Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Philadelphia police ask 10,000 men for help

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published September 14, 2007

PHILADELPHIA - The city's embattled police chief, acknowledging that police alone cannot quell a run of deadly violence, has called on 10,000 men to patrol the streets to reduce crime.

Sylvester Johnson says black men, in particular, have a duty to protect more vulnerable residents. He wants each volunteer to pledge to work three hours a day for at least 90 days.

"We are definitely encouraging black men to be involved in it," Johnson said Thursday. "We have an obligation to give back. We have an obligation to protect our women, our children, our elderly."

But Johnson said he would not turn away men of other races.

The program's backers include Dennis Muhammad, a former Nation of Islam official who has been hired by police departments in Detroit, Syracuse, N.Y., and other cities to conduct community-sensitivity training.

Philadelphia, the nation's sixth-largest city, has nearly 1.5-million residents, 44 percent of them black. It has notched 294 homicides this year. More than 80 percent of the slayings involve handguns, and most involve young black males.

[Last modified September 13, 2007, 23:42:15]