Ex-convicts and city leaders on Wednesday announced a new code for the mean streets of D.C.: Drive-by shootings are for cowards.
Ronald Moten, co-founder of Peaceaholics, a nonprofit that mediates disputes between young people, said he wants to change a culture where drive-by shootings are too common and reporting crimes to the police is considered taboo.
Moten, a former convict whose brother was shot to death, said arguments between crews of teens are at an all-time high. In a single hour last week, 11 people were shot in seven separate incidents. He said the police can only do so much to stop the violence; residents have a duty to stand up and demand that the shooting end.
That includes creating a new code that real men don’t shoot innocent bystanders such as 13-year-old Terry Cutchin, who was killed by a stray bullet last month while walking home from a McDonald’s restaurant, the officials said.
The code should be carried into the jails, Moten said, and criminals behind bars should make it uncomfortable for fellow inmates accused of drive-by shootings, he said.
“You should be treated like a rapist,” Moten said, “because you’re raping the community when you’re killing a 13-year-old boy.”
Mayor Adrian Fenty said residents shouldn’t be afraid to report crimes they have witnessed.
“If we don’t come forward, the cycle will continue,” he said.
Fenty and D.C. Council Member Marion Barry said they were trying to find more jobs for D.C. youth as an alternative to hanging out on the corners. Fenty announced Wednesday that he was extending the summer jobs program for young people from Aug. 3 to Aug. 17 and hoped to continue it until the start of school.
