The Informant

Callie Shanafelt

ONS Staff and Fellows at the Richmond Civic Center. (L-R) Kevin Muccular, Rasheed Shepherd, DeVone Boggan, Shawn Morris, Sam Vaughn

By Callie Shanafelt

On October 14 young men from rival Richmond neighborhoods showed up unexpectedly at the Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS) at Richmond City Hall. They got into a fistfight that ended after one young man’s nose was broken.

This past week media coverage of the incident dubbed it a “bloody gang fight“ and focused on the fact that ONS staff weren’t telling the police department who was involved.

The young men are participants in the Operation Peacemaker Fellowship — a Ceasefire-style program that requires they stop shooting at each other and take steps towards changing their lives. Despite the critical media coverage, ONS director DeVone Boggan says the fact that the men fought in the office instead of shooting each other in the parking lot was actually an improvement.

KALW’s Callie Shanafelt sat down with Boggan to understand the challenges of these types of anti-violence programs.

Q: First can you talk about your first meeting with these young men?

A: We invited 25 young men in who had been identified as the most likely, believe it or not, to be dead in 6 months.  And we basically said we want to propose an alternative lifestyle option for you. And what that lifestyle option included was one, we want to develop a relationship with you.  We want to get to know who you are.  We want to identify and even create some opportunities for you. Create some conditions that allow you to become successful. And thirdly we want to create and provide some healthy exposures for you.  And all we’re asking that you do is to commit to doing your best with our help.  Make a commitment to stay away from gun violence. I didn’t ask them to put their guns down. Understanding the experiences they have to negotiate day in and day out I felt that if I did that I might loose instant credibility with them. Clearly that’s the goal – the major objective – put your guns down.  But I didn’t put that out there on that first visit.

I told these young men that if we wanted to see a healthy Richmond a safe Richmond a peaceful Richmond that I understood it had to come through them. It had to come by way of them making better decisions. These are the men who created risk for neighborhoods our communities our families our residents our younger people.  And so I appreciated their power. And I wanted to include them in the solution.  And that’s what the fellowship is all about.

Q: Can you talk about your biggest challenges?

A: Absolutely I think there are several but at the heart and core of it is mindset.  Right?  How we think has a lot to do with how we act.  That’s why I think you know when you’re a young man 16-30 years old been exposed to a lot of violence, perpetrated a lot of violence, you develop coping mechanisms over time.  Oftentimes unhealthy coping mechanisms.  Drugs, unhealthy eating, sleeping etc.  You also oftentimes adopt can adopt a sort of a numbness to it.  A feeling of no return.  And I can tell you for a lot of the young men now into this some time behind this that’s a major challenge for them to believe in themselves they’re redeemable. When everything around them every voice in their ear every action out there says you’re not.

You know we had an incident here last week and when you look at some of these media stories out there what you get in small print or small voices – how could we be trying to help THESE guys?  Well we didn’t go and get em out of jail, they were walking our streets.  Walking our streets alone, unengaged, disconnected, right?  So I think the major piece in terms of answering your question I think its mindset and appreciating that it takes a lot of time.  And we only have them so many hours of the day so many hours of the week and they have to go right back into the these environments and negotiate the chatter of this unhealth and disease, right?

Politics– major challenge.  I do believe that there is a greater force not just in Richmond but nationally when you see 4,000 to 7,000 black and brown boys dying on the streeta of America and there is no one beating the drum loud enough to say what the hell is going on.  What is going on?  These boys die and its just another day.  I mean considering what the last couple of days have been like for me after the 14th of October and we had a fistfight in this office and the attention around who was involved and the names of those individuals involved in a fistfight where we have no victim, we have no claim, I can’t imagine what it must be like for the many mothers in this city who’ve lost their sons and to find themselves thinking wow my sons death didn’t get that kind of attention.  No one’s paid that kind of attention to finding my son’s killer.  This was a fistfight and this is all over the news for the last 70 hours? We adults have a lot still to learn.

Q: So what happened with the fight? Guys from rival neighborhoods showed up at the office unexpected?

A: Yeah, that’s it.  Unexpected, unannounced.  This is a public building.  These are Richmond citizens.  Believe it or not a couple of the guys are registered voters.  This is their City Hall. They would argue why should we have to call before we come up to City Hall? How many people do that, when they got an issue?  But yes unfortunately we had some guys from two different well actually 3 different rival neighborhoods show up.  You know looks and words were exchanged that provoked a physical altercation that lasted maybe 3 minutes at most.  And, I mean its as simple as that I’m sitting here thinking what else can I say, it was a fist fight and it was a fist fight probably in a safe environment.  I say that on their behalf.  I really believe as crazy as this might sound or as interesting as it might sound they really believed that it could only go so far.  So it was a fist fight plain and simple.

Q: Can you talk about why ONS won’t tell the police about what happened?

A: When I woke up Tuesday morning the first that I learned about us not cooperating was a reporter on KTVU Channel 2 News.  My wife called me in- I might have been shaving.  She said hey there’s a story on the news about the fight that took place at your office. Obviously, no one had contacted me.  There’s a news story and I haven’t been contacted – for any kind of comment hmm that was interesting – about this office – which I’m the director.  Looking at the news story I was like wow  – it was about what was described as a melee blood bath – gang bloodbath.  Wow – a broken nose.  Broken noses bleed.  Then as you asked the question of cooperation with law enforcement.  And so I should tell you on Friday the foureenth after it happened I was not here but the first three calls I got were from staff.  The second call I got was from a commander within the Richmond police department.  Third call I got was from a Richmond detective who is the liaison assigned to my department by the chief of police who I talk with and communicate with maybe two, three times a day – prior to the fight and clearly through and after the fight that’s the nature of my relationship with the liaison assigned to this office.  Obviously we had several conversations about this incident that occurred here. There is an established protocol created when we opened our doors between the City Attorneys’ Office the ONS and the Richmond Police Department about how we go about communicating when incidences occur.  I followed the protocol to the line and to the letter. I followed it and it means I’m communicating.  So what we’ve been hearing hasn’t been true.  So I tell that to you and your listeners –not true and i think that was probably the most challenging thing about it.

Q: So its not true that ONS won’t tell the police who is involved in the fight?

A: Well the protocol does not require us to do that.  It requires other things but it doesn’t require us to do that. The protocol was established to protect our clients because they’re in a program. Also to protect our staff.  Balanced with the understanding that we have to attain and maintain credibility.

Q: Can you explain that- why is that necessary?

A: Well, I think we have to acknowledge in our country the history of relationships particularly with people of color and police. Particularly with poor people and the police.  We’ve got a long way to go still in our country in reconciling around those issues of trust and safety and security between the two. I think the second thing is is that we have to also acknowledge it’s easy for us to blame the victim. It’s easy for us to blame the person who won’t give information in the community after they witness something. It’s easy for us to blame a young person who feels he has to retaliate when their experience and history is the law has never protected me. These young men come to the table with that experience. That’s the experience and you put that up against this idea or understanding of that’s the only attention I get from a public system. So by nature of being suspicious when somebody shows up from a public system and says “I wanna help you” the inital response is “what you talking about Willis?  What you talking about? You work at city hall and you wanna help me? What’s really going on? You trying to set me up.”

Q: Why do you think they signed up?

A: I think something we often underestimate is that given a real opportunity most of these young men want a way out.  Want what you and I want out of life. Safety, security, significance.  We all want that.

Q: Why don’t you use public funds for the fellowship?

A: Well I think we still have a long way to go as a public around the taxpayer feeling like this is a worthy investment. I mean take a look at the KPIX story online and you look at those comments that you can leave – wow.  I mean the comments were horrible.  ‘Why would you do that?’ ‘Let’s just let the kids kill themselves.’ ‘What are you talking about they should be in jail.’ It blew me away to get emails from anonymous Richmond residents that said on my email I mean I got several that said ‘sir you’re an idiot you should reassess your thinking we could all benefit from that.’  Now I laughed cause that’s clearly somebody that doesn’t get it right? Somebody that was looking in the mirror when they made the comment. I get that I do. I think that we struggle in our political will and courage to do the right thing.

Q: What’s the future of the program?

A: We will be around.  There’s a lot of folks that want me out of city government. Richmond city government.  I don’t know how folks that are policy makers feel about it.  I can tell you my boss is always encouraging. The city manager is always encouraging. I hope his bosses feel the same way.  But I’ve made a commitment to these young men to the city of Richmond and I’m gonna be here one way or the other.