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As Cure Violence Closes in St. Louis, Neighbors Wonder What’s Next | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

July 28, 2023

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click to enlarge Cure Violence May 2021 report This photo of the site of a shooting was taken in the Wells Goodfellow neighborhood and included in a Cure Violence monthly report.

The number of “violence interrupters” in three three key areas of St. Louis city has decreased significantly, albeit temporarily, after a city contract with the Cure Violence program ended earlier this month.

In 2019, the city entered into a $7 million, three-year contract with Employment Connections to run two Cure Violence sites, one in the Dutchtown neighborhood of south city and the other covering parts of the Wells Goodfellow and Hamilton Heights neighborhoods in north city. The Urban League of St. Louis was also contracted to run a site in Walnut Park.

Cure Violence is a national program that involves hiring people from the community and training them as violence interrupters, tasked with interceding in situations where the risk of violence is high — for instance, after someone has been killed and the possibility of retaliation is high.

The effectiveness of the program over the last three years depends on who you ask, with some reports stating that Cure Violence was able to cut homicides in some areas by more than 40 percent. Other experts said the results were more muted. A hallmark of Cure Violence is that the violence interrupters generally try to resolve disputes without the involvement of the police.

In March, as the three-year contract was coming to a close, the city put out a call for proposals for organizations to submit bids to run “a more collaborative violence prevention model” — which many have interpreted as meaning greater cooperation with police. Neither Employment Connections nor the Urban League submitted applications in time.

“I can’t tell you why they didn’t apply initially,” says Wilford Pinkney, director of the city’s Office of Violence Prevention. “The [request for proposals] was out in March. They knew about it, both of them. Both those organizations got copies of the RFP.”

Pinkney says that another organization did submit a proposal to be a site operator, and an organization also submitted to be a technical assistance provider. He hopes to have those contracts finalized by the August 16 Board of Estimate and Apportionment meeting. Pinkney wouldn’t say what the organizations were, other than that they are not organizations that were previously involved in the effort: Employment Connections, the Urban League or Cure Violence.

Until a system is in place, the city has retained eight individuals from the Cure Violence program to continue working to prevent violence on the streets. However, only eight people spread out across three neighborhoods is a significantly smaller presence than when Cure Violence was in full swing.

Dutchtown resident Nate Linsdey, who worked with the violence interrupters in his neighborhood, says the end of Cure Violence in the city has his neighbors “left wondering who to reach out to” when in the past they would have contacted a Cure Violence staff member. He blamed the confusion on a “lack of communication by the Office of Violence Prevention.”

For their part, the Office of Violence Prevention couldn’t say exactly how significant the reduction of people on the streets has been, because they couldn’t say exactly how many people were previously working under the Cure Violence program; a representative from the office said it was “at least a dozen.”

But RFT reporting suggests the number was likely closer to 30. Lindsey says around eight or nine individuals were working for the Dutchtown Cure Violence site when it was up and running. An employee schedule from the Wells Goodfellow and Hamilton Heights site from May 2021 shows eight individuals working in violence interruption or community engagement. An individual with the Walnut Park site says that on average around nine people were on staff there at any given time over the last three years as well.

Jonathan Pulphus worked at the Wells Goodfellow and Hamilton Heights site for about two years, initially hired to manage high-risk participants from the neighborhood and connect them to services.

Pulphus says that he was one of the people who responded when there was shooting, and the top priority was making sure another shooting didn’t happen in retaliation.

“We would sit down with the more level-headed members of the family, like the matriarch of the family, to try to intervene and get us to a ceasefire or peace status,” he says.

Pulphus says that things took a turn for the worse at his site after October 21, 2022, when a supervisor from the Wells Goodfellow & Hamilton Heights site was robbed at night at the Cure Violence office. Pulphus says that Employment Connections CEO Sal Martinez blamed the robbery on not enough staff being at the site office that evening, even though Pulphus stresses they had permission to not be at the office at the time.

Pulphus says the incident led to Martinez laying off most of the staff at the Wells Goodfellow and Hamilton Heights site in December.

In January, five violence interrupters and outreach workers from the Wells Goodfellow and Hamilton Heights site wrote a letter to Sal Martinez and Employment Connections CFO David Kessel, copying Pinkney and the mayor as well. The letter says the staff members felt they were being unfairly punished for the robbery, including wrongfully having pay withheld.

Sal Martinez did not respond to multiple calls seeking comment.

Pulphus sums up his time with Cure Violence this way: “Things were good when it was good. But when things were bad, it was terrible.”

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

12 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

12 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

12 months ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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