By Kevin Aldridge
and Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A coalition of African-American civil rights, religious and social service organizations Tuesday announced the start of a campaign to reduce urban violence in Cincinnati.

The initiative, called the "Peace Down the Way Coalition," is aimed at stopping black-on-black violence by placing trained volunteers on the streets to interact with at-risk youths and adults, airing public service announcements that promote peace and mobilizing residents to aid police in reducing crime.

The project initially will focus on Over-the-Rhine and the West End, and then expand to other city neighborhoods.

Leaders of the initiative say the coalition was born out of recognition that the battle for justice, equality and better communities is two-fold. While it is necessary to keep pressure on city leaders to institute systemic change, coalition members said, it is also necessary for the African-American community to take responsibility and clean up its own backyard.

The coalition will meet today at 1 p.m. at New Prospect Baptist Church in Over-the-Rhine, where it will declare a moratorium on violence.

"We have to come together as a community to make sure that 2003 looks different than 2002 and 2001 in terms of young black life being lost," said the Rev. Damon Lynch III, president of the Cincinnati Black United Front and pastor of New Prospect. "We must do everything possible to get these killings to stop."

Statistics show that when a young white man dies in the city of Cincinnati, he is most likely the victim of an accident or suicide. But black males who die in their teens or early 20s usually lose their lives at the hands of a killer.

The city's 330,000 population is 43 percent African-American.

Of 2002's 64 homicide victims - a 15-year high - 78 percent were African-American. Black men between 18 and 29 made up roughly half of all homicide victims, even though they represent about 3 percent of the city's population.

More people have been hurt in assaults with firearms this year - 174 victims as of mid-November, compared with 148 for all of 2001. That's a 17.5 percent jump. Virtually all of them are male and black.

"We are at a crisis level at this point," said Victoria Straughn, chairman of Concerned Citizens for Justice. "Our black men are becoming an endangered species. What we are seeing on our streets every night is a cry for help."

The coalition is made up of about 17 organizations and agencies. Among them are the Cincinnati Black United Front, Baptist Ministers Conference, Urban League of Greater Cincinnati, NAACP, Nation of Islam-Mosque No. 5 and the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission.

To begin to tackle the violence problem, members of the Nation of Islam will conduct a training session on Jan. 9 for volunteers who will patrol the streets.

Daryl Muhammad, a member of the Nation of Islam, said the "military-style" training session will teach volunteers how to engage and talk to people on the streets.

"There is too much violence for us to stand idly by and do nothing," Mr. Muhammad said. "This is our problem, our family, and it is time to stand up if we love one another."

On Jan. 18, the coalition will sponsor what it called "a major day of peace celebration" to coincide with the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The community event will feature national speakers and entertainers - none of which were named Tuesday - who deliver messages of peace and nonviolence.

The Rev. Mr. Lynch said other projects include a "Peace Over Profit Day," where bars and stores would be asked not to sell alcohol. Alcohol and drugs, the Rev. Mr. Lynch said, play a key role in much of the violence.

The coalition will also be working with schools and churches on programs to promote peace. On the Sunday following the Rev. Dr. King's birthday, clergy at all churches and mosques are asked to deliver sermons that promote nonviolence. And on that Monday, the coalition will ask all schools to spend a half day teaching about nonviolence and conflict resolution.

It was unclear Tuesday how the coalition would fund its projects.

"We don't think we are going to totally eradicate violence in our community because there are still a lot of issues to address," said the Rev. Mr. Lynch. "But we do believe that we can make a difference."

The key to curbing the killings is more arrests, said Lt. Roger Wolf, Cincinnati's homicide unit supervisor. But that's tough, he said, when the homicides are increasingly linked to drugs.

"Witnesses and citizens are reluctant to get involved," Lt. Wolf said. "I can understand that. But the problem is just spiraling downhill. What we need is people to step up and say, "I'm not going to take this in my community anymore."

Capt. Vince Demasi, commander of the Criminal Investigations Section, said the department "will take all the help we can get." But beyond helping curb violence, he said working with the Black United Front and other groups on this issue could be "a real opportunity to build some trust between the police and the community members. There's a lot of strength there. There's a potential for a positive movement here."

But he cautioned that most of the ideas being discussed, like aggression management in schools, are long-term solutions. "You're not going to see the results of things like this in one year."

He also promised some changes internally, chiefly more cooperation between homicide and other units, including the investigators based in the five districts, and less rigidity in terms of territory.

"It's a departure from the normal way of doing business," Capt. Demasi said. "It's a culture change for us. But all of this stuff is really interrelated."

Email: kaldridge@enquirer.com and jprendergast@enquirer.com