By Laura DeKoven Waxman
April 16, 2012

Conference of Mayors President Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa and Conference of Mayors Vice President Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter were among seven mayors in Washington (DC) April 2 for a Summit on Preventing Youth Violence. The meeting, convened by the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention, provided an opportunity for the six cities now in the Forum to share information on what they have accomplished and what remains to be done.

The six forum cities are Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Salinas, and San Jose. In his remarks, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Administration plans to add four new cities to the forum this year.

Villaraigosa brought greetings from the Conference of Mayors and briefed participants on his anti-gang initiative in Los Angeles. In 2007 he established the Mayor’s Office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development (GRYD), a single office to oversee the implementation of a comprehensive gang reduction strategy, and focused resources on those communities most impacted by violence.

“Above all, we would take a holistic approach that prioritized improving communities with proven, data-driven practices,” Villaraigosa said. “Today, Los Angeles is the only city with an around-the-clock incident response program. Whatever the time, a staff member from our GRYD office responds to each and every gang shooting. They work with intervention workers and the LAPD to counsel victims and to take the critical steps to stop retaliation.”

He also described his Summer Night Lights program, which over the last four years has created evening recreation and entertainment in city parks that have been notorious as havens for gang activity. “Parks once known for crime and violence have been transformed into places of community and peace,” he commented. “Gang-related crimes in parks with Summer Night Lights events have declined by nearly a third.”

Nutter participated in a conversation with Casey Family Programs President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. William C. Bell on the high incidence of violence among young people in many cities and what must be done to reduce it. Nutter, who termed this violence domestic terrorism, decried the lack of attention paid to it, and asked, “What is our domestic terrorism response?”

He suggested that tainted food gets more attention than young people killing each other: “If there were five bad bags of spinach on the shelf somewhere, someone would put out a national alert. Every bag would be snatched off the shelves until someone figured out where they came from, what was going on, and there would be a national investigation. There is no national investigation about this issue – that black people are killing black people all across the United States of America,” he continued.

He called for “a serious conversation, not only about Trayvon Martin – and I won’t take anything away from that discussion – but the thousands of people who are killed all across the United States of America – black, white, Latino, Asian, anybody else – [it] is a serious national issue that deserves a serious national discussion. This is what I’m going to be doing in one way or another for the rest of my life,” he commented.

Other mayors present were Rahm Emanuel from Chicago, Chuck Reed from San Jose, Dennis Donohue from Salinas, Judith Kennedy from Lynn, and Judy Kennedy from Newburgh.

Administration officials in addition to Holder who addressed the Summit included Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske.