The Metropolitan Police Department’s acting Chief of Police Pamela Smith spoke passionately to faith leaders about her plans to decrease crime and homicides in the District on Saturday.
“I hope that some of you are feeling a difference in your community from a positive perspective,” said Smith, who was nominated by Mayor Muriel Bowser to be the D.C. police chief in July.
Addressing a crowd filled with people and emotions, Smith was one of several speakers at the monthly meeting of faith leaders from Ward 7 and Ward 8 that took place at the Skyland Shopping Center in Southeast.
Since becoming chief of police, Smith has had several major operations to decrease crime and carjacking, and said more things are planned. However, she explained one of her biggest challenges is bringing down the number of homicides in the city.
On Sept. 12, a teenage boy was killed, and a man was injured in a shooting on the 2300 block of Washington Place Northeast around 4:30 p.m.
“On his way to work, someone attempts to rob him and he is killed. That thing broke me this week because I am human. It hurt me to no end,” Smith said. “I even went to the hospital to be with his parents… I can’t imagine what it must feel like to be a parent who is sending their child out to do the right thing and someone comes along and kills them.”
The Rev. Kendrick Curry, pastor of Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church in Southeast, said that “it is really important to see that the solutions to our community problems come from our community.”
“My hope is that the community and people can come together to help resolve the problems in our community,” Curry told the Informer.
The Rev. Karen Curry, assistant pastor of Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church and co-chair of the Ward 7 and Ward 8 group, said: “This is an opportunity to have what we call ‘the gathering of the doers.’ The Bible says ‘faith without works is dead,’ that’s like preaching to the choir to this crowd.”
Other speakers included the Rev. Donald Isaacs, head of East of the River Clergy Collaborative as well as the Rev. George Gilbert, pastor of Holy Trinity United Baptist Church.
In attendance was Phil Pannell, Executive Director of the Anacostia Coordinating Council, the Rev. Monsignor Raymond East of St. Theresa of Avila Catholic Church, and dozens of other clergy.
“It is important at this time for church leaders in the African-American community to come together,” Gilbert said. “We are not serving a community where many young people have never experienced a connection with a church, mosque or faith center.”
“I asked the person representing the Green community for the industry to work with the young people,” Gilbert explained. “Our youth are in competition with the whole country and the world, and the D.C. residents are left behind.”
Gilbert said that on Oct. 13 at First Baptist Church of Highland Park he is producing a play based on Martin Luther King’s Book: “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community.”
“We are 60 years from that point and again some religious leaders are choosing white nationalism over love.”
