Unity Festival Brings Peaceful Answer To Violence In Baltimore
BALTIMORE (WJZ)—It was a peaceful answer to violence on Saturday when thousands streamed into Druid Hill Park for the "Unity in the Community" Festival.
Alex DeMetrick has more.
There were gospel artists up on stage along with food and fun, but the remnants of violence could hardly be forgotten.
This summer it seems hardly a night goes by without violence. Earlier this week three teenagers were shot and city police say they investigated six shooting incidents from Friday to Saturday that left two people dead.
"We're going to focus on those individuals that want to bring death and destruction to our streets. We're going to focus like a laser to get them off the streets," said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.
But there were no t-shirts celebrating turf wars at the festival.
"Business has been pretty good today. Nice crowd for a good festive occasion, and everybody been coming out. No troubles or nothing," said Brian Hall, a vendor at the festival.
Onjonet Torry called Saturday's event a "positive get together" stating that it's is something the community needs.
"I'm so proud of Cathy Hughes and the Radio One family for really thinking about Baltimore; she really wanted to invest in the healing of Baltimore," Rawlings-Blake said.
The "Unity in the Community" Festival was sponsored by Baltimore's major religious broadcaster Radio One.
Organizers of the Unity Festival also collected videos from those attending, saying what they would do to improve Baltimore.
