Milwaukee has experienced a violent August. Here's how some in the community are reacting

Samantha West | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Born and raised in Milwaukee, violence rings out all too familiar to Ramel Kweku Akyirefi Smith.

It's constant. It's usually senseless. Most of the time it involves guns.

Still, the Milwaukee psychologist can't remember a time that felt quite as violent as this August — Milwaukee has seen a spate of gun violence with 16 homicides in the last 20 days.

Though already active in non-violence activism in the community, Smith decided to do more.

He joined more than 100 other community members — of different Milwaukee neighborhoods, professions, age groups, expertise and beliefs — who gathered for a meeting last week to create a coordinated response strategy, an action plan to address the recent violence.

"I think that's what we need to do — come together as one, a collective of people, united and banded as one," Smith said. "Everybody has to do something."

The meeting Smith attended and its followup, organized by the City of Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention, are some of the recent community efforts to curb violence and get the city focused on non-violence.

"You can't have a law enforcement officer on every corner," said Reggie Moore, director of the Office of Violence Prevention. "It's really about creating a community and culture of peace."

A violent August

The 16 homicides in Milwaukee this month surpass the 14 reported in all of August last year. In August 2016, there were 23 homicides — nearly double the 12 homicides seen in August 2015.

Milwaukee was trending behind last year's homicide pace before the recent killings. Now, Milwaukee has 76 homicides recorded compared with 75 at this time last year. Milwaukee finished last year with 119 homicides, which was down from 142 in 2016.

Authorities say many of the recent homicides have been arguments that escalated into gunfire.

In addition, two police officers shot and killed a 48-year-old Milwaukee man who pulled a gun during a traffic stop on Milwaukee's south side. As of Monday, a week after the shooting, police have yet to release further information, including the names of the pursued suspect and the officers' names.

At a news conference Monday, Police Chief Alfonso Morales said he hopes to curb the recent spike in violence through expanded community partnerships and improving relationships with the public through listening sessions.

"I can assure you, I take gun violence seriously," Morales said at the conference.

RELATED: Spate of Milwaukee homicides have one thing in common — arguments that escalate into violence

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Blueprint for Peace

Amid all the violence, the Office of Violence Prevention has been working to advance Blueprint for Peace, a community-driven plan to address the root causes of violence in Milwaukee. Released in 2017, the Blueprint has six goals and 30 strategies.

"This is an issue that affects everybody," Moore said. "We want to create a table that welcomes anyone who is wanting to make Milwaukee a safer city."

The effort focuses on one of the Blueprint's goals that calls for improving the coordination of violence prevention efforts in Milwaukee. The strategy session focused on four priorities: outreach, conflict mediation, healing and social marketing.

The outreach group is focusing on planning events — block parties, knocking on doors and passing out flyers — to spread the word about how everyone can do their part in preventing further violence in the city.

The conflict mediation group focused on creating training opportunities for the community so that conflict is resolved peacefully instead of escalating to violence. The first of three sessions for conflict mediation is scheduled for Tuesday at Washington Park Library.

Moore said the healing group focused on brainstorming ways to show community members and loved ones who recently lost someone to gun violence that it cares and there is support out there for them.

And the social marketing group focused on how to promote a non-violent lifestyle, Moore said, noting it plans to "saturate the community" through PSAs, billboards, flyers and, of course, social media.

Smith, who has conflict mediation training as a licensed psychologist, said he got involved with the conflict mediation group because many people aren't aware that there is a conflict mediation hotline and other resources for residents in need.

Some, including Smith, took time during the meeting to start their activism by walking the nearby neighborhoods to talk to the community about preventing further violence.

Grassroots efforts like that and education, Smith said, can be all the difference to changing mind-sets.

"A lot of people involved in the violence — they're good people, they just face bad circumstances," he said. "So the question is, how do we stop that before it happens?"

Ken Hughes, a Milwaukee pastor, said he decided to join the outreach group because he wanted to play a part in a "proactive" approach to crime. Hughes said Milwaukee police too often focus on the "reactive" approach — trying to stop crime after it's started rather than prevent it.

To Hughes, the meeting's turnout was encouraging to him as an activist who is accustomed to the same people attending all the same meetings.

"I'm excited about the turnout. ... There was something that felt a little different about this meeting," Hughes said. "It (the violence) has brought out a sense of urgency and commitment in people."

Still, Hughes called on the community as a whole to step up.

"We as a community have to be the footprint for the outreach," he said. "No paper plan is good until we go out and do the work."

Looking forward

Blueprint for Peace is meant to be more than one meeting, Moore said — it's a movement that is committed to violence prevention in the city on an ongoing basis.

Moore said he hopes the movement grows and is welcoming to all.

"This is an issue that affects everybody," he said. "We want to create a table that welcomes anyone who is wanting to make Milwaukee a safer city."

The next strategy session will be from 5-7 p.m. Wednesday at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health, 1240 N. 10th St.