The marchers who trekked north on Port Street on Saturday evening sure were an eclectic bunch. There were guys in their 20s wearing T-shirts that read "Operation Safe Streets East."
There were tykes as young as 4 years old trudging along. There were men and women in their 40s and 50s. A young woman who looked to be in her 20s pushed along a baby in a stroller. Youngsters of middle school age rounded out the mix.
The procession crossed first Monument Street and then Madison Street before hanging a right on Ashland Avenue. Along the way the guys in the T-shirts led the chants.
"What do we want?" they shouted.
"STOP THE KILLING!" the marchers answered.
"When do we want it?"
"NOW!"
In the week before the march, there had been four nonfatal shootings in this East Baltimore neighborhood. All the victims were black men between the ages of 14 and 24. The most recent shooting had occurred in the 2600 block of Ashland Ave., where the marchers headed before they turned south on Belnord Avenue.
Micah Mitchell, one of the guys wearing the "Operation Safe Streets East" T-shirts, explained to curious onlookers the purpose of the march.
"This is a new movement," Mitchell told them. "We're taking back our community." Then Mitchell invited them to the Peace Barbecue and Rally, from whence the marchers had come.
"This is our introduction to the community," Jerrod Lewis, the violence prevention coordinator for Operation Safe Streets East, said about the barbecue. Operation Safe Streets East is an initiative funded through the Living Classrooms Foundation by the Baltimore City Health Department and the Department of Justice. The goal is to reduce shootings and murders in the Baltimore neighborhood bordered on the north by Monument Street, on the south by Fayette Street, on the west by Patterson Park Avenue and on the east by Linwood Avenue.
Those are the official boundaries. But when the shootings and homicides occur within blocks of the target area -- like the one on Ashland Avenue -- outreach workers for Operation Safe Streets East are ready to march, hold vigils, hand out literature and talk to people. The idea is to let them know that such violence will no longer be tolerated in the neighborhood.
Inspired by a Chicago program called CeaseFire, Operation Safe Streets East employs several outreach workers who will help juveniles who've had problems with the law -- the ones who in Baltimore either end up shot or doing the shooting, or both -- get help with jobs, housing and employment. The outreach workers for Operation Safe Streets East have one thing in common: All of them have had problems with the law themselves.
At first glance it might seem unwise to put ex-offenders in the position of acting as outreach workers to juvenile offenders. But at second glance, we might have to admit, in the street lingo some of those "at-risk" juveniles might use, "They ain't really tryin' to hear anybody else" but ex-offenders.
Besides, some of the ex-offenders working as outreach workers for Operation Safe Streets East feel they have a debt to pay.
"I come out of the projects and I got in a little trouble," said Rafiq Abdul-Wahid, a 45-year-old ex-offender who supervises all the outreach workers for Operation Safe Streets. "I wanted to help correct some of the wrongs I helped create."
Jermaine Lewis, 33, Jerrod Lewis' younger brother, sounded a familiar theme.
"I've been going to jail since I was 14 years old," Jermaine Lewis said. "I've had four handgun convictions, two drug convictions, a couple for assault and I've done some armed robberies. I feel obligated to undo some of the stuff I did."
Mitchell's motivation isn't so much about undoing what he's done. It's about preventing juvenile offenders from committing the bonehead mistake that he made. A 1997 graduate of Lake Clifton High School, Mitchell said he had a scholarship to play football at the University of Florida. When he was convicted of felony drug possession, that scholarship vanished.
Mitchell did 5 1/2 years of a 6 1/2 -year sentence. When he was released he worked two restaurant jobs -- one at Bob Evans, the other at Applebee's -- and saved his money. Soon he started his own outreach center for youngsters, the Last Stand Youth and Rehabilitation Center.
"I ran into a couple of the right people, and I've never looked back," Mitchell said of how he was able to start the center.
Leon Farruq, the director of Operation Safe Streets Program for the Living Classrooms Foundation, said he did 27 years in prison for murder. The goal of Operation Safe Streets, Farruq said, is zero homicides, but he realizes the messages his outreach workers give will fall on some deaf ears.
"We may not be able to reach everybody," Farruq said, "but we're trying to reach as many people as we can."
greg.kane@baltsun.com