Washington DC Harlee Harper
Harlee Harper courtesy Building Blocks DC, Twitter

“We know that there are a small number of people who are bringing gun violence to a small number of communities that are hard hit by gun violence, and so the efforts of Building Blocks DC are to reach those people and for us to work in those communities to provide services and support and opportunities to those people we know need it most.”

As part of the city’s gun violence prevention efforts, [D.C.’s Director of Gun Violence Prevention Harllee Harper] says Building Blocks DC analyzed 2020 data for violent offenses including homicides, robberies, assaults, and 911 calls for sounds of gunshots.

She says they identified 151 blocks which make up just 2% of the city but are home to 41% of all gun-related crimes.

The city has not publicly identified those 151 blocks, but Harllee Harper said the majority of them are east of the Anacostia River, in Wards 7 and 8.

Next, her team began outreach in those neighborhoods. The goal is to connect people to resources for everything from housing to jobs, to mental health care and youth intervention programs.

“We are going into these communities strategically and intentionally, working with communities to figure out what we need to do,” said Harllee Harper. “Every community has its own culture and climate and has different community leaders who know what they want for their communities.”

— Heather Graf in ‘It’s a long game’: DC’s 1st director of gun violence prevention responds to recent crime

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

96 COMMENTS

  1. I just bet my mentally-ill demented troll’s mom looks just like that… 😉

    • Attaching Violence to Guns is another scheme sneaky busy bodies like harllee harper use to get what they want and that is of course, “Gun Control.”

      Gun Control, Gun Violence, Gun Safety, Global Warming, Global Cooling, Climate Change…Such schemes always get another label after the first label fails. Well Jim Crow Crow Gun Control is no silly label, it’s a documented part of Gun Control History.

      The busy body solution for a crime infested neighborhood? Give criminals as goody bag and they’ll become honest citizens. It’s Content of Character that is missing and Content of Character is something goody bags cannot and never will buy.

      To get what they want scatterbrain busy bodies like harllee harper will continue to mix your rights in with the acts of criminals while who and what Gun Control represents gets a pass so let’s cut the chase…

      1) The Second Amendment is one thing.

      2) The criminal misuse of firearms, bricks, bats, knives, vehicles, etc. is another thing.

      3) History Confirms Gun Control in any shape, matter or form is a racist and nazi based Thing.

  4. Is that ‘Ho’-listic like she’s a ho, or is it ‘Hole’-listic like she’s got a hole in her head? 😁

  6. These sorts of social measure may have had an impact if implemented and sustained 75+ years ago but we’re well beyond that now.

    They’re killing each other for the intangible. Territory, cred and perceived respect. Food, housing and mental health services are not applicable. They have housing. They have food. They have healthcare. All paid for by tax payers and insurance premium payers. Besides, cash flows freely thanks to any number of illicit trades.

    We’re seeing a trial run of a leftist “solution” to ghetto killing ghetto now in CA. Tell them there will be no consequences to travelling beyond those 151 blocks to loot and pillage and watch them unite and stop killing each other.

    • It’s primarily a return to a tribal form of governing rather than the democratic republican form upon which this unique nation was founded.

      I suppose the vast majority of humans on earth, especially in the lesser-developed countries, live under some form of tribalism so why not the underdeveloped, uncivilized neighborhoods? The social engineers constantly press people to retain their “ethnicity” rather than seek to join the e pluribus unum philosophy that was put forward as the vision of our Founders.

      What else should we expect when we allow different forms of “justice” for different ethnic, economic, or gender (or a lack thereof) groups of Americans? The melting pot only works when the ingredients therein are liquid or malleable, when they become solid there results a lot of friction and damage.

  7. That’s so sweet. The thugs don’t want service and support; they want your wallet and car. And they sure don’t want a job. At least she’s looking for the problem in the neighborhoods where the crime is and not scapegoating the gunmakers and dealers as usual.

      • I’ve no illusions that she wouldn’t, but while she’s distracted by her outreach fantasy she’s too busy to cause us problems. I hope for her sake that after reaching out to some poor misguided youth she doesn’t draw back a bloody stump.

        • She’ll be lucky if a bloody stump is the only consequence of interacting with those guys. In my experience they have nothing but contempt for the do gooders. I’ll tell you who they do have respect for. The “church ladies.” Using nothing but an index finger and a very sharp tounge they could clear a street corner faster than I could with a badge and a 1911.

        • A quote from BBC’s Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister comes to mind about these do-gooders.

          “Heads so full of wool it is child’s play to pull it over their eyes.”

  9. I know you guys will roast me for saying this, but isn’t this the type of outreach that is needed?
    I mean she has identified where the problem is, and they are actually going in to try to help. Other than the groups name, she didn’t just try to blame guns as the problem.
    I don’t figure it will do any good though because they are dealing with the most hardened criminals that the Democratic Political machine has been working so hard to produce.

    • It is, and in fact was needed long ago.

      But, unless there’s also incentives to change (aka stick as well as carrot) it’s likely to be ineffective. People generally don’t change behavior when they are comfortable.

      There’s also the issue of admitting the background culture and ethos is part of the problem and working on changing that too. But that there is racist, as the Smithsonian Institution will tell you.

    • You think the kid slinging dope on the street corner really cares about $15 an hour when he makes four times that much just standing there? The only thing those “bangers” care about is NOT getting gunned down and losing their territory… She(?)/it has identified 41% of the problem which means what? Is the other 59% just random violence city wide?

      • According to Freakonomics, the average street dealer would make more working for McDonald’s. They’re the base in a massive pyramid where everyone pays a percentage of their earnings up.

        NooC mentions the need for a carrot to motivate change, which is usually payment to stay in a mentorship/parole-like program. Those mentorships that use reformed convicted gangsters have been shown to work, if the mentors are truly reformed. The mentors serve as the father figures kids are finding in gangs, and they get them to stay in school or get jobs. That gets maligned here as paying killers not to kill, but it is getting probably future killers to change their path. In those 151 blocks, the residents know who the troublemakers are. The ones who are committing the violence need to be locked up. The ones the killers are grooming as the next gen need to be put into diversion programs. It has to be people from the community– they aren’t going to listen to a bunch of outsider Karens and OFWGs.

        • I don’t believe it, results of such silly programs are so easily falsified it is ridiculous, and makes all of us look like idiots. WTF makes you think such “mentorships” achieved by paying convicted felons to “mentor” aspiring convicted felons in the ways of crime, while pretending to be upstanding citizens, “have been shown to work”? By whom? Other convicted felons who dreamed up the scam while being fed by the prison system? Don’t be ridiculous.

    • No roast. Just a few thoughts.

      1) What your describing was exactly what Rittenhouse was trying to do.

      2) Anyone with any sense can identify the problem. In Fact, that is what many of the regulars here comment on all the time. It isn’t all that difficult either. This is a place under liberal/left/Democrat control. These issues are rather easily solved by just enforcing the law and keeping the animals in their cages. Democrats are opening jails and prisons all over this country and unleashing this horror on us all. This is part of ‘defunding the police’. It does not require anyone of special office saying something on Twitter. What it requires is caring enough about the community to enforce the law, clean up the streets, and stop making the general population defenseless.

      3) Everyone is more concerned about what people think on Twitter. Everyone is more concerned about doing whatever the communist leftists tell them to do. There is too much fear out there ginned up by the media, the Democrats, and social media to even look at reality. Much less deal with it.

      • Yeah, you are right. It probably is a Defund the Police tactic. Send in someone to counsel after the crime, and pay for that with the funds that used to go to the Police.

        • In your city, that will be fine by me. When you discover your mistake, do not look to me for tax dollars to repair the damage your deliberate, determined blindness has caused.

    • “I know you guys will roast me for saying this, but isn’t this the type of outreach that is needed?
      I mean she has identified where the problem is, and they are actually going in to try to help.”

      *Zero* roasting from me.

      Programs like ‘Cease Fire’ have shown results. It’s vastly cheaper for cities to fund things like that than to deal with the costs of gunshot wounds in the inner-city hospitals.

      I *suspect* the real issue is that Leftist Scum love having a perpetual catastrophe to keep their voter base motivated to vote for them, even though they are the cause of the problem in the first place…

      • …the real issue is that Leftist Scum love having a perpetual catastrophe to keep their voter base motivated to vote for them, even though they are the cause of the problem in the first place…

        That’s the truth, right there.

        This lady has identified the right place, and even the right people…but unfortunately she’s got the cause backward and the necessary tactics wrong. I do wish her the best in her efforts, but I’d rather not have tax money wasted on her inevitable failure.

  10. Is she ever going to admit the common denominator when it comes to a gun violence? That’s common denominator happens to be skin color.

    • I’m quite sure I know what skin color of that which you speak, however that skin color seems to be changing to a lighter tone as time progresses’s.
      3 out of the four who attacked KR were of the lighter skin tone and had extensive criminal records as an example.
      Poverty, lack of education , constructive parenting, belief in a higher power, substance abuse, lack of a better future and low self esteem are reaching all genres.

      • possum: I’m quite sure I know what skin color of that which you speak, however that skin color seems to be changing to a lighter tone as time progresses.

        “FBI finally releases 2020 crime stats: Black share of known murder offenders reaches a record 56.5%.” – Steve Sailer

        The normie conservative habit of preening about their anti-racism while ignoring reality is suicidally stupid.

        • That really is astonishing, 13% of population commits 56% of murders. The country would not stand for it, except that the huge majority of those sweet youths’ victims are their neighbors of the same hue, if they want a change it will be up to them.

        • Larry its really closer to about 1-2% as we tend to be dealing with the ages of 16-29, male, and single parent households with each category taking out a sizable chunk of the 12-13% starting point. Math is racist though so feel free to cancel my post.

    • “That’s common denominator happens to be skin color.”

      Strange, there’s a substantial Black population in the city I live in, and the vast majority of them are just trying to raise their kids, keep the yards mowed, pay their mortgage, and live their lives without murdering each other.

      A few city blocks seem to be the focal point of the violence where I live…

      • True, but the rest will not allow those few blocks to be firebombed, so they can live with the result.

      • Don’t equate your city with DC. Outside of the federal reservation, DC is a nothing more than a welfare state. There is no-one in the target communities “trying to raise their kids, keep the yards mowed, pay their mortgage, and live their lives without murdering each other.”
        Only thing they’re looking for is their next high, their next nut, or their next grift.

  11. “We know that there are a small number of people who are bringing gun violence to a small number of communities that are hard hit by gun violence…”

    That’s an interesting comment. For a change its blaming the actual source rather than guns in general and gun owners in general.

    Its always a “small number” of people that spoils it for everyone else, but, overall, its the liberal and democrat that always want everyone else to pay for it.

    Usually gun violence by a small number in a small number of communities translated into anti-gun/gun-control fanatic speak sentiment is “A gun is the most powerful thing in the universe, more powerful than a death star, gazillions will die from thousands of mass shootings this year alone. Populace gun ownership is responsible for everything, COVID happened ’cause populace gun ownership, global warming happens ’cause populace gun ownership, crime happens ’cause populace gun ownership, spooky scary ghost guns happen ’cause populace gun ownership, crime, acne, loss of bladder control, erectile dysfunction, everything bad, its all ’cause populace gun ownership. The founding fathers knew this would happen and made the second amendment to prevent it by saying the only responsible entity to have guns was the government in a well regulated militia, can’t you people read!”

  13. I have always judged people on their personal appearance. I have never thought it was wrong of anyone to do so. How they speak, their demeanor. And what they speak about.

  14. And she came out of the community center after meeting with the community leaders only to find her car had been stolen.

    • Not quite. “And she came out of the community center after meeting with the community leaders only to be violently carjacked at gunpoint by a local member of the 2% of the 41%, released earlier that day on an assault and gun charge with no bail, lucky to only get pistol-whipped while losing her purse and car.”

    • Exactly…With England being the Prime Example of that. Violent Crimes involving the use of Knives is above the Old levels of Violent Crimes involving Firearms. Before handguns were virtually outlawed for British Citizens. While Violent Crime involving the Use of Firearms continues to be a Problem.

  16. Another failed solution in the offing. The best solution society has tried so far, from the 90s to the 20-aughts, was to build more prisons. Eventually, that will be done again. No amount of social capital, social spending, mentoring, access to health care and mental health services, etc., etc., etc., will solve the problem.

    It is intractable, for very obvious reasons, but no one wants to talk about it.

    • So its life sentence for every criminal?
      What is it up to now, 27,000 laws on the books,building more prisons wont work.

      • How about enforcing the laws already on the books? How about prosecutors do their jobs? How about bringing back bail? You know, stuff we used to do in the 90s?

        • “How about enforcing the laws already on the books?”

          Not equitable.

          Next question? 🙁

      • Repeal every law which the community is not willing to enforce, and then ENFORCE those which remain. When you say that burglary will get you 5 years, make it really clear that does not mean 6 months’ probation.

    • The problem with prisons is, petty criminals go there to learn how to be professional criminals.

      I vote that we reinstitute capital AND corporal punishment. The juvenile delinquent who is flogged for shoplifting is less likely to progress to armed robbery etc.

      • I don’t feel that would work, but I could support a change to the Constitution (amendment) to allow states to try it if they choose.

        • When Mom or Dad gave you a whooping, did you repeat the offense?
          Next thing is that it isn’t the physical beating, but, the public hummiliation.

  17. The problem is Democrap policies that have been in place for decades. This is the end result. Until you admit to that, the problem will not go away.

    Democrap policies create a “need,” then we have to solve that by spending millions of dollars on it. They can only do that by increasing your already confiscatory taxes to an even higher level.

    • Which is precisely why they have zero incentive to alleviate the problem. It’s a source of power for them.

      • “And shoot Snake Plisken”

        I heard Snake was dead…

    • build the wall, then fill it with water and piranha, and oh yeah, throw some lawyers in there too ’cause after all these people have rights.

      • “build the wall, then fill it with water and piranha,…”

        Piranha won’t attack lawyers as a professional courtesy… 😉

  19. “She says they identified 151 blocks which make up just 2% of the city but are home to 41% of all gun-related crimes.”

    That must be where those hillbilly gun lovers live. They probably don’t even vote for Democrats.

  20. Holistic approach? More like an @ssholistic approach. Does anyone really need a complex algorithm and sensors to know who’s doing the shooting?

    Some people are either intentionally blind or terminally stupid. Maybe both.

  21. Hmmm…..

    So if you were unarmed and near or in the Capitol Jan 6, 2021, you got flash-banged, tazed, tear-gassed, beaten with batons, kicked, thrown from a balcony, shot in the neck, and arrested. Then, you were charged with false charges, imprisoned, kept in isolation, tortured, denied an attorney, denied bail, and denied medical care.

    But…..

    If you are a gang-banger living in the 151 blocks, this ladies going to give you free loli-pops.

    OK.

    This will not stand. The question is how many will suffer and for how long before the change come…and it is coming.

  23. A real easy solution.
    Anyone who commits an act of gun violence has to spend a night chained to a bed so she can have sex with him.

  25. Washington DC defined a “ghost gun” in their “law” as firearms that won’t “set off a metal detector after all parts are removed other than the receiver.”, which basically means that, for example, if I removed all the metal parts from my Glocks they would be outlawed as “ghost guns” and because I could remove the metal parts, even if I did not remove the metal parts, the Glocks would still be outlawed as “ghost gun” – they got sued, Dick A. Heller was one of the plaintiffs.

    But that was the original law, now DC is trying to redefine it. Last week the D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine (a democrat) proposed changes to the law that would define “ghost guns” as undetectable firearms. To be legal the gun must be detectable with the barrel, trigger, and firing mechanism attached (like you know … 99.99999% of guns are, from a “kit” or not and have been all these many years), and that applies to polymer based guns as well.

    So if the law change goes through 80% kits are legal as long as the owner registers and serializes the firearm and only uses them for personal use and its detectable with the barrel, trigger, and firing mechanism attached. Its a desperate attempt to lessen lawsuit impact.

    And now this woman is saying basically “whoopsie, we had it wrong all these years, guns and gun owners are not the cause of gun violence in DC. Its a small number of people who are bringing gun violence to a small number of communities.”

    Yeah, I tend to think overall that DC is not really sincere.

  27. 2% of the city and 41% of the crime with 100% ILLEGAL gun usage. Just sayin. I mean, I am all for the gubberment not being involved in my gun ownership, but then again, I am not using it to sell crack, gangbang and destroy my community. The exact opposite, actually. So it’s a little hard to hear the fact they understand where these crimes are coming from, who they are committed by, STILL blame the inanimate object of choice by these criminals, and totally avoid the issues of race about it. Yet, somehow, it’s still and always will be the white mans fault. No matter what happens. They just refuse to move forward and address the actual problems. It’s always someone or something elses fault.

    I don’t blame meth for taking hold of my local trailer park filled with white folks and white trash, I blame them. I don’t blame guns when one is used in a crime no matter where it is used, I blame the person who used it and why they used it.

  28. The thing I find remarkable is a DC, or inner city politician realizing that the problem comes from a small portion of the population in a limited number of neighborhoods, and understands that the solution must come from the people living in those neighborhoods and not from outside. Next step is to start pushing the idea that it doesn’t take a village, but a family with both parents involved and in the home. Along with actual discipline enforced in the schoolrooms and kids actually being made to behave. No discipline, no parental care or oversight, and the kids just run the streets and of course they will turn feral.

    • Unfortunately, they’ll never get there. They’re incapable. This lady is already treading on thin ice just identifying the location and the perpetrators.

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  31. “Every community has its own culture and climate and has different community leaders who know what they want for their communities.”

    so, the gang bangers are running things, and she’s going to accommodate them. give them a role in local government, some police positions, some legislative influence ….

  32. Well at least that sounds like a positive approach to the problem than simply making more laws or trying to confiscate firearms. I would be interested in seeing the outcome of those efforts.

  33. “We are going into these communities strategically and intentionally, working with communities to figure out what we need to do,” said Harllee Harper. “Every community has its own culture and climate and has different community leaders who know what they want for their communities.”

    Ah, I remember in college when you would have to fill pages with vapid writing to try and reach a word count without actually saying anything. Nice to see that the people who did that the most are now placed in positions of of governing. All to avoid the cognitive dissonance of admitting that depolicing (even if you don’t call it that) leads to your wonderful citizens murdering each other wholesale.

    You can’t work on structural solutions to massive problems while people can’t leave their apartment without risking being blown away in a driveby.

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