multi-layered and multi-generational issue that requires our sustained attention – but we must keep at it. Because in this city that we all love, the success of our most vulnerable is tied to the success of everyone.