I attended the Youth Crime Summit at the Richmond Police Training Academy on 16 September 2005. I spoke with Governor Doug Wilder (Mayor of Richmond) after the summit. Mayor Wilder discused that Chief Rodney Monroe had discussed the Read Aloud Virginia Event (15 October 2005)at Byrd Theater with him earlier that morning. Chief Monroe will speak at the event. I am a board member of Read Aloud Virginia (RAV)www.readaloudva.org.

Mr. Robert Woodson, President of National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise was a speaker of great interest and received a standing ovation after his speech. He spoke about his and Chief Monroe's affiliation when Chief Monroe was a Police Commander at Washington, DC. Mr. Woodson and Chief Monroe often arranged meetings with youth gangs and youth crime syndicates to reduce the murders and other violent crimes. Mr. Woodson sent a bus load of youths to the state prison to meet with their mentors or street crime bosses who were incarcerated. It is amazing that incarcerated people run crime syndicates and gangs from their prison cells and are the head of these crime organizations.

According to Mr. Woodson, the incarcerated crime lords gave the bus load of youths stricter guidelines which reduced death and violence on the streets. Mr. Woodson's stated that youth gangs always operate within certain confines or restrictions, but when influential citizens and high ranking police officers talk with them about their destructive ways, the gang members agree. In many situations, members of the community and the police dept formed truces between gangs, which eliminated gang deaths completely. Mr. Woodson stated that this shows that gang members are humans with consciences, who desire to avoid death and calamity also. The gang members often change their agendas when the sanctity of life is discussed with them, because death or taking lives is not signficant on their agenda.

The RAV connection? The Chief has divided the City of Richmond into over a dozen sectors with Police Captains and Lieutenants in charge as the sectors fall within their precincts. Members of the public (attendees) were asked to log their contact information onto contact sheets. I logged my name in as a contact for Read Aloud Virginia. I explained the reading program that we have for children and informed the precinct officers of our Byrd Theater event. They were interested in the event and also knew of The Waynesboro P.D. "Book Em" program. A few of the Richmond PD Officers stated that they have read books to children at schools during their spare time.

How can RAV influence teenagers or youths and encourage them to refrain from crime? I believe that if middle school children could be volunteers to read to elementary school children and high school students, because realistically they have younger and older siblings, this could improve the attitudes of students at lower and higher education levels about reading.

What if we take the program further and have high school students (volunteers) come and read to middle and elementary school students and include some school sports stars, cheer leaders and student body officers as the volunteers? This would influence students to read more when they realize that being a popular or academic achiever student also involves reading and learning reading skills. I believe that in the long run, the thug mentality within certain students would be diminished. Especially if the most undisciplined students (by reputation), who have reformed themselves, become volunteers and read to other students also.

Mr. Woodson also mentioned that they used select former convicts to speak to youths and children and convince them that crime is not the solution for success.

Conclusion: This crime summit was not all about talking about problems..It was also about getting the community involved to support the police. It is part of the community policing concept, where the public and the police work together to identify and prevent crime. They revealed at the summit that during a one year period in this country, the number of youths killed by each other, exceeds the body count of soldiers killed in Vietnam over a nine year period.

I also remember reading a very interesting book when I was a school student about youth gangs. It was required reading in Middle and High Schools. The Title of the book is "Run Baby Run" by Nicky Cruz. I was amazed at the gang mentality and brutality of the book, but the author wrote this true story to help other youths refrain from violence and bad behavior. I was amazed how one youth took football cleats and sharpened them razor sharp and stomped on others during gang fights while they were down. Are youth gangs a major problem right now? I believe that they are gaining momentum and are present in subtle ways in places of education. Remember that we have some 60 year old motor cycle gang members still wearing colors and some adults 30 years or older are involved with youth gangs also..It can be a lifetime membership for some people...

If you desire to assist the Richmond Police Dept with their policing efforts, contact the precincts near you. Remember that life is a cycle. We as youths did the heavy menial work to support the supply and demand needed by children, the middle aged, and the elderly. If a substantial number of the youth population is eliminated by violence or incaceration, who is going to do the work and chores that the young must do to support our life cycle? The elderly will have to do it. We are seeing many situations where the elderly are raising grandchildren and great grandchildren, because the parents were violently killed.