Townhall meeting tonight on how to stop the violence | Business

The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) and the Working Interfaith Network (WIN) will come together on February 24  to host the most important city-wide dialogue to date on youth homicide and violence. The event: Lives In The Balance: A Community Speaks Out Against Violence comes on the heels of a rash of homicides that have challenged law enforcement, religious and political leaders, and the wider community for answers. NOBLE and WIN (and WIN’s parent organization PICO - People Improving Community Through Organizing) intend this event to signal a new collaboration of law enforcement and the faith community, joining forces in Baton Rouge and around the country, to tackle the challenge of making our streets safer and saving lives.

The program will be held at 6 p.m. at the Baton Rouge Marriott, 5500 Hilton Drive. It will feature local and national law enforcement officials, clergy, political leaders, policy experts, and youth from across the community. 

NOBLE is the largest professional organization of Black law enforcement executives in the nation and is holding its annual national CEO Symposium in Baton Rouge for the first time. NOBLE President Jiles Ship and  Interim Executive Director, Joseph Akers, in a joint statement, emphasized the critical importance of coordinated community action: “While it is sad that Baton Rouge and the East Baton Rouge Parish communities are experiencing an unacceptable number of homicides; there is hope. When communities and law enforcement work in partnership, reductions are possible. When a community decides that they have had enough and that they want a safer environment for themselves and their children, then the conditions are ripe for the community to come together to achieve that goal”.

East Baton Rouge and Baton Rouge city law enforcement officials investigated 81 homicides in 2011, 64 of those homicide investigations were for murders committed within the boundaries of the city of Baton Rouge, making Baton Rouge one of the deadliest cities in America. As the homicide rate has risen so has the community’s sense of fear and an uncertainty.

Alvin Herring, newly appointed Executive Director of WIN sees the need for law enforcement and the faith community to forge a new partnership to meet the challenge: “WIN has been working to train and mobilize clergy and their congregations over the last 8 months to work in partnership with law enforcement agencies and grass roots community groups to create solutions to youth violence and for those young people who are searching for help and for hope.”

Constable Reginald Brown, local NOBLE official and organizer of the CEO Symposium, believes the community dialogue represents a good starting point for both law enforcement and the faith community: “We anticipate this dialogue will produce some useful ideas and viable solutions, right now we need all groups to step up to the plate so that we can get something done.”