When you consider the monsoon of violent images that flood young brains — on television, in video games, movies and social media — it’s difficult to see how one 60-second, anti-violence video could effectively counter all that gun-infested conditioning.
It’s even harder to imagine a short video causing a young man in Baltimore, a felon on probation, to throw away his handgun and break from the perilous life that caused him to carry it.
But “Goodbye,” a public service video produced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Baltimore, packs a hard punch, and you never know — it might save a life or two, or 20.
The scene: A middle school classroom, students taking a test. Tasha, a young girl, suddenly looks up. Her older brother, in a sleeveless hoodie, appears before her desk. No one else in the classroom notices the young man.
“T,” she calls him, “what are you doing here?”
“I’m not going to be home, all right?” T answers.
“When are you coming back?” she asks.
The brother looks away for a moment, then says, “You’re in charge now, Tasha.”
A change in the viewer’s angle reveals a blood stain on the brother’s hoodie.
“I don’t understand,” Tasha says, and T disappears.
In the next moment, Erek Barron, the U.S. Attorney for Maryland, stands at the classroom door. He’s playing the part of the school principal.
“Tasha,” he calls to the girl in a somber tone, “will you come with me please?”
In the next scene, Barron and the girl stand in the school office with a female police officer, played by Col. Monique Brown of the Baltimore Police Department. The officer is there to break sad news to Tasha about her big brother.
The video ends with three words, “End gun violence,” the seal of Barron’s office and the logo of Roca, the anti-violence program that launched its outreach efforts in Baltimore five years ago.
“Goodbye” is part of Barron’s strategy, called Project Safe Neighborhoods, to reduce violent crime in Baltimore. It’s aimed at the same people his staff and collaborating law enforcement agencies routinely target for either intervention or prosecution — repeat violent offenders; specifically, felons carrying guns.
“The PSA,” Barron says, “is an emotional appeal to our target audience. It says, ‘Look, you may not care about yourself and what happens to you. But what you do affects your home, your sister, your mother. It affects others that you care about.'”
The idea is to convince ex-offenders who’ve returned home from prison to reject their old ways. Barron and his staff have conducted this campaign with door knocks and direct conversations with guys most at risk of being shot or shooting someone — the real-life T’s of the “Goodbye” spot.
The video has appeared in Orioles telecasts. It aired just before a Ravens telecast in September, and Barron says two more game-day airings are scheduled. If he had more funds, Barron said, it would air more often.
It’s a shame we don’t see this kind of messaging on a regular basis, offered as a public service by cable channels that provide gazillion hours of programming, a lot of it vapid or violent.
Prosecuting criminals is mainly what Barron’s staff does, and it does plenty of that. I mentioned “Goodbye” because it impressed me — actually gave me an emotional jolt — as something we’re not used to seeing from federal prosecutors.
Project Safe Neighborhoods emphasizes intervening in the lives of the most at-risk guys to get them on a different path. We have seen that before, but not with as much formal emphasis.
In addition, for several years the U.S. Attorney’s Office has promoted job fairs for people who’ve been released from prison and need employment, an effort that has continued since Barron took over two years ago. “It’s not what a lot of people want us to be doing necessarily,” he says, “but I think we should. I think we have a particular ability and credibility to do that.”
And, he says, it’s key to public safety in the long term.
Homicides in Baltimore are down this year. The city could finish 2023 with under 300 homicides for the first time since 2014.
It’s too early to declare victory or point to any one factor. A new Baltimore State’s Attorney, Ivan Bates, might have something to do with it. Roca and the city’s violence intervention efforts might be paying off. Barron’s role as coordinator of state, local and federal law enforcement agencies is a major piece of the effort, especially if his intervention and prevention elements succeed in keeping ex-offenders from offending again.
“In preventing violent crime, our focus is on individuals who are at high risk of either illegally using a gun or being a victim of illegal gun use,” Barron says. “That’s the strategy.”
Numerous defendants have been prosecuted for being felons in possession of a gun. One example: Tavion Thomas, arrested by Baltimore police on an open warrant last year. Police found a fully loaded handgun in his waistband, another in his backpack, along with some extra ammo. Both weapons had been stolen, one in Maryland and one in Georgia.
Last month, Thomas got a 33-month federal sentence (plus three years of supervised probation) for being a felon in possession of a gun. He’s the kind of guy who needed to see the “Goodbye” video. Maybe others will get the message before it’s too late for them.
