Jenna Pizzi

The News Journal

Candidates running for Wilmington mayor are scheduled to debate Thursday.

The debate, at at Howard High School of Technology, will be about public safety.

The Democratic primary election is in September, with the winner facing Independent Steven Washington.

Wilmington resident David Gwyn has voted in every mayoral election since 1968, but thinks this one might be the most crucial. The bloodshed in his Hilltop neighborhood is too intense, he says, and far too many are being killed on the streets.

“I hear gunshots and I say, ‘There goes another one.’ It is just ridiculous,” said Gwyn, 77.

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The ongoing battle to rein in persistent crime has become a central issue in the contest to pick the next chief executive of Delaware’s largest city. Seven Democrats are seeking the party’s nomination in the Sept. 13 primary over incumbent Mayor Dennis P. Williams – a referendum on his four years in office.

A former police officer and state lawmaker, Williams and his supporters say the administration is making progress and will continue addressing safety concerns in a second term. Opponents point to the number of shootings and shortcomings in efforts to curb entrenched violence in substantial ways.

A debate on public safety, hosted by The News Journal, WHYY and community organizations, starts at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday at Howard High School of Technology, 401 E. 12th St. The forum will be broadcast live at delawareonline.com.

It is the second of four debates on key issues confronting the city’s top leader. In March, candidates met at the Grand downtown to discuss the economy. Williams did not attend.

Thursday's debate promises to be livelier as all eight Democratic candidates have pledged to attend, and public safety has emerged as the most critical issue of the campaign. It will be the first substantial opportunity for candidates to discuss how to put an end to the cycle of criminal behavior and the city’s reputation for lawlessness, as well as the leadership of Police Chief Bobby Cummings. At the first debate, where the candidates were asked about their theories on improving the city economy, there were no clashes between the candidates, who seemed to agree on many topics.

Since then, City Councilwoman Maria Cabrera entered the race, joining Council President Theo Gregory; former Council President Norman Griffiths; former Councilman Kevin Kelley; state Sen. Bob Marshall; Riverfront Development Corp. Executive Director Mike Purzycki; Williams; and Eugene Young, advocacy director at the Delaware Center for Justice for the Democratic nomination.

The city so far this year has had nine homicides and 35 shootings, with victims of all ages and backgrounds. Even for people who usually don't get involved in politics, the violence has made the mayoral election a point of discussion.

Hedgeville resident Monique Taylor-Gibbs, a fifth-grade teacher at Warner Elementary, said the impact of violence she and her students encounter every day has made her take notice. None of the candidates seem to have a solution, she said.

"The smallest citizens — our children — they can't vote. Someone needs to stand up for them,” she said. “(Candidates) need to not just say what they are going to do, but actually have volition and push for it.”

She said young people are being victimized over and over again by the environment they’re confronting.

“We have kids who are acting out, throwing things, being violent, and then we have students who are just always on edge, who are suffering from not being able to play outside,” said Taylor-Gibbs, a lifelong resident of Wilmington who is raising a son she had at 19.

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Targeting at-risk youth was a key recommendation of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, which, in an unprecedented move, studied urban violence in Wilmington as a public health threat. The 15-page report called for the state and local social service agencies to create a method to identify at-risk youth more effectively and provide services.

In their policing plans, all candidates have included a commitment to improving services for city youth or establishing intervention program for those at risk. Most have repeated the mantra that "we can't arrest our way out" of the crime problem and offer alternatives.

Taylor-Gibbs said there has to be more after-school activities that allow young people to let down their guard and just play.

“Our children need a chance to just be children,” she said. “Absent from worry, absent from heartbreak, our awesome children are doctors, lawyers, engineers and entrepreneurs in waiting, but the layers of violence make it more difficult.”

Butch Ingram, principal at Bancroft Elementary on Wilmington’s East Side, said the impact is being overlooked. Like many city schools, Bancroft trains teachers to identify struggling students and has a team of counselors and therapists.

“It definitely manifests itself in different ways,” Ingram said. “There is anger, frustration, a sense of abandonment, and the thing we see the most are the symptoms we can’t see because they internalize the stress. For most, violence becomes the norm.”

'Murder Town USA'

Williams is asking voters to give him more time to achieve the reduction in crime he promised four years ago while campaigning.

He pushed to drive down violence in neighborhoods, but when the number of shootings and homicides continued to rise, he admitted it was a mistake to guarantee a reduction.

Wilmington had 131 shootings and 26 murders in 2015, compared with 114 shootings and 23 murders in 2014, the same year Newsweek profiled the escalating violence with a story headlined, “Murder Town USA (AKA Wilmington, Delaware).”

The article, which pointed to Wilmington’s ranking, according to an analysis of FBI crime statistics, as one of the most violent cities of its size in America, immediately brought swift criticism as being unfair from Williams and community and business leaders. Many raised the prospect that the image would tarnish Wilmington’s standing as a global financial center and standing as America’s business incorporation leader.

The “Murdertown” name re-appeared last year when Variety reported that ABC had signed a development deal for a television pilot called "Murder Town" to be set in Wilmington.

The reputation that Wilmington is a dangerous place has caused concerns from the large corporations that fill the high-rise office towers in the Central Business District. The perception doesn't help business attraction either. City officials are still reeling from the loss of Delaware corporate giant DuPont from Rodney Square and are struggling to get a signed agreement from Chemours, a DuPont spinoff, which has threatened to move its headquarters from Wilmington.

Gov. Jack Markell and the General Assembly created a task force, the Wilmington Public Safety Strategies Commission, to study crime in the city.

The shooting death by Wilmington police of a paralyzed man in a wheelchair, Jeremy “Bam” McDole, during an arrest in September also made national headlines and brought additional publicity.

Under Williams' leadership, a number of analyses of the Police Department and different strategies and technology were implemented. Williams established Operation Disrupt, which took officers off desk duty to flood streets and crack down on quality-of-life issues. When the operation was drawing down too much overtime pay, it was ended in favor of a new unit of police officers who were taken off of community policing tasks and were focused on high-crime neighborhoods.

Williams also created the department's first homicide unit. The unit was able to solve more killings than in the past, but for the families of the other victims, it wasn't enough.

Keesa Anderson, whose son Jermaine Goins Jr. was shot and killed in August 2013 near Fifth and Madison streets, never paid attention to elections before her son’s death. Now she said she is extremely interested.

“We need something new,” said Anderson, who has grown frustrated with the Wilmington Police Department, which never named a suspect in her son’s case and fails to return her phone calls.

Anderson said she is looking for a candidate who will commit to reforming the Police Department so that they treat victim’s families with respect and install working cameras on city streets. There was one near where her son was killed, but it was not in working order.

Anderson said she would also like to see a mayoral candidate dedicated to expanding resources to help prevent youth from becoming involved in crime in the first place.

Gwyn, whose Hilltop neighborhood is one of the most hard-hit in the city, said he was disappointed in the lack of leadership from Williams on public safety issues.

“That is what he ran on. He said, ‘I’m an ex-policeman and I will make it better.’ And a whole lot of people believed him.”

Strained relationship with elected officials

Because Wilmington is overwhelmingly Democratic, the primary win is effectively a race for the office. If history is a guide, the primary will be decided by a sliver of the city’s 71,000 residents. In 2012, 31 percent of 11,014 eligible voters cast a ballot, and Williams won the primary by 1,100 votes.

This election, no Republicans have filed. Independent Steven Washington, an active community member and special education teacher, has submitted paperwork to appear on the general election ballot in November.

The ballot could grow even more, the deadline for the Sept. 13 primary is July 12.

For candidates, the trick will be overcoming what’s turned into a strained relationship with elected officials, said Yasser Payne, an associate professor of black American studies at University of Delaware. Payne interviewed more than 500 Wilmington residents about their experience with violence and city government starting in 2010 for his study of Wilmington called "The People's Report."

"I don't think that is surprising to anyone," Payne said. "Even if the leadership is from the neighborhood or from the ethnic groups, there is still a strained relationship. They feel that their voices will not be heard."

Payne said the impact of violence is not just felt by the victim of gunfire, but by the community as a whole, including those who live in fear that they could be the next person struck by a stray bullet.

"It is a much greater problem that exists — the exposure to violence and the experience of that violence," Payne said. "It does leave a lasting psycho-social impact. That impact I think is even more lasting, more insidious because it works to disrupt and destabilize neighborhoods and cuts across generations."

Payne said there are not enough resources or enough attention paid to young adults and children who are struggling emotionally as the victims live among violence.

The experience is widespread in Wilmington. Payne said 80 percent of the people who were surveyed for "The People's Report" said they had at some point witnessed someone getting arrested and taken away by police.

"It was normalized," he said. "They were almost numb to it. It shouldn't be that way."

A.I. duPont High School junior Jamea Wright, 18, said thriving in the environment can be a struggle.

“When you are walking around and you see the drugs and when it gets warmer, it gets worse," he said.

Wright, who lives on the West Side in the 500 block of Clayton St., said as she gets older, more and more of her friends are getting in trouble, especially the boys.

She’s been helped this year by a mentor, Wilmington police officer Ann Clark, who volunteers at A.I. duPont once a month as part of the Communities in Schools program. It connects successful professionals with at-risk youth to give them the guidance and support to stay in school.

The program works in more than 200 communities across 27 states and is in seven Wilmington schools.

The mentorship has given both a new-found respect for each other. Wright said she knows now that police officers can be friendly and caring, while Clark said she better understands the troubles that students like Wright are facing.

“The only thing I have gotten from living in the city is that I want to do better,” Wright said.

'We are awake'

The East Side of Wilmington has seen some of the most intense violence in the city.

Joann Gaitwood, an East Side resident whose son has been in trouble with the police on occasion, said the crime and blight in Wilmington has left her despondent about her neighborhood.

"It is depressing every day just to go home and to pull up on my street,” she said.

She’s partnered with neighbor Ty Brooks to have a voter registration drive in her neighborhood, hoping candidates will spend more time and pay more attention to their problems if they see the support.

"We have got to get somebody to echo the clarion call," Brooks said. "Just to wake up everybody and stop what you are doing and pay attention because something is really happening right here and we can take advantage of it."

Brooks said residents are living in a fog and can't see what the community could and should look like if the police and city were more responsive to helping crack down on crime and blight.

"They are asleep, but people like us, we are awake," he said.

The only way to change the status quo is to push for a change in elected leaders, Gaitwood said. Crime is a symptom of lack of pride that the community has, something she sees in the trash strewn on street corners and poorly maintained row homes. Police let people loiter on corners, outside homes and businesses, she said.

"They know where people are selling drugs. They know where the hot spots are," Gaitwood said. "People don't think it is going to change."

Gwyn said something needs to be done and is looking for the right candidate for his support.

“It has really affected my life so bad I would like to move,” he said. “It is too much for a 77-year-old man like me.”

Contact Jenna Pizzi at jpizzi@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2837. Follow her on Twitter @JennaPizzi.

Wilmington mayor, without a mandate

Mayoral Debate Series: Public Safety | The News Journal Media Group Ticketing

If you go

What: Wilmington mayoral debate on public safety, hosted by The News Journal and WHYY

When: 6:30 p.m. Thursday

Where: Howard High School of Technology, 401 E. 12th St., Wilmington

More info: A free ticket will be required to attend. Tickets are available at tickets.delawareonline.com.

Watch live: Visit delawareonline.com to watch the debate live. Join the conversation on Twitter by using the hashtag #voteDE.

Upcoming debates: The third debate on development and the arts is on June 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the Grand. The fourth debate on quality-of-life issues will be held on July 19 at 6:30 p.m. at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church.

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