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Minneapolis community members marching for an end to gun violence in the city.
On June 2 in Minneapolis, there was a funeral for Aniya Allen. She is the six-year-old girl who was shot in the head on May 17 while driving home from a McDonald’s after a day of swimming and shopping with her mother.
When they turned onto their block in their North Minneapolis neighborhood, gunfire broke out, striking young Aniya in the head and sending her to the hospital. She died two days later.
As I wrote in my last column, Aniya is just one of three children who were shot in the head recently in Minneapolis, in separate incidents.
Aniya and nine-year-old Trinity Ottoson-Smith have now succumbed to their injuries, while ten-year-old Ladavionne Garrett Jr., remains hospitalized in critical condition.
Simply put, gun violence in the United States is a public health crisis. Like any other health issue, including the COVID-19 pandemic, it flourishes where people are economically and politically disadvantaged.
Dr. Ruth Abaya, an emergency room pediatrician based in Philadelphia, recently appeared on Philadelphia public radio station WHYY as part of a panel of experts asked to weigh in on the “disturbing rise in gun violence” in that city.
Instead of calling in the police, Cub Foods employees work with We Push for Peace to assess the situation, by getting to the root of why someone might be stealing food or supplies.
There’s been an equally disturbing spike in gun violence in Minneapolis, along with most cities across the United States. On WHYY, Abaya listed the main factors she thinks are contributing to this uptick in violent crime, including the proliferation of guns on the street amid the upheaval caused by COVID-19.
The pandemic did not directly cause more people to resort to violence, she argued. Instead, it laid bare and exacerbated the “systemic, chronic disadvantages” people endure in under-resourced communities.
This, in turn, has allowed violence to foment in many of the hardest-hit neighborhoods.
Faced with this wave of gun violence, people tend to resort to the paradigms they know best. Some insist that police departments should not only not be defunded, but should instead receive even more resources in order to combat the upsurge in crime.
Police reform efforts often become political fodder, used to continue a charged conversation around whether Black lives matter.
It might be time to look elsewhere, at least temporarily.
In the interview on WHYY, Abaya was joined by Dr. Eugenia South from the University of Pennsylvania and Tyrique Glasgow, who runs a community organization in South Philadelphia.
Because gun violence is a public health crisis, South noted, it should be treated as such. This would mean adopting a community intervention model, rather than “focusing on any one individual,” as is often done through policing.
While much of Minneapolis remains mired in a political back and forth over the future of policing, hope for a community-forward path is coming from some unexpected places.
Namely, a grocery store that was looted and burned to the ground in 2020 in the days following George Floyd’s murder.
The store is part of the local Cub Foods chain and is located in North Minneapolis, where much of the recent gun violence—including the three children hit by stray bullets—has taken place.
It has since been rebuilt using not only community input, but also a peace-driven model to public engagement and asset protection, so to speak.
When shoppers arrive at the store, they are greeted by members of a local group called We Push for Peace. Dressed in polo shirts or sweatshirts, not uniforms, We Push for Peace representatives also intervene when there is any incident of suspected shoplifting at the store.
Instead of calling in the police, Cub Foods employees work with We Push for Peace to assess the situation, by getting to the root of why someone might be stealing food or supplies.
If it is a resource issue, there is an on-site free food shelf to help remedy the situation. This model has proven to be so successful that Cub Foods is expanding it to its other metro area locations.
The model program has also apparently led to fewer incidents of crime and fewer calls to the police.
Community members in North Minneapolis also asked for, and received, space for elders, children, and job seekers to gather within the store, and a local artist is busy covering the walls with a colorful mural.
There is much work yet to be done to address the public health crisis of gun violence in Minneapolis and throughout the nation. But the simple yet profound act of rebuilding a grocery store using a model of peace and positive community involvement may be just the example we need to move us forward.