Inner City Turmoil

[Lewis 0]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal...local-headlines

Another religious figure has stepped up to the challenge in Baltimore.

Vowing to decrease by half the number of murders in Baltimore this summer, the Rev. Jamal-Harrison Bryant, whose youth and charisma have propelled him to celebrity status in the area's Christian community, announced yesterday plans for a new crime-fighting initiative called "Stop Sinning" - a play on the infamous inner-city mantra "Stop Snitching."

(")

Bryant said he hopes to meet his goal by hosting a gun buy-back June 1, conducting "'hood invasions," in which ministers and other community outreach personnel hit the streets to talk to young people - particularly young men who lack male role models - and pushing for local businesses, particularly the ones that the church patronizes, to offer jobs and internships to people in the community.

"Men and women of God, get from behind the pulpit and get on the street," Bryant roared to a crowd of congregants, city officials and police gathered at West North Avenue and Poplar Grove Street. He declared "war" on the "Stop Snitching" campaign, which gained notoriety when NBA player and Baltimore native Carmelo Anthony appeared in a video that urged crime witnesses to refrain from cooperating with the police. Anthony later apologized.

(")

Police have logged 110 homicides in the city this year, up from 101 at the same time last year.

(")

Bryant says his "Stop Sinning" movement was prompted after he watched an interview that aired last month on CBS' 60 Minutes. The rapper Cam'ron, who famously refused to cooperate with police after he was shot in Washington in 2005 while he was in town to celebrate Howard University's homecoming, said on the show that he adheres to a strict street code that prevents him from talking to law enforcement.

"If I knew the serial killer was living next door to me? No, I wouldn't call and tell anybody on him," Cam'ron said, according to a transcript of the interview.

(")

Edited May 22, 2007 by Lewis