Dwight Ott
Philadelphia Tribune
August 21, 2021

Dawud Bey says that his experiences qualify him to be what is being called these days a “credible messenger,” whose job it is to “step to” those who may be “shooters” to “interrupt” them from shooting someone…

… As part of the ongoing city anti-gun violence campaign, he and an associate, Darryl Shuler, have co-founded an interrupter organization called Put It Down. The group is designed to curb gun violence. By using “interrupters,” the organization hopes to function like human circuit breakers that interrupt the path of gun violence in city neighborhoods before the violence starts. The organization is part of an array of community-based programs being looked at by the city administration to stem the violence.

… New York City’s Cure Violence programs found shootings and gun injuries dropped in two neighborhoods where such programs were in place between 2013 and 2017, according to an evaluation led by Jeffrey Butts, director of the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Researchers also saw a steep decline in support for using violence to resolve disputes among young adult males in the treatment areas.

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