As the federal courts and D.C. Council deliberate on bribery allegations levied against D.C. Councilmember Trayon White (D-Ward 8), D.C. Police Union President Gregg Pemberton has called for a re-examination, and likely defunding, of D.C.’s violence interrupter programs.
However, some people, like Marcus Ellis, find such suggestions shortsighted, and without any appreciation for what he calls a proven, data-driven approach to violence prevention and reduction.
Ellis, executive director of Peace for D.C., once served as chief of staff at the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (ONSE). For years, ONSE shepherded the men and women most at risk of perpetrating and becoming victims of violence through the Pathways Program, a transitional employment program that aims to decrease involvement in the criminal justice system.
The Pathways Program model bears similarity to Peace for D.C.’s D.C. Peace Academy, which will soon reach a milestone of 200 graduates, all of whom will enter their communities as credible voices in the fight against violence.
“I’m most proud that we offered the Pathways Program to directly speak with the population that perpetuates gun violence,” Ellis said as he reflected on his involvement in ONSE. “We saw young men come into that program with heavy baggage and a large number changed the trajectory of their lives to the extent that some of them are working in ONSE and other spots. Some of them turned to entrepreneurs. We know that prevention works.”
Ellis has since mulled over the possibility of engaging Pemberton in dialogue about the merits of violence interruption programs in the local public safety ecosystem.
“Whenever there’s a disagreement or difference of opinion, what’s valuable is conversation,” Ellis said. “Finger pointing isn’t going to get us far. Even though we’re going about our work in different ways, we aim to save lives.”
Pemberton didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
The Latest Chapter in a Longtime Fight about Public Safety Approaches
Pemberton’s comments come just days after the Office of D.C. Auditor (ODCA)’s police staffing report, much to the chagrin of MPD officials, recommended a reallocation of available patrol officers on D.C. streets rather than an influx of new recruits. It also comes weeks after the police-involved shooting death of Justin Robinson, a 26-year-old violence interrupter who worked with Cure the Streets in the Office of the Attorney General (OAG).
White, who hasn’t said much about his federal bribery charge, counted among those who took to the streets in the hours after Robinson’s death. Meanwhile, ONSE, an agency mentioned in charging documents filed against the Ward 8 council member, continues to face much scrutiny.
This fall, D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) will conduct oversight hearings for ONSE, as part of an effort, as she described in a communique to constituents, to review performance and outcomes, facilitate programmatic improvements, and ensure integrity in the issuance of grants.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) too revealed plans to conduct an internal review of White’s interaction with violence interruption programs.
ONSE was established in 2016, when the D.C. Council unanimously approved the Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results (NEAR) Act without Bowser’s signature. The Bowser administration has since been slow to fully enact the legislation, which not only mandates the establishment of the Office of Violence Prevention and Health Equity within the Metropolitan Police Department’s (MPD) Department of Health and a Community Crime Prevention Team, but requires MPD’s collection of stop-and-frisk data, use-for-force data and data about custody deaths.
In 2022, ODCA determined that the Bowser administration didn’t follow through on the launch of the Office of Violence Prevention and Health Equity. As outlined in its report, D.C. Health also spent less than 40% of funds the D.C. Council allocated toward a public information campaign about the effects of violence and violence cessation strategies.
The ODCA also shed light on how MPD, Department of Behavioral Health and Department of Human Services didn’t establish the Community Crime Prevention Team program. By 2023, MPD’s compliance with an order to launch a Community Policing Working Group had declined, according to another ODCA report. While the 2023 report confirmed that MPD provided “extensive” police use-of-force data; it said gaps remained in the areas of: the number of subjects involved in use of force incidents; the number and outcome of civilian complaints filed to MPD for excessive use of force; and the charge given after an arrest.
The Informer unsuccessfully attempted to gather comment from Bowser’s office before publishing time about the NEAR Act or her level of support for violence interruption programs.
In recent years, ONSE has also been under the microscope.
While ODCA, in its 2022 report, acknowledged that ONSE’s implementation of a public health approach to violence prevention that identified the people most at risk, the auditor’s office said that the violence prevention program’s impact remains unclear. In the same report, ODCA said that ONSE complied with “most, but not all” reporting requirements needed to fully assess the activities and outcomes of the Pathways Program.
Other issue areas outlined in the auditor’s report concerned violence interrupters being spread too thin and falling short in consistently establishing close ties with community leaders. ODCA suggested a merger of ONSE and OAG’s violence intervention programs as an ideal means of incorporating the best aspects of each program and improving outcomes.
D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (I-At large) has since taken on that mantle with his introduction of the Safe Neighborhoods Amendment Act earlier this year. If passed, the legislation would consolidate ONSE and OAG’s violence intervention programs. In his April testimony before the D.C. Council’s Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary, Attorney General Brian Schwalb spoke in support of the merger, but noted that no agreement has been reached to ensure that existing programs maintain their functionality and funding level.
The Informer unsuccessfully attempted to gather comment from ONSE about a violence interruption program merger with OAG, or its progress in addressing the D.C. auditor’s concerns about staffing and program effectiveness.
A Pathways Program Graduate Makes His Mark
On Sept. 6, as hundreds of community members memorialized Robinson, 26, near the site of his police-involved death, dozens of young people, parents, violence interrupters and community figures converged on the ONE DC Black Workers & Wellness Center on Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue in Southeast.
There, nearly 20 young people from the Congress Park community in Southeast celebrated their completion of a program that certified them youth violence prevention ambassadors. They reached this milestone months after the death of a Congress Park youth known as Lil’ Tez.
In days and weeks following Lil’ Tez’s death, Marcellus Queen, a Pathways Program alumnus, counted among those who formed tight-knit relationships with the young residents. Through his organization, Representation for the Bottom, Queen coordinated enrichment activities and prepared the youth for their work as youth violence prevention ambassadors.
He did this work in collaboration with Bold Yoga, T.R.I.G.G.E.R. Project, D.C. Black Broadway, Peace for D.C., and Howard University’s Center of Excellence: Trauma and Violence Prevention.
After the youth ambassadors delved into the causes and effects of gun violence at the program, Queen took to the microphone at the ONSE-funded event. He told his redemption story and acknowledged older people in the room who placed him on a path to help others.
“My son got tired of me going to prison,” Queen told the youth on Sept. 5. “I went to the Pathways Program and it showed me how to navigate life. Dr. Lovail Long [of D.C. Black Broadway] and I had the same energy as hustlers. The next person in my journey was Charnal Chaney [of Bold Yoga]. Tia Bell [of T.R.I.G.G.E.R. Project] helped support me. Pastor [Delonte] Gholston [of Peace Fellowship Church] was part of my journey. In the beginning, Dr. [Warees] Majeed [of Yaay Me, Inc.] wasn’t messing with me, but now he’s one of my main people.”
James Robinson, a recent Pathways Program graduate who lives in Congress Park, listened intently as Queen told his story. Earlier, while speaking with The Informer, the recent graduate said he wanted to leverage his leadership potential, like Queen, to become a positive force in his community.
“There’s a lot going on and we need more programs,” said James Robinson, 30. “I’m learning how to communicate more and interact with people. I’m showing the youth that if I can go through Pathways, then they can do it too.”
A Petition for a Federal Investigation, and the Ongoing Fight to Humanize Justin Robinson
On Sept. 16, lawyers representing Justin Robinson’s family announced a petition they’re filing with the U.S. Department of Justice for a federal civil rights investigation into his Sept. 1 death.
Jade Mathis, one of the attorneys, told The Informer that the family, more than anything, wants to ensure a level of objectivity in the investigation that they’re not sure neither MPD nor the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia can provide. Mathis, who watched the redacted body camera footage with the 26-year-old’s sister and other family members, said that the tape shows probable cause to not only charge MPD officers Bryan Gilchrist and Vasco Mateus, but force MPD and the D.C. government take the proper steps to prevent future shootings.
“It was inappropriately handled from the beginning,” Mathis said. “There were alternatives that would have alleviated the issue, before it got to the point where Justin was murdered. There needs to be a review of how everything was handled.”
Robinson’s death, Mathis said, has sparked community outrage because of his rapport as an ambassador for peace and violence prevention. “The concern is that if a violence interrupter [whose] occupation is to de-escalate violence can be killed, then the rest of the community doesn’t stand a chance.”
Years before entering private practice, Mathis served as a prosecutor in Prince George’s County, Maryland under then-State’s Attorney Angela Alsobrooks and State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy. In that capacity, Mathis facilitated diversion programs, including the back-on-track program that Alsobrooks modeled after Kamala Harris’ efforts as San Francisco district attorney.
Mathis later oversaw the expansion of the court diversion program under Braveboy. She said that her prosecutorial experience, and what she described as police officers’ apprehension about court diversion, showed her that more can be done to ensure that people from marginalized communities can change their relationship with the criminal justice system.
While Mathis said that Justin Robinson reflected the promises of possibilities abound for D.C. residents, she noted that he wasn’t able to thrive because law enforcement doesn’t fully embrace alternative methods of engagement with the public, nor do they respect public health approaches to violence prevention.
“Law enforcement can do a better job of making safe spaces and not having such a combative relationship with the public,” Mathis said. “The people being targeted are predominantly Black, so [it’s important] to have representation of them, someone…like Justin Robinson who was raised in those environments and pulled themselves up. It’s about training law enforcement with empathy to see them as people, and not their record.”