MAYOR ED GAINEY WAS ADAMANT THAT THE STOP THE VIOLENCE FUND REMAIN INTACT, JULY 2, OUTSIDE COUNCIL CHAMBERS. (PHOTOS BY J.L. MARTELLO)
All-in approach to stop violence before it starts in Pittsburgh
Whether it was real or just a myth, a plethora of Pittsburgh city officials, community groups and anti-violence organizations rallied over the past week against any notion or possibility that the city’s “Stop the Violence Fund,” which allocates money to said anti-violence organizations to try to quell violence before it starts, would be cut from the city budget.
No one in Pittsburgh City Council will own up to who floated the idea of getting rid of the fund altogether…that is, if anyone actually did so in the first place.
But on Tuesday, July 8, all members of Pittsburgh City Council voted to “increase oversight” of the Stop The Violence Fund, while any talk of actually getting rid of it was a non-issue.
And that’s a win for Mayor Ed Gainey and the two primary proponents of the fund on City Council, R. Daniel Lavelle and Khari Mosley.
The Stop The Violence Fund began in 2020 in the wake of the George Floyd death in Minneapolis. While some groups nationwide discussed “defunding the police,” in Pittsburgh, those like Councilman Lavelle proposed the idea of creating a separate fund that would provide financial resources to local anti-violence organizations and groups to help prevent violence in Pittsburgh before it starts.
A matching percentage of the city’s annual police budget, up to $10 million per year, is allocated to the Stop The Violence Fund. Felicity Williams, the mayor’s deputy chief of staff, said in a virtual interview sponsored by 1 Hood Media that the fund has created the Office of Community Services and Violence Prevention and has contributed to the Office of Community Health and Safety. The money has also helped expand the city’s City Sports programs.
Currently, the fund has about $15 million.
Overall, though, much of the money goes to the anti-violence groups, like REACH and the city’s GVI, or Group Violence Intervention. It also supports organizations like S.A.L.T., or Save A Life Today Pittsburgh. Williams said the point of the fund is to “tackle gun violence as a public health crisis targeting our impacted communities.”
However, she said that there are misconceptions about the fund, such as the fund is just giving out “handouts” to the anti-violence groups, and if the fund is actually helping reduce gun violence in the city.
Williams, during a Pittsburgh City Council Standing Committee Meeting on July 2, reiterated to Council that the fund is meant to try to prevent violence before it happens by supporting organizations that deal with things like mental health or economic development. One of those organizations, she said, was the Trade Institute of Pittsburgh, led by Donta Green.
Helping to increase a person’s job prospects or economic status can often lead to a reduction in possible violence by that individual.
Mayor Gainey was downright furious during a press conference he held outside City Council chambers on July 2, the same day as the Standing Committee Meeting. He brought many of those anti-violence groups together, and wanted to show everyone that the people beside him are on the ground, doing the work necessary to help prevent gun violence.
“It’s time that we replace hypocrisy with truth,” Mayor Gainey said, July 2. “When we didn’t have ‘Stop The Violence,’ all you talked about was how the neighborhood didn’t care. We created a fund because there’s no operation without funding. So now, we have all these operations that come together in the name of public safety and public health, to ensure that we’re doing what I said we would do when I took office and that’s reduce homicides, and we’ve reduced homicides by 33 percent…and you want to pretend that it wouldn’t happen without groups like them? When we started to reduce homicides, instead of praising them, you ask, ‘Do we need them?'”
City Council on July 8 approved legislation that will now require those organizations who receive money via the fund to report to the city on how they spend the money, and that a steering committee should be formed to oversee the fund.
“The hypocrisy to ask if it works,” Mayor Gainey said back on July 2. “The devil is a lie…and for anybody that thinks that this doesn’t work, what is your plan? Why haven’t you had a plan?… Y’all wanna say I’m preaching? No, I’m teaching today.”
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