Operation Ceasefire: Would it Work for Bermuda?
At a recently held press conference, the UBP suggested Bermuda bring in a new plan “Operation Ceasefire” saying:
Over the past few weeks we have met with specialists in fighting gangs. We have talked with the Police here and in New York and Boston, as well as academics.
Our research has taken us to Operation Ceasefire, a programme used in American cities to stop gang violence. We think it can be effective here in Bermuda.
Its results have been startling: In Cincinnati in 2007, after Operation Ceasefire’s first meetings with gangs, homicides fell 24%; in 2008 they were down 50%. In 1990s Boston, Operation Ceasefire was associated with near 2/3 drop in youth homicide.
These results got our attention.
What exactly is Operation Ceasefire? Shadow Minister of Public Safety Michael Dunkley explains:
We learned that Operation Ceasefire is a police-community initiative to deter gang violence by reaching out to gangs, with a stick and a carrot.
Explicit warnings were issued that violence would no longer be tolerated and coming down hard with every legal lever whenever violence occurred. This meant disrupting gang lives with immediate and intense enforcement actions – serving warrants, mounting prosecutions, disrupting street-level drug markets, and strict enforcement of conditions for probationers and parolees.
The flip side of the plan is that if gang members wanted to step away from the violent lifestyle, the Ceasefire working group would help them with services and opportunities to make it happen.
We think Bermuda may be well-positioned for Operation Ceasefire. Police are well along in their identification of all gangs, gang members and their turf. This is essential information for the programme to get off the ground. In addition, Bermuda has a community of social workers, active clergy and community activists who could be enlisted for the helping hand side of the operation.
Bermuda does not have all the pieces in place to immediately adapt Operation Ceasefire but the people behind the programme recognize our problem and are open to working with us to stop the shooting.
Operation Ceasefire was used in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, and New Jersey, but is best well known for its effect in Boston. The report below describes initial conditions in Boston which make Bermuda’s issues seem pale; one section details how residents avoided the front of their homes due to frequent stray bullets, and police “running from crime scene to crime scene” as they were responding to 6 or 7 shootings a night.
One truly alarming incident occurred during a gang member’s funeral, when rival gang members invaded the Morningstar Baptist Church in Boston, turning the funeral service into a battleground which resulted in a stabbing and a shooting in 1992.
As Senator Dunkley pointed out, in Boston during the 1990′s Operation Ceasefire was associated with near 2/3 drop in youth homicide. Below is the 77 page report from the US Department of Justice on the Boston Gun Project’s Operation Ceasefire:
Saying “Operation Ceasefire brought peace to the streets, and then let it all slip away“, the Boston Phoenix says that after funding was diverted from the program [much to Homeland Security following the 9/11 attacks] “progress began to erode“.
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