Category Archives: SOTD

Gun Crisis Solution of the Day: Volunteer with Mothers in Charge to support the “Cost of Violence National Conference”

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One 11-year-old lost his uncle and a cousin to gun violence last year in Philadelphia. A 10-year-old has learned to identify different weapons by the sounds they make when fired.

These are just two examples of how gun violence impacts life in Philadelphia, and among many cited by Mothers in Charge Executive Director Dorothy Johnson-Speight during a recent community meeting in North Philadelphia.

This spring, Mothers in Charge is hosting the first “Cost of Violence National Conference on Violence Prevention and Behavioral Health,” and is seeking volunteers in advance as well as during the event.

The group is looking for help with everything from event registration data entry to hosting for guests at the Evening Commencement and Peace Gala on May 7th.

First Lady Michelle Obama with Dorothy Johnson-Speight

First Lady Michelle Obama with Dorothy Johnson-Speight

Scheduled participants include Philadlephia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey and Arthur C. Evans, Jr., Commissioner of Philadelphia’s Department of Behavioral Health.

Johnson-Speight invited First Lady Michelle Obama to attend when they met in Washington last month.

Sessions will convene at the Sheraton Downtown Philadelphia Hotel on Monday and Tuesday, followed by Tuesday night’s gala and then a Mother’s Walk for Peace to Philadelphia LOVE Park on Wednesday, May 8th.

Get the latest news on the conference at: costofviolence.mothersincharge.org.

If you are interested in volunteering or exhibiting, email info@mothersincharge.org.

Dorothy Johnson-Speight concluded the meeting with her constant reminder that “No one is safe until we’re all safe.”

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Gun Crisis Solution of the Day: Recommendations from national pediatric professional organizations

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Earlier this week, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published a statement from a group of pediatric emergency and trauma physicians at St. Louis Children’s Hospital:

St. Louis Children’s Hospital

St. Louis Children’s Hospital

Since 2002, St. Louis Children’s Hospital has cared for 771 children injured or killed by gunfire; 35 percent were younger than 15.

We concur with recent recommendations from more than a dozen national pediatric professional organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, Academic Pediatric Association, and the American College of Surgeons in response to the Newtown school shooting. We called for action in three areas: reinstating and revising the ban on assault weapons and large ammunition magazines; improving quality and availability of mental health services; and reducing the exposure our children have to media violence.

In addition, we called for increasing research on the relationship of these factors on the epidemic of death and injury to children caused by firearm violence and for ending restrictions to this research imposed by Congress.

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#GunCrisis Solution of the Day: Crowdsourcing surveillance cameras

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Philadelphia Police investigators turn to the public to identify suspects on surveillance footage so often that they now have millions of views on their YouTube channel.

Police investigate after a 33 y/o woman was shot in the left arm Philadephia, Tuesday May 15, 2012. Shots were fired around 10:15 p.m. and 14 9mm shell casings littered the scene, said Chief Inspector Scott Small. It was unclear whether the woman was the shooter’s intended target or if she was an innocent bystander, Small said. Police in the Central Detective Division were combing the scene for additional evidence around 11:30 p.m., and Small said a surveillance camera at a nearby corner store may have recorded footage of the shooting. The victim was listed in stable condition as of 11:30 p.m., and police were working Tuesday night to determine whether there were any witnesses to the shooting.

Philadelphia Police investigators spotted this private secuity camera on a utility police after a woman was shot last May. Photograph by Joseph Kaczmarek for the Gun Crisis Reporting Project.

We have shared police videos at GunCrisis.org in many cases; after a gunman shot passengers on a SEPTA train, when a man was shot with his son in South Philadelphia, and when investigators sought suspect in the murder of police officer Moses Walker, Jr., last summer.

But surveillance video is useless until investigators find it.

CommunityCam, a new project at videosurveillance.com provides law enforcement and the public at large a region-wide map of the locations of public and private security cameras.

Visit: http://www.videosurveillance.com/communitycam/

The map of public and private security cameras is crowdsourced, which means that any resident, business owner, association, neighborhood group or government organization can add locations of cameras to help their neighbors, according to a report from 6ABC:

The developers at videosurveillance.com say people who experience crime can use the map to locate cameras that may have captured the activity and ask their neighbors for help.

View the CommunityCam map below or a larger version on Google.

Surveillance video

Last summer, Philadelphia Police officials released these surveillance images showing two men they had identified as suspects in the murder of Officer Moses Walker, Jr.

You can also register your camera with the Philadelphia Police SafeCam program, but that does not provide a public map.

And today, newsworks.org has a new story on a similar program in Delware: Wilmington Police looking for surveillance partners

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