Anti-violence rally planned for Wilmington

Members of the Wilmington Peacekeepers will meet Saturday at noon to talk about solutions to the city’s crime problem.

As the number of murders in Delaware’s largest city approaches the 2008 record of 26, members of the community are planning an anti-violence rally Saturday.  Members of the Wilmington Peacekeepers will gather at noon on Saturday at 23rd and Market Streets to launch their call for a national state of emergency.  Peacekeepers leader Lamotte X says, “We’re here today because the escalation of crime and violence in the city has reached a prolific level.  It seems like it’s escalating as we speak.”

He says the solution to the city’s problem of violence must come from the community, especially the city’s spiritual community.  “We can’t put it all on the police now, we cannot put it all on the police, we can’t put it all on the politicians.  This is bigger than that.  The reality of it is, there’s more churches in the community than there is police precincts.  So we got to ask the question, what are we doing as spiritual leaders in the community.”  He says much of the problem is city kids dealing with ADD, which he defined as “Absent Daddy Disorder.”

Wilmington Mayor James Baker talked about violence in the city in an interview that will air on this Friday’s edition of First. He says the city’s crime problem stems from “easy access to weapons, easy access to drugs, then when you add in the change in value systems and all that are out there between groups of people have arguments and disagreements, and the easy access of weapons, so the weapons are used.”  He says the crime problems in Wilmington are similar to those in cities like Chester, Baltimore and Philadelphia.  “You start out with a child who doesn’t get proper raising, proper education.  We have a 59% dropout rate.  That’s outrageous,” Baker said.