The Benefits of Grassroots, Peaceful, and Youth Led Initiatives in Curbing Violence on the City Streets

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

This project will analyze grassroots, nonviolent, community self-policing efforts focusing specifically on two cases: Youth Patrol programs of the late 1960s and the Nation of Islam Housing and Urban Development Security Patrol Program in the early 1990s. Understanding these complementary cases will help to establish the assets and deficits of such programs as they attempt to curb violence in inner-city America.

When researchers and the popular press reflect on inner city violence, many ignore or sideline grassroots, peaceful, and youth-led programs as ineffective or unimportant. A deeper understanding of these communities leads to a different point of view. While there may always be a need for a government-authorized force, these institutions are, on their own, unfit to contain violence in the inner cities of the 1960s and today. In fact, some analysts have concluded that when it comes to collective violence and protest, the police often do more harm than good (Bergesen 1982; Berg and Perez 1999; National Advisory Commission 1968). Although policing practices have changed since the "escalated force" orientation ruled in the 1960s (McPhail, McCarthy, and Schweingruber 1997), resentment toward the police is so deeply embedded in many urban communities, that even well-intentioned government work is often interpreted otherwise (National Advisory Comission 1968; Gale 1996). This communication barricade, however, may be alleviated by programs driven by the grassroots that focus on non-violence and youth involvement.

The two programs I propose to investigate were unusual as policing efforts because they were organized and led by the communities they served, they championed peaceful means of persuasion to stop violence, and they recognized the youth as a key to success. Youth Patrols were developed collaboratively by concerned citizens and police in response to racial riots in the late 1960s (Knopf 1970). Youths were organized to calm tensions as they filtered through their community during potentially explosive moments. In part because of their intimate understanding of their communities, the youth patrols were successful in preventing a number of riots. The Youth Patrols came under criticism partly because some saw them as puppets of the police and partly because they disbanded. In my research I will try to show how these groups worked toward a goal shared by the police but were not controlled by them. Second, I will show how outside forces and lack of funding destroyed the Youth Patrols program rather than a lack of interest on the part of affected communities.

Although the violence of the 1990s differs in key ways from earlier periods, a crucial question remains: Can community based policing help to reduce violence? The Nation of Islam security patrols, created through collaboration between community leaders and the department of Housing and Urban Development, offers a more recent example of grass-roots, peaceful, and youth-focused policing programs (US News and World Report 1994; Los Angeles Times 1991; Star Tribune 1993). These unarmed security patrols were trained in deterring violence and sought to develop trust from the residents of the housing projects. As a result of the patrols efforts, gangs, gunrunners, and drug dealers sought new areas to terrorize. Though the NOI security patrols program has been criticized for both its short life in some cities and specific cases of ineffectiveness, I will show that external factors were the main causes of its early demise.

Beyond questions regarding how and why these two programs came to an end, there are several other central concerns that can be illuminated by this comparative case study. First, how exactly were these programs able to be effective without any weapons? Second, under what conditions were the programs successful and what conditions posed greater problems for them? How were youth incorporated into each program and how did the youth contribute to the successes and failures of each? How did these programs work with the police without sacrificing their own vision? Finally, what are appropriate roles for these community groups and what should be left to the police? Coordination between the two groups without dominance is essential to success.

METHODOLOGY

The data for this project will be derived mainly from printed sources produced while the two programs were functioning. The most important source for the 1960s Youth Patrols is a massive archive of newspaper articles that were collected by the Lemberg Center for the Study of Violence, which operated at Brandeis University from 1967-1974 (Lemberg Center 1968; Baskin et al, 1971). The Lemberg Center Archives were recently relocated to the University of Notre Dame. I will have full access to articles reporting the activities of Youth Patrols, as well as commentary on their success and failure. In addition, I will have access to the background work of Terry Knopf (a research associate at the Lemberg Center) who published the singular article on the youth patrols (1970). Although Knopf compiled a great deal of information about the Youth Patrols, there is a great deal of data in the Lemberg Archive that was not encompassed into her research. The final source of data regarding the Youth Patrols are a series of transcribed interviews conducted by the Lemberg Center from 1967-1968 with city leaders and activists. Some of these people were directly involved with the Youth Patrols and provide important insights into their workings.

I will match this reserve of information on the Youth Patrols with information on the Nation of Islam Security Patrols. Although the data is not yet intact, compiling it will be a relatively easy task given the recency of the effort. In fact, much of the data (both from national news sources and local outlets in cities where NOI patrols operated) can be collected via the Lexis-Nexis database. A second source will be the collection of articles, speeches, interviews, and editorials regarding the security patrols that the Nation of Islam headquarters publishes. In particular, The Final Call, the NOI’s newspaper, will provide important information about Security Patrols as they developed. Since the Nation of Islam headquarters are in Chicago, I will schedule visits to collect some of these materials. These materials will provide the philosophy, vision, and account of the security patrols, written by the people who created the program.

Through these sources, I will be able to thoroughly analyze my research questions: How have and how can grassroots, nonviolent, and youth-led initiatives contribute to reducing violent crime in the inner cities of the United States? A thorough search through the collected sources will unveil a qualitative cache of examples, solutions, and problems surrounding the Youth Patrols and the NOI Security Patrols. After I have complied and analyzed all the data, I will organize all the information, findings, and conclusions into a cohesive report.

SCHEDULE

August 23 – September 9: Phase I, Data Compilation

1. Collect all newspaper clippings regarding Youth Patrols and Nation of Islam Security Patrols
2. Collect all interviews regarding Youth Patrols and Nation of Islam Security Patrols
3. Contact smaller newspapers and the Nation of Islam headquarters to collect further information regarding the Nation of Islam Security Patrols 

September 13- October 28: Phase II, Analysis 

1. Organize and review all materials
2. Identify themes and patterns for each program
3. Draw conclusions  

November 1- December 17: Phase III, Writing the research report

 

COLLABORATION WITH FACULTY SUPERVISOR

My faculty advisor, Professor Dan Myers, is a leading scholar in the study of the racial riots of the 1960s. Recently, Prof. Myers brought the Lemberg Archive to the University of Notre Dame and has been working with it to produce new insights into the racial riots of the 1960s and the processes of collective violence more generally. Throughout my project I will consult Professor Myers for his expertise with rioting during this historical period as well as regarding how the work on rioting applies to the more recent context of the NOI Security Patrols. I will consult with him regularly to discuss progress through the various stages of my project. We will also discuss the means of data compilation and analysis and determine how to deal with any unforeseen difficulties. Finally, Professor Myers will review drafts of my report, with the eventual intention of submission to a sociology conference.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bergesen, Albert. 1982. Race Riots of 1967: An Analysis of Police Violence in Detroit and Newark. Journal of Black Studies 12:261-274.

Berg, Kimberly M. and Anthony D. Perez. 1999. "The Contribution of Policing to Racial Rioting in the 1960s." Research Report, Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, University of Notre Dame.

Baskin, Jane A., Joyce K. Hartwig, Ralph G. Lewis, and Lester McCullough. 1971. Race Related Civil Disorders, 1967-69. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University.

Gale, Dennis E. 1996. Understanding Urban Unrest: From Reverend King to Rodney King. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Knopf, Terri Ann. 1970. "Youth Patrols: An Experiment in Community Participation." Civil Rights Digest, Vol 3.

Lemberg Center for the Study of Violence. 1968. The First Two Years: A Report to the Board of Overseers. Waltham: Brandeis University.

Los Angeles Times. 1991. "Nation of Islam Offers to Patrol Housing." Dec. 22, 1991.

McPhail, Clark, David Schweingruber and John D. McCarthy. 1998. "The Policing of Protest in the United States, 1960-1995." In Policing Protest: the Control of Mass Demonstrations in Western Democracies. Ed. by Donatella Della Porta and Herbert Reiter. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. 1968. Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. New York: Bantam Books.

Star Tribune. 1993. "Farrakhan Praises Gang Members." July 18, 1993.

U.S. News and World Report. 1994. "Propogandists of Saviors." Sept. 12 1994.