City Leaders Call For 'Cease Fire' To Combat Violence In Baltimore

BALTIMORE (WJZ/AP) — Last week, the number of homicides in Baltimore surpassed 200, making 2017 a record-setting year for violence on the city's streets.

As the body count rises, the police department has reassigned 150 officers to the city's most dangerous areas, but is still struggling to curb the bloodshed amid internal turmoil and mounting criticism. Mayor Catherine Pugh said she's developed a plan to stop the violence.

"Violence on our streets is out of control and we need to make people feel safe in our city and I'm with them. Let's cease the violence in our city," says Mayor Pugh.

In the meantime, Baltimore residents are taking matters into their own hands, proposing a 72-hour cease fire that would go into effect Friday and last at least through Sunday.

A 97-year-old man attacked inside his home in Darley Park, a 27-year-old robbed then shot in Canton. A 37-year-old mother shot and killed after she called the police to complain about her son being bullied.

Waddell Tate, Charmaine Wilson, and Sebastian Dvorak. Three of the people murdered in Baltimore so far this year. The list of victims is at least 208 names long.

This is why average citizens have taken matters into their own hands they've called for a cease fire, handing out flyers across the city. With a simple message: "Nobody kill anybody for 72 hours."

"Our city is really hurting basically and people are tired of living in fear," says Shanika Lewis from Baltimore.

"Somebody has to do something, and it just takes us doing small things to make a difference," says Latonya Savage.

___

"NOBODY KILL ANYBODY"

Erricka Bridgeford, a professional conflict mediator in Baltimore, is one of the organizers of the cease-fire, whose motto is "Nobody Kill Anybody."

All across the city there are signs reminding people of the cease fire.The push for a violence-free weekend comes as Baltimore struggles to keep the crime under control.

The city's crime problem is seen as one of the worst in the country.

Bridgeford says no individual or organization alone has taken credit for the event, and that's intentional: That way, she said, it belongs to every single Baltimore resident.

The idea is to persuade shooters to put down their guns for three whole days, and remember what it feels like to make a positive decision for themselves, and for their city.

"We understand that this is not what normal should be, and we deserve something better," Bridgeford said. "Looking at each other and saying, 'We deserve peace, for three whole days' — that's powerful."

Bridgeford is no stranger to the effect of violence on communities: She first saw someone shot and killed when she was just 12 years old.

"I heard shots that woke me up out of my sleep (when) my friend Mike was shot. I saw him on the blacktop, I heard him crying not to let him die," she said. "I went to funerals all through high school."

She's lost friends and cousins to gunshots, she said. "So many cousins."

"Some people say, you know, I don't think this is going to work. Somebody is going to shoot somebody across town. So, then I say, don't worry about across town. This is about you. Are you saying you can't keep this 3 block radius safe?" she said. "Gang leaders have called us and said the people they're responsible for are just going to chill this weekend and celebrate life."

"We had the audacity to imagine what life would look like if we could get through a weekend with no violence at all," said activist Ellen Gee. "We're not asking you to make Baltimore City safe. We're asking you to keep what is within the realm of your control safe."

"You have a choice. You have power. I know you're tired, just like I'm tired. Nobody loses more people to the streets than the people who are in the streets," Bridgeford said.

RELATED: Baltimore Group Plans Ceasefire Weekend, Urges 'Nobody Kill Anybody' For 72 Hours

___

OPPOSITION TO VIOLENCE THROUGH ADVERTISING

As James Evans, a Baltimore-based advertising executive, watched the body count in Baltimore skyrocket earlier this year, he thought he might be able to help. How? By reaching the unreachable: those most likely to pick up a gun and pull the trigger.

Evans' firm, Illume, is behind the "Stop Shooting, Start Living" slogan used by a local chapter of the community-based anti-violence organization Safe Streets. Now, he's trying to combat the bloodshed with an advertising campaign.

As he does with any campaign, Evans said he treats his anti-violence pitch like a product he's selling. He said he's conducted focus groups with victims, active shooters and drug dealers to try to figure out how best to market the message. In one video, a fight breaks out and a man opens fire on a group, only to have his infant daughter caught in the crossfire.

"Humanizing the victims is really important," Evans said. "People talk about Baltimore city and crime, and they talk about it in the voice of fear, not the voice of empathy. The voice of fear suggests that crime just exists here, not that victims exist here.

"We're incentivizing kids not to become criminals in the first place. You could go from being a hardworking citizen, lose your temper, do the wrong thing and become a criminal in five seconds. When you're 18, you're living in an underserved community, you're frightened all the time. People don't understand how quickly these kids need to react. That is what we're trying to do: empathize with these young guys, and say, 'We understand that your situation is challenging; don't make it more so.'"

Evans created the campaign after discussing the idea with Daniel Webster, the director of Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research.

___

"NO SHOOT ZONES"

Tyree Colion is on a mission to convert areas of gun violence into "No Shoot Zones."

He tries to create what he calls "invisible force fields" against violence by spray-painting messages on buildings and other structures where violence has occurred.

Those most likely to pick up guns recognize these zones and neutral areas: They respect the space, he says.

The messages "stop shootings, first and foremost," Colion said. "At worst, it looks like graffiti. But to different gangs, they know what this means: 'I don't fear police, I don't respect anything else, but I respect this.'"

He's christened 27 such zones in Baltimore city. The fatal shooting of a 13-year-old girl Tuesday is what brought him across the line into Baltimore County for the first time.

He'd come to paint a brick wall behind a convenience store, near where the shooting had taken place.

The paint hadn't even begun to dry when four police cars and six uniformed officers showed up on the scene. The wall Colion had painted was privately owned, they said. Colion insisted he'd gotten permission from a store owner. After 20 minutes of back and forth, Colion was arrested and charged with destruction of property.

"You can't stop this," Colion said to an officer as he was being handcuffed, pointing his chin toward a memorial to the girl set up on a staircase and decorated with teddy bears and a big bunch of balloons.

The 72-hour cease fire started Friday morning and runs untill Sunday evening.
The hope is if the city makes it through the 72 hours, it could change to the psyche of people who thought it wasn't possible.

For a list of events related to the Baltimore Cease Fire CLICK HERE.

Follow @CBSBaltimore on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook

(TM and Copyright 2017 CBS and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)