Latest news with #violenceprevention
The Independent
2 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Experts warn of more attacks and terrorism as Trump hacks law enforcement budgets to fund his deportation plans
Federal cuts to local and state terrorism combating efforts have raised concerns among advocates and researchers about the possibility of more attacks at a time when threats of violence are on the rise. Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has directed his administration to reallocate some law enforcement resources to assist in carrying out his mass deportation agenda. That includes shutting down a national database that kept track of attempted and successful terrorism and targeted violence events and cutting FBI staff tasked with focusing on domestic terrorism. The decision to shift focus has left some violence prevention advocates fearful that it could create gaps in security measures, leading to tragic events. 'It's simple: we will see more school and workplace violence, more hate-fueled violence and terrorism and our political leadership will see more assassination attempts,' William Braniff, the former director of the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships at the Department of Homeland Security, told the Guardian. The purpose of the center is to provide federal resources to local law enforcement, schools, and nonprofits in helping prevent targeted threats and attacks. In March, approximately 20 percent of its staff were terminated during federal workforce cuts. 'This is the government putting itself at risk,' Braniff added. Officials across the country have hinted at similar concerns. During a town hall earlier this month, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel told an audience that federal resources for state and local domestic terrorism combating efforts were depleting, ProPublica reported. 'The federal government used to prioritize domestic terrorism, and now it's like domestic terrorism just went away overnight,' Nessel said. 'I don't think that we're going to get much in the way of cooperation anymore.' In March, the administration shut down the Terrorism and Targeted Violence program, which maintained a public dataset of targeted violence instances to assist professionals in understanding the scope of violence throughout the country. The dataset provided specific information, including findings that perpetrators of this type of violence are increasingly older than previously thought, and it's more targeted at schools – data that some have accused the Justice Department of missing for several years. Just days before DHS terminated the project, the team said it identified a 25 percent increase in terrorism or targeted violent events in the first two months of 2025 compared to the same time period last year. Those findings were consistent with DHS's 2024 Homeland Threat Assessment, which predicted the terrorism threat would 'remain high' over the next year. The assessment cited violent extremist responses to domestic sociopolitical developments and international events as a potential reason for increasing attacks. Yet, federal domestic terrorism combating resources for local and state officials appear to have been scaled back. Jacob Ware, an expert on domestic terrorism at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Reuters that 'there is a broader desire, I think, within the administration to, at best, ignore data and put their head in the sand and, at worst, to realign resources away from this battle.' Concerns about potential increasing threats and attacks have led some lawmakers to sound the alarm. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois has asked FBI Director Kash Patel and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to reverse course on it's approach to domestic terrorism combating efforts, calling it a 'institutional pullback from confronting the full scope of domestic terrorism.' A spokesperson for the Justice Department told ProPublica that it is 'focused on prosecuting criminals, getting illegal drugs off the streets, and protecting all Americans from violent crime.''Discretionary funds that are not aligned with the administration's priorities are subject to review and reallocation,' the spokesperson added.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Minneapolis launches $3M pilot program aimed at violence prevention, community outreach
The Brief The pilot program aims to prevent violence, connect residents with services, and address quality of life issues. The initial phase includes 10 community safety ambassadors fanned out across south Minneapolis and will cost about $475,000. The program runs through March 2026, but the city has the option to extend it for one or two years and expand it to other neighborhoods. MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The city of Minneapolis launched a pilot program on Wednesday aimed at preventing violence, connecting residents with community services, and addressing quality of life concerns. What we know The pilot program launched on Wednesday as 10 community safety ambassadors spent the day walking around several blocks in south Minneapolis, hoping to prevent violence and foster relationships with residents. The ambassadors differ from violence interrupters, who focus solely on violence. The initial phase will focus on the East Lake Street and East Franklin Avenue corridors. How much will it cost The city council approved $3 million for the pilot program. The initial phase focused on south Minneapolis will cost about $475,000. What they're saying "There's street-level activation that shows we actually care about our community, there's hospitality — you know, 'Where's the concert?' in the case of downtown, or on Lake Street it might be 'Where's the best taco place? Where's the library?' Things like that," explained Amanda Harrington, the Minneapolis Neighborhood Safety Department director. "We're also going to find out do people feel safer by having this service in the community, so there'll be surveys. We'll ask people who have had interactions with the safety ambassadors to complete a survey." What's next City officials will review the program after six months and consider whether to expand it to other neighborhoods.
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Victoria to ‘immediately' ban machete sales after shopping centre clash
The sale of machetes will be banned in Victoria from Wednesday, after a clash involving the weapon between alleged rival groups forced Northland shopping centre into lockdown at the weekend. The premier, Jacinta Allan, on Monday announced the government will use extraordinary powers to fast-track the machete ban, which will remain in place until a permanent law takes effect on 1 September. Allan described the alleged incident at Northland as 'appalling' and said it was 'unfathomable as to why anyone would want to come in and disrupt families, disrupt retail workers', many of whom were likely young people in part-time jobs. 'It is just unacceptable for this sort of behaviour to be anywhere on any street. But to disrupt people going about their lives on a Sunday afternoon is just unacceptable,' she said. 'In Victoria, community safety comes first. We must never let places we meet become places we fear. I hate these knives, and I will keep introducing as many laws as it takes to get them off our streets, out of our shops and out of our lives.' 'We have moved immediately to strengthen the Australian-first machete ban that we have introduced here in Victoria to choke the supply of these dangerous weapons even further.' Allan said the government first announced plans to ban machetes in March, but at the time, Victoria police advised that a six-month implementation period was the 'safest' and 'quickest' approach. 'It took the United Kingdom 18 months to bring about a ban on machetes,' she said. 'That was not a time frame that was acceptable to the government.' She said following Sunday's incident, she was briefed on powers available under Commonwealth consumer laws, which allow a state minister to impose an interim ban on the sale of certain goods. Consumer affairs minister, Nick Staikos, said it was the first time these powers had been used to ban machetes. 'This is actually the first ban of the sale of machetes anywhere in Australia, and it follows the decision by this government to implement the first ban on the possession of machetes anywhere in Australia,' he said. 'We are using whatever powers we have under Australian consumer law to ban the sale and the supply of machetes immediately.' The interim ban will come into effect from 12pm Wednesday and applies to machetes broadly defined as 'knives with a cutting blade longer than 20cm'. It does not include knives primarily used in kitchens. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Allan acknowledged it would affect some 'legitimate users' of machetes but said she prioritised community safety above all. Retailers have been told to remove machetes from shop shelves and store excess stock in a safe location until the amnesty scheme begins on 1 September. From that date, machetes will be classified as a prohibited weapon in Victoria. Exemptions will be available only for legitimate uses, such as agricultural work. An amnesty period run from 1 September to 30 November, allowing Victorians to safely surrender machetes at 40 designated police stations across the state without facing penalties. After the amnesty ends, anyone found in possession of a machete could face up to two years in prison or fines exceeding $47,000.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Yahoo
Metro's violence prevention program marred by subway fight and subcontractor's RICO indictment
In November 2022, two men connected to a Metro safety program beat up another man on a station platform. Video footage, which The Times obtained last week, shows one of the workers squaring off before striking the man while the worker's colleague wearing a black shirt that says 'security' jumps into the fray throwing fists. The man fights back, is pushed down onto the Metro platform, and ends up on the tracks. Still held by one of the pair, he tries to yank away and throws punches until he is let go. The two "community intervention specialists" — unarmed community members who have experience with at-risk populations and gang intervention — were hired to embed within Metro's 'street teams' to de-escalate and prevent violence. It's unclear who the third man is. Metro has touted the multimillion-dollar safety program as an integral solution to its fight against crime amid a surge in attacks throughout the rail and bus system, while trust in law enforcement has waned. But the 2022 incident involving the two men and a recent indictment of the co-founder of a community group also affiliated with the community intervention specialist program has raised questions about the oversight of Metro's plan. In January, Metro expanded its operation and awarded a three-year contract for nearly $25 million to the Lee Andrews Group, a public relations firm, to manage Metro's community intervention specialist program. The firm also manages Metro's street teams — a group the transit agency has described as station greeters who often distribute materials, such as PPE during the pandemic. That program complements Metro's robust transit ambassador teams, who also liaise with the public. These community-based programs have been proved to combat violence, Metro said, crediting these teams with a "15% reduction in violent crimes per boarding systemwide from 2023 to 2024" and a notable reduction in violence along the K Line. The Metro board directed the Lee Andrews Group to continue working with community organizations to combat violence by deploying specialists to "hot spots" throughout the system. One of those groups was Developing Options, co-founded by Eugene 'Big U' Henley, who is described as a former gang member who became a community advocate. Henley was indicted in March on federal charges of fraud, robbery, extortion and running a racketeering conspiracy. Allegations against Henley also included fraudulently obtaining funds through a gang reduction and youth development program overseen by the L.A. mayor's office. Developing Options received nearly $2 million and stopped working with the Metro program March 25, Metro said, 'almost immediately after news surfaced about the organization's leadership.' A representative for Henley could not be reached for comment. Another community organization subcontracted by the Lee Andrews Group was Able Solutions — the organization affiliated with the men in the video, Metro confirmed. Since 2022, the organization has received more than $3.2 million for its work with Metro and while the men in the video were removed from the system and are no longer connected with Metro, the transit agency said the organization remains affiliated. Able Solutions has not responded to requests for comment. Metro's Customer Experience Cabinet oversees the program, but the transit agency does not vet the groups involved. That task falls to Lee Andrews Group and the community organizations, Metro said. The groups are expected to recruit members who have "lived experience with gangs, trauma or violence," according to the board report. According to Metro, Able Solutions requires a background check of all individuals through the California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services' guard card system and a state Department of Justice Live Scan. The group also conducts a Megan's Law search. Lee Andrews' vetting process is 'rooted in on-the-ground credibility,' Metro said. 'They consult with local leaders, stakeholders and community coalitions to ensure that every individual representing the project has the necessary relationships, cultural competency and trust to operate effectively and responsibly in sensitive areas.' Since 2022, Metro said that eight people have been arrested who work as transit ambassadors, street team members and community intervention specialists. The programs have employed a combined total of nearly 800 people. Metro's top security officer in 2022, Gina Osborn, said her department was not involved in the oversight of the community intervention specialists or street teams and said that she had raised concerns over a lack of oversight. 'If you have a public safety ecosystem and you speak about it publicly, why is the entire ecosystem not under one person? Why is it compartmentalized in such a way where the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing?' Osborn sued Metro last year over an allegation that the transit agency fired her in retaliation for filing a complaint with the Office of the Inspector General following a bus hijacking. The lawsuit described a tense relationship between Osborn and Metro Chief Executive Stephanie Wiggins over differing views on how Metro's system should be secured. Scott Decker, a professor emeritus at Arizona State University who has studied criminology and gang intervention, said that public agencies' collaborations with these these types of community-based programs has helped reduce crime in cities like Chicago. The data isn't "cut or dry" when it comes to assessing whether they work better than law enforcement to prevent violence, Decker said, but "there's not much evidence that shows police are demonstrably better." Metro on Thursday approved a $9.4-billion budget that included a nearly 2% increase for Metro's public safety budget. The community intervention specialist program is cited as a key priority to the 'multi-layered approach' included under a nearly $400-million bucket. Osborn had been critical of how outside law enforcement patrolled the bus and rail system and pushed for more in-house security. Earlier this month, Metro named its chief of the transit agency's new in-house police department that will oversee all of Metro's safety operations. Under a $193-million-a-year plan, sworn officers would work with Metro ambassadors and crisis intervention staffers, as well as community intervention specialists. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Yahoo
Memorial Day, summer will test city's momentum on crime rates
Damien Morris was feeling 'a little tense' Wednesday afternoon. It was the first day of a planned six-day sprint to prevent as much violence as possible in East Garfield Park and Morris, chief program officer for violence prevention and social services nonprofit Breakthrough, was staring down a packed calendar. Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer, historically marks the beginning of an annual spike in violence that the city has done its best to shake for decades. Like many other organizations that help prevent and respond to violence around city neighborhoods, Morris and his team have scheduled extra shifts days in advance of the holiday to make sure workers can help defuse conflicts as they occur. The goal, he said, is 'to report zero for East Garfield Park.' That effort has some momentum coming into the summer: Mayor Brandon Johnson, police Superintendent Larry Snelling and other officials all hailed recent dips in homicides, shootings and robberies at a Thursday news conference. But the city still faces real-time public safety challenges, perhaps most notably the stalled debate over how to best address large so-called teen takeovers that have sometimes resulted in gunfire. And while city and state leaders support funding for neighborhood violence intervention groups, cuts from the U.S. Department of Justice have drawn millions away from some of those organizations. Soledad Adrianzén McGrath, executive director of the Northwestern University neighborhood safety research center CORNERS, said that Chicago has a strong local network built up to respond to violence around its neighborhoods. But there is more to be done to expand and reinforce that work, she said, and pandemic-era programs need to find a way to keep operating now that the initial cash infusions have largely dried up. 'If you don't have the dollars to even sustain the infrastructure that's already out there, that's where we're going to start to see some fraying,' she said. Johnson, flanked by members of the City Council, agency heads and his own public safety administrators at a Thursday news conference, called on Chicagoans to 'stand shoulder to shoulder' against violence over the coming months. 'Historically, the summer months bring both joy and pain to our communities,' Johnson said. 'We need everyone to rally together in this moment to contribute to a safer, stronger city.' Johnson and other officials Thursday emphasized both preparedness activities such as gun-safety awareness workshops and diversions, including athletic activities and youth job opportunities, to offer Chicagoans, and young people in particular, productive ways to spend their free time. Two large, chaotic teen gatherings in Streeterville that ended in shootings have pushed some to search for ways to prevent so-called teen takeovers. Leading the charge is Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, who revived efforts to install an earlier downtown curfew first launched after similar events last year. Hopkins later pushed instead to give the police superintendent and deputy mayor for community safety the power to declare three-hour 'snap curfews' anywhere in the city when authorities anticipate gatherings. But though his ordinance once appeared sure to pass, his decision to place the curfew power solely in the superintendent's hands has given some aldermen pause over concern it gives the superintendent too much leeway. Hopkins' ordinance was stalled by opponents in the City Council this week. The downtown alderman promises a vote next month and says the 'snap curfew' ordinance has enough support to pass. But even if it does, the threat of a veto from Johnson — who has criticized the newer superintendent-only version as an overreach — still looms. He has also praised the Johnson's administration and police department's efforts to prevent the 'takeovers' from occurring in recent weeks. Snelling, speaking Thursday, said the department's goal was to 'get into it before it starts' and prevent fights or shootings. While police would not 'arrest our way out' of volatile gatherings of any kind, Snelling warned there would be moments when arrests were unavoidable. 'We're doing every single thing that we can to keep the city safe and do it constitutionally,' he said. The 'takeovers' that have attracted the most attention have been in highly visible areas near downtown. Away from the Loop, organizations that serve just one or a handful of neighborhoods shoulder much of the work meant to stop violence before it begins. Their success depends in large part on whether they are able to create meaningful relationships with the people in the areas they serve. Morris, of Breakthrough in East Garfield Park, said that while his team was in high gear for immediate needs around their area for the holiday weekend, much of their work year-round was about being a 'consistent presence' with residents through regular events, dinners and canvasses. That work is typically paid for using a combination of city, state and private philanthropic dollars. But some organizations that were getting funds from the U.S. Department of Justice have seen that money evaporate. Breakthrough, which runs two shelters, permanent supportive housing and a number of other social service programs alongside its violence prevention work, has so far avoided the worst of the turbulence. Others, such as the North Lawndale-based UCAN, have taken direct hits. UCAN lost $200,000 it had been using for its victim advocates program, according to CEO Christa Hamilton. And earlier this month, Metropolitan Family Services, which helps fund dozens of violence prevention groups through its Metropolitan Peace Initiatives, lost $3.7 million in Department of Justice funding that was earmarked for three organizations. Metropolitan Peace Initiative Executive Director Vaughn Bryant said that sum covered 'money we weren't able to spend' for the remainder of the current fiscal year and some 'new' money that would have gone to fund other groups. Metropolitan Family Services plans to appeal the termination, he said. At the state level, anti-violence workers and advocates are pushing for continued support of FLIP, a block-level outreach program that places workers from the neighborhood in 'hotspots' to leverage their own relationships to try to prevent and de-escalate conflict that might otherwise turn deadly. CORNERS, the Northwestern neighborhood safety research center, recently released a report that found a 41% overall drop in shooting victimizations at hotspots where peacekeepers were working over 2023 and 2024 compared with the preceding two years. Gov. JB Pritzker's proposed budget included $40 million to continue violence prevention services through the Reimagine Public Safety Act, which was previously funded primarily through federal pandemic relief dollars and has awarded nearly $260 million since 2021 in an effort to prevent gun violence, according to Pritzker's office. The budget proposal would also fund the same amount in community-based violence prevention programs as this fiscal year, about $16 million. The state anticipates serving close to the same number of people with such programs this year as it did last year, according to the proposal. How Illinois will fund violence prevention — and the entire state budget for the upcoming fiscal year — is subject to a negotiation process in the General Assembly that's currently in its home stretch ahead of a May 31 deadline.
