With the city’s homicide rate climbing, the St. Louis Metropolitan Clergy Coalition began a “Week of Prayer to Curb Violence” on Memorial Day.
The coalition is asking members of all faiths and congregations to pray for the cease of violence. A prayer walk will begin at 9 p.m. Friday at St. Peter AME Church (4730 Margaretta). The week will close with a Sunday service at Washington Tabernacle (3200 Washington) at 5 p.m.
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Earlier this month, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department reported that there were 44 homicides through April, up from 30 during the first four months of 2013. St. Louis is on a rate to surpass the 120 homicides it had in 2013.
On New Year’s Eve, a candlelight vigil is held in St. Louis to remember those killed by violence. Established by community activist Jeannette Culpepper, who lost a family member to murder, the vigil remembers violence victims as their names are read aloud. Relatives of the slain and concerned citizens often brave frigid night air to be in attendance. It is a very solemn event, and Memorial Day remembrance of those killed followed the grim agenda of its winter counterpart as the names of the dead were read aloud.
There have been many prayers and marches and “come-to-Jesus” meetings concerning violence on the streets of St. Louis over the past few years.
In June 2008, during the “Call to Oneness,” thousands of African-American men marched through the streets of St. Louis to “reclaim their community” and begin efforts anew to end violence and murder. Hours later, just two miles from the march’s starting point, a young woman was shot and killed on a gas station/convenience market parking lot, and another woman was critically injured; a day later, a 19-year-old man was shot and killed, the St. Louis American reported.
Maybe we should all pray for more police on the streets of St. Louis. It’s also time to consider police who walk daily beats.
Police have seen crime reduction in south Wichita, Kansas, after cops began walking beats. Last year, Philadelphia created more foot patrols after a Temple University study concluded “in targeted areas, violent crime decreased 23 percent.” And some areas in Las Vegas, outside the heavily policed strip, are also adding more police who walk beats.
“When (police) are on foot patrol, it’s not so much us vs. them,” University of Nevada-Las Vegas associate professor William Sousa recently told the Las Vegas Sun. “In a car, you’re responding to citizens at the worst of times—giving them a ticket or when someone is a victim. On foot, you have an intimate relationship with the ‘good people’ on the beat. You get to know them. And those people support those officers, and that really enhances the officer’s feelings of safety.”
It’s time for St. Louis to adopt similar efforts.
Commentary by Alvin Reid
