Kenneth Thompson (crouching in the middle) at Councilmember Cindy Bass’ office with an art therapy class for mothers of children who are deceased. (Photo used with permission from the office of Councilmember Cindy Bass)

We’ve heard the news – homicides are significantly down (many of which involve firearms) in the city of Philadelphia in the last year. And it’s a national trend.

According to the Philadelphia Police Department’s crime statistics map, 27 shooting incidents have occurred in the 14th district, where most of Germantown resides, in the last 90 days, as of February 19, 2025. 

At the beginning of the year, the Philadelphia Inquirer talked to leaders all over the city about the reductions and what it would take to sustain it. Themes of access to opportunities for young people, perpetrators of crime in prison, and community programs that bring hope to their neighborhoods were mentioned. But they all knew that the work couldn’t stop.

Germantown Info Hub talked to four community leaders in Northwest Philly about these gun violence trends. 

They shared reflections on whether people felt safer, how gun violence can continue to be reduced, and what it would take to sustain a significant impact in our neighborhoods on gun violence. 

Until there are no guns, people will never be safe.

Kenneth Thompson (pictured above) works in Councilperson Cindy Bass’ office as director of program and community outreach, designing and supporting programs in the office and bringing city services to the constituents of the 8th district in any form. 

Thompson caught the Councilperson’s attention with his work at Strawberry Mansion United. There, he founded and directed community-led programming that aimed to reduce violence through free community workouts, youth/men/women’s circles, and a town hall called What’s Beef? 

The organization led folks through conflict resolution in the neighborhood and even prisons, where they wrote letters to inmates to help resolve conflicts. 

He tries to find creative ways to support community-led organizations in the 8th District, create and build programming that helps reduce violence, and help other organizers work with the city government to support the programs they are building. 

Thompson believes that there are a couple of main reasons the city has seen shootings drop, including what he sees as better police and community relations and much more funding for boots-on-the-ground programs that help prevent and interrupt gun violence. He notes that many of these programs are led by formerly incarcerated folks, and that’s key to ensuring the programs are effective. 

“So we can look at any of our organizations out there when they (are) actually stepping in, talking to youth and feeling purposeful within their lives, it’s kind of hard for them to go back and shoot somebody in the face after they’ve just been telling kids for the last six months (about) conflict resolution and things of that nature,” said Thompson.

For Thompson, a sense of purpose and a passion for what you do is something he thinks will sustain people who might have looked for more violent ways to solve problems beforehand. 

But Thompson can’t say people feel safer. 

“I can’t say people feel safer because I don’t feel safer.  It’s not like I feel safe in Philadelphia. I feel like, you know, I’m always thinking about violence,” said Thompson.

He feels more confident that people are out here impacting change. He is confident and hopeful that the city government, community organizers, and youth are taking an interest in curbing gun violence. He finds hope in the way the government and community organizers are working together and can see the potential for more collaboration. For him, the issue is the guns.

“Until there’s no guns in Philadelphia, I will never feel safe. Guns are our primary problem,” says Thompson. 

There’s still a lot of work to be done

Melany Nelson is the executive director of Northwest Victim Services (NVS), which provides free services to all those affected by crime in the northwest section of Philadelphia, covering the 5th, 14th, 35th, and 39th police districts. Services could include free therapy, advocacy in courts, or connecting to resources and essentials that people need after a crime has happened to them. 

Nelson admits that she doesn’t know why there’s been such a drop in shootings and gun violence. But for her, the work remains continual. 

“I want to be clear about something. With that reduction, there’s still a lot of work. It’s still a lot of work. One homicide is too many. But even though there’s a reduction, there’s still people being affected by gun violence,” says Nelson.

She speaks for NVS, which has been going directly into the community to share resources and information. This is one way of meeting people where they are and providing resources. 

NVS has been able to connect and partner with other agencies and organizations at these events to work on connecting with young people in schools and other venues to help share information and provide resources again.

From her perspective, Nelson thinks people are afraid for their lives. She says folks are scared to say anything if they see something that might help stop a crime because they fear they won’t be protected. 

Nelson says it’s time we listened to our young people. She knows their times have changed, with different dynamics on social media and their needs today. She also knows some young people are brought up in households where violence is accepted and okay, and she thinks we need to find ways to help them specifically. 

She knows they need love and the understanding that they are seeing examples in their household of where violence is acceptable.

“Do we need to teach conflict resolution? (And ) I really think something needs to be done with social media. It could be used for something good, but for a lot of the young people, it’s used to create harm because how do you kill somebody over drill rap?”

Nelson adds that NVS is always available, especially during the evenings, holidays, and weekends. People can contact her directly at (267) 808-0350.

Provide the necessary means to acquire a self-defined sense of dignity and respect.

Incarcerated for 22 years and home for three, Sergio Hyland is a Germantown native, born and raised. In his 22 years in prison, he was mentored by former Black Panther Russell Maroon Shoatz, who he says helped form his views on abolition and why he thinks prisons and policing are not necessary in society. 

Hyland is now Pennsylvania’s only criminal justice organizer for the Working Families Party. 

Hyland echoed the sentiments of Thompson when he pointed out the organizations and programs working on gun violence prevention and interruption being led by formerly incarcerated people, noting that the ones that they aren’t leading don’t seem to have as big of an impact.

Hyland doesn’t believe it’s more policing that got us to these significant drops in shootings.  He thinks it’s because of the activists and organizers who have been doing the grassroots work. 

“And so I attribute that (decline) to these programs, to these activists, to Operation Hug the Block, to the work that Abolitionist Law Center is doing and Amistad has done with the mobile crisis units, even though the mayor took almost $4 million away from a program for that,” says Hyland. 

He doesn’t think people feel safer and blames mainstream media for over-sensationalizing the coverage of crime and using fear as a way to get views. Even though there’s been a significant reduction, people see gun violence on the news constantly. 

A quick Google news search highlighting Germantown, Philadelphia, will provide five different news clips on shootings and crime from multiple sources in just the last three days (from Feb 19).  

He believes there needs to be an alternative narrative that must also be truthful. 

And to sustain a decrease in gun violence, he says we need first to stop treating people like their sole purpose on the planet is to work.

“We have to get back to community. We have to show people that you don’t have to be afraid of each other. I’m not your enemy. And we have to give people the means and the resources necessary for them to chase and acquire their own sense of dignity and self-respect,” Hyland said.

He also thinks we should stop blaming young people—particularly those in the city—for being immature and instead provide more stable social safety nets. 

“Young people make mistakes all around the board,” he says, speaking to more significant criminalization gaps between low-income and more affluent regions.

He continued: “What’s different is a special part of the population is more criticized than the other and, more policed than the other, and more incarcerated than the other. So we just have to start treating people like human beings, giving people opportunities to make mistakes and bounce back.”

Hyland makes the point that transformation comes from second chances.

He says, “There’s no such thing as rehabilitation, but there is such a thing as redemption. A human being can’t be rehabilitated. He’s not a car or a house or anything like that. And so we have to start thinking on that level right there.”

Are all incidents being reported?

Kimberly Kamara has seen the effects of gun violence in her life and in her work. She lost her son to gun violence in 2017. 

Since then, she’s stayed in touch with mothers and co-victims healing from gun violence and provided one-on-one support. She is also a columnist for the Philadelphia Obituary Project and, as of this year, the new business owner of Always with Grace Home Care. 

Kamara thinks the data doesn’t show the real violence that is out here, which she calls “relentless.”  She feels like the actual amount of violence happening isn’t even reported on. 

She says folks are scared, especially seniors. Kamara thinks about her mom, who doesn’t want to leave the house because of her fear of all the different public places where she thinks violence might occur. 

“You could be at all the right places and still get caught up in something that you have no business in. You can’t even ask anybody a simple question without somebody getting upset and ready to shoot you or threatening to shoot you. So I don’t think… No, we’re not safer,” says Kamara. 

She thinks to sustain or reduce shootings, it needs to start at home, with both parents and children. She says she still doesn’t know the full effects of what her seven-year-old grandson, whose father was murdered, will go through. But she says they can just help and guide him and “be the village he needs.” 

She says parents need to be active in raising their children, allowing children to express themselves and for parents also to express their feelings. She stresses the importance of being active in parent-teacher meetings and is concerned about what children do on cell phones and video games. 

But mostly, Kamara feels like even though gun violence statistics have gone dramatically down, one death is too much for the families and loved ones near them.

“At the end of the day, we still have families that are still here dying a slow death because their loved one is gone,” said Kamara. 

Editorial note: Maleka Fruean is a current board member at Northwest Victim Services.