There is a new effort to keep Philadelphia safe and organizers are calling it Hug the Block. Residents and activists are taking safety into their own hands. The effort involves overnight peace patrols in hard-hit communities.
The Safe City Boys initiative will wrap next week before the start of school.
"This is my community. I am responsible for what happens here, how it looks here and what I do here," said Jon McKay leading the boys on a chant as they walked 52nd Street in West Philly Friday evening. But, beginning Tuesday, for 77 nights, Philly Truce will co-launch another intervention campaign. It is called Hug the Block. It is an extension of an effort started by the D.A.’s Office that identified blocks with 10 or more shootings since 2015.
"We going to hit every one of them. We going to do a peace patrol vigil at night, 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., really to motivate and inspire everybody on those blocks to come out and start that practice from the day we show up, ongoing and just start to reclaim our communities," said Casher. Philly Truce is partnering with longtime Philadelphia anti-gun violence activist Jamal Johnson. He is the founder of"If they see us doing it overnight and, hopefully we'll make it through without a problem, then hopefully they'll see that they can come out even in the daytime. Because right now, as you know, a lot of people are even scared to come out in the daytime," said Johnson.
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