CONTACT:
Mr. Tommy
Joshua Caison
Founder and
Executive Director
Philly Peace
Park
Telephone: (215) 307-7102
E-Mail: bringblacklife@gmail.com
Website: www.phillypeacepark.org
Queen Mother
Falaka Fattah
President
House of
Umoja, Inc.
(215) 473-5893
E-Mail: falakafattah@aol.com
Website: www.houseofumoja.net/pressroom
PHILADELPHIA, PA (USA) –The first round of a Gun Violence Cease Fire
launched by Partners In Peace, an intergenerational coalition of community
stakeholders and organizations, that
established a Gun Violence Cease Fire Zone starting in Carroll Park in West
Philadelphia that began on Monday, 22 November 2021 at 12:00 A.M. (E.D.T.) and
ended on Monday, 29 November 2021 at 12:00 A.M. is helping to create a new
reality for Philadelphia – a new reality of peace. It is the new reality for the nation’s
fifth largest metropolitan area envisioned by Mr. Tommy Joshua Caison, Founder and Executive Director
of Philly Peace Park (www.phillypeacepark.org) which he designed and gave voice to at a press
conference on Sunday, 21 November 2021 convened at the House of Umoja, Inc. (www.houseoumoja.net). The Gun
Violence Cease Fire is the brainchild of Mr.
Caison and serves as the vehicle for creating the new reality of
peace for Philadelphia he envisions.
“As we discussed during the press
conference, Queen Mother Falaka
Fattah started the legendary House of Umoja in 1968 which grew directly out of
the historic Black Power Conference. With her late husband The Honorable David
Fattah, who was the chief negotiator for a peace conference attended by 500
members of Philadelphia’s street
organizations held at 1810 Ridge Avenue, the former Farmers Market, they led
the historic ‘No Gang War In 74’ Campaign which led to the 1974 Imani Peace
Pact agreed to by over eighty street organizations which ended gang violence in
the City of Philadelphia. Queen Mother Falaka Fattah, recognizes the great
importance, hard work and value of all anti-violence groups in the city and is
calling for all organizations striving for peace in the city to join forces to ‘Return
Peace In The Streets’. The ending of violence in our community will spawn a renaissance
that has not been witnessed in the history of our people and in the history of
Philadelphia. Partners in Peace selected West Philadelphia as the venue for Round
One of the Gun Violence Cease Fire. The
West Philadelphia Gun Violence Cease Fire Zone is at 49th Street
through 59th Street from Girard Avenue to Master Street and
encompasses the Carroll Park neighborhood which is a component of a Gun
Violence Free Zone in Philadelphia’s 19th Police District. Carroll Park is bounded by Girard Avenue to
the South Lansdowne Avenue to the North, North 63rd Street to the
West and North 53rd Street to the East. So far
we have distributed over 5,000 pieces of literature that calls for a truce and
a cease fire and knocked on the doors of at least 450 homes informing members
of the community about the cease fire and Partners In Peace. Partners In
Peace is calling for one hundred men and women from our impacted communities to
donate two hours per day for the ceasefire period. With a goal to negotiate Mutual Code Of
Conduct Interim Community Agreements, the 100 Peacekeepers will form ten teams
of ten leaders to cover ten blocks within the Carroll Park Gun Violence Cease
Fire Zone. This is known as the ‘10
-10-10 Strategy’ which I developed,” Mr.
Caison remarked.
Partners In Peace is monitoring the
progress of Round One of the Gun Violence Cease Fire and its review of the
Philadelphia Police Department’s gun violence statistics reveals that no
incidences of fatal and nonfatal gun violence were reported in the Carroll Park
Gun Violence Cease Fire Zone on Thanksgiving Day. Research conducted by Partners In Peace of statistics
for Calendar Year 2021 identified West
Philadelphia and North Philadelphia as “gun violence hot spots”. The research also identified individuals in
the 18 to 30 age group as the age group that has sustained and continues to
sustain the highest number of fatal and nonfatal gun violence injuries, while
individuals in the 31 to 45 age group are the next highest age group sustaining
and continuing to sustain fatal and nonfatal gun violence injuries. High unemployment and high levels of food
insecurity exists in each of these gun violence hot spots.
“In
addition to calling for a truce and cease fire, establishing Gun Violence Cease
Fire Zones, and placing peacekeepers in the Gun Violence Cease Fire Zone to
patrol their neighborhoods, we are going back to the future. When we
state ‘Return peace to the streets,’ we acknowledge that there once was peace
in the streets. We are returning to strategies that worked with the people who
manifested the peace. Fifty years ago,
in 1971 the City of Philadelphia was traumatized by violence fueled by
bloody and deadly gang warfare. That
year 435 souls were victims of gun violence. Now 50 years later, in 2021, the City of Philadelphia once again
finds itself grappling with out-of-control gun
violence. On January 1, 1974, more than 500
gang members from across the city met in North Philadelphia to discuss a way to
end their territorial blood war. The killings were going on. They were raging. My late husband Mr. David Fattah and I opened
our home in 1969 to gang members. It had
become a respite for young men seeking peace, and we asked them how to
end the bloodshed, which was being recorded with daily scores in the local
newspaper. We visited every prison in Pennsylvania where there were gang
members incarcerated, and we asked them to help us plan the conference. They picked New Year’s Day – 1 January
1974. They said everyone makes New
Year’s resolutions. Mothers were being
shot, children were being killed, and little children could not come outside to
play. My husband David Fattah wrote the
Imani Pledge which was a peace pact and helped broker the peace agreement among
the gangs. We had it set up United
Nations-style. We had all these people
sitting in a circle, and we were resolving conflicts. During his lifetime, when my husband looked
back at how the peace agreement between the gangs came about, he remarked that
the question of manhood changed and asked, “Would you show strength by killing
somebody, or could you show strength by not killing somebody and being a man of
your word?’ By the end of 1974, eighty leaders from Philadelphia’s 105 gangs
had signed the Imani Pledge. The souls
who signed the Imani Pledge kept their word.
They have not engaged in violence in 47 years. They are now Fathers, Grandfathers and some
are Great Grandfathers. Here we are 47
years later, and we are asking a new generation of young souls to usher in the
new reality of peace for Philadelphia by signing the Imani Pledge. Partners In Peace are asking a new generation
of young souls to honor their Fathers, Grandfathers, and Great Grandfathers by
not only signing the Imani Pledge, but by showing their strength by not taking
the life of another soul and keeping their word. Strength and manhood is about keeping your
word and not about taking the life of another soul. The Imani Pledge can be found at https://www.houseofumoja.net/imani-pledge.html,” remarked Queen Mother Falaka Fattah, President of
the House of Umoja, Inc.
To learn more about the
intergenerational collective of community stakeholders and organizations – Partners In Peace – and its Gun Violence Cease Fire
Zones and how you can usher in the new reality of peace
for the City of Philadelphia, contact Queen Mother Falaka Fattah, President of the House of Umoja, Inc. at (215) 473-5893 or send an
e-mail to: falakafattah@aol.com and Mr. Tommy Joshua Caison Founder and Executive Director
of Philly Peace Park at (215) 307-7102 or send an e-mail to: bringblacklife@gmail.com.
For
further information about Philly Peace Park which has distributed 3,000 pounds
of free fresh and healthy produce to community members since 2018 and through
several school partnerships provides students enrolled in Grades K through 12
with ecologically-based programs
that comprise planting, harvesting, landscape design and
construction, composting, pollinators, plant identification, and art,
visit its website at www.philly peacepark.org.
For further information
about the House of Umoja, Inc. visit its website at www.houseofumoja.net.. Established in 1968, the House
of Umoja, Inc. is an internationally acclaimed organization recognized by former United States Presidents The
Honorable James Earl Carter, Jr. and the late Honorable Ronald Reagan. for its
pioneering work in the areas of gang reduction, youth programming, and
community organizing which has been documented in published articles such as A Summons To Life, by Robert Woodson of
the American Enterprise Institute in 1981 and The Violent Juvenile Offender by Paul DeMuro and Richard Allison of
the National Council On Crime And Delinquency in 1984.
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