A town hall hosted by the Baltimore Banner and WJZ-TV brought Mayor Brandon Scott and Police Commissioner Michael Harrison together with other community leaders to discuss youth violence. But the panel did not feature any youth speakers.
Baltimore City Public Schools Chief of Staff Alison Perkins-Cohen and Bishop Donte Hickman of the Southern Baptist Church in Baltimore also participated in the panel.
Gun violence among young people is on the rise in Baltimore and Thursday’s panel brought some familiar refrains; the city needs to invest in youth, guns are too accessible, and violence has become too normalized. Meanwhile, the teenagers who spoke in pre-recorded segments shared feelings of anxiety related to violence and feelings of despair while wondering, “Am I next?”
“Sometimes very simple things, minor things, but they are taking that anger… out against another person with gun violence,” said Commissioner Harrison in his panel.
But sophomore Lillian Greene demanded action from the adults that moves the blame away from youth.
“How are you guys going to approach it in a way that will not make it feel like you're chastising, or blaming the children that you're talking to?” asked Greene, who goes to Baltimore City College. “Especially the black and brown children that you're talking to and addressing? So they won't feel like they are inherently dangerous?”
After the panel Greene spoke with WYPR, leaning into her frustrations with what feels like a lack of action from adult leaders.
“As a child, as a teenager, and not being able to do much besides talk to adults who can do something, it’s infuriating to watch them talk instead of being proactive,” she said, she also pointed out, as did the panelists, that today’s young people have been born into a cycle of violence.
“I feel like my generation has been targeted and blamed for the generational trends that have been passed down to us,” Greene shared.
In that respect, Mayor Brandon Scott said that as a young Black man from Baltimore, he understands Greene’s frustrations all too well.
“This country has a history of blaming all the bad things on black people, young black people in particular,” Scott told WYPR. “And the irony of that is… Black people are the very people that literally built this country… but they didn’t build these systems that kept them back, that disinvested them… that made their neighborhoods and their families unsafe.”
Some experts also pointed out how the pandemic exacerbated violence and teen mental health problems.
According to data from the Pew Research Center, youth gun violence is rising across the country, not just Baltimore.
Read more from our partners at The Baltimore Banner here: ‘This is our issue’: Baltimore teens ask to be heard in discussions about gun violence
