City leaders address violence-reduction efforts
Corned beef worth celebrating in all forms
Mayor Andrew J. Ginther announced Tuesday the expansion of several initiatives and creation of others to help stop the violence in the city, particularly among young people.
Ginther spoke at a news conference to announce the expansion of the Reroute program – in which Columbus police assist young people who are involved in lower-level criminal activity – as well as doubling the number of interventionists the CARE Coalition will have available to do micro-interventions.
“Let me be clear, this is just the start,” Ginther said. “As the year progresses, we will continue to adjust based on results we see and information and data from our neighborhoods and bring on new programs to continue this battle for public safety.”
Ginther said the city also will invest in new programs including Growing Up, an initiative that will provide education, employment, life coaching and mentoring from men in the Linden neighborhood to young men in the same area, with a goal of reaching 30 young men in 2021.
The city will continue to invest in the National Network for Safe Communities, which was conducting a study into individuals and groups committing violence in the city and how best to address the problem.
Council member Mitchell Brown said
a $250,000 investment will be presented to the City Council in the coming weeks.
Ginther said investment also is being made in a program called End the Violence to help maneuver young people away from crime. That program aims to serve about 85 young people.
Brown said the program will help teach young people “how to save a life, not take a life.”
Tuesday’s news conference came as the city’s homicide rate continues to climb and non-fatal shooting reports increased 42% as of Feb. 22 over 2020. Domestic violence reports also are up about 22% in the first two months of 2021 compared to January and February 2020, according to police data.
Police Cmdr. Smith Weir said the city has seen an “explosion” of the number of gunshots being fired across the community. Through the Shotspotter system – which is located in the Hilltop, Linden, South Side and Near East Side neighborhoods – the city has been able to determine that there have been 4,183 incidents of gunfire detected totaling 15,852 rounds between Oct. 1 and Monday.
Between Oct. 1, 2019 and March 8, 2020, there were 2,138 incidents with 7,916 rounds detected.
Since June 2020, when the homicide and shooting rates began to rise to record levels, Ginther has held five other media events addressing violence.
Ginther previously announced plans for micro-interventions, investment in community programming, community policing, a study being done by national experts to determine who is responsible for the violence and said the city can’t “police its way out of the problem.”
Despite those efforts, 2020 became the deadliest year on record, and 2021 is on pace to surpass that level of violence. As of Tuesday afternoon, there had been 39 homicides in 2021 – a number not reached until May of 2020.
Of the 39 homicide victims in 2021, 87% have been Black, according to an analysis by The Dispatch.
To help, Ginther also said Tuesday the city will expand the Safe Streets policing program into more areas of the city and add first-shift bicycle officers to the program, which will begin in April instead of later in the summer. The program, which began several years ago in Linden, the South Side and Hilltop, has seen results, the mayor said, in building relationships and deterring crime.
Cities across Ohio and the country have seen an increase in violence and homicides since the start of the pandemic.
In February, Toledo hired a program manager to work with residents, police and community partners to reduce violence.
Cincinnati announced last week the creation of a Gun Crime Intelligence Center in partnership with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to try and combat gun violence, which contributed to nearly 90% of all that city’s homicides in 2020. bbruner@dispatch.com @bethany_bruner
| WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 2021 | 6B
Corning was traditionally a way to preserve meat before refrigeration. Tough cuts were cured in sugar and salt, the grains of which were the size of corn kernels. It was a delicacy in England, but since Ireland had lower salt taxes for a time, it became corn central. h Corned beef and cabbage became an American Irish delicacy in Boston and New York, where immigrants from the Emerald Isle found themselves in Jewish neighborhoods, with the means to bring home a corned brisket from the local delicatessen once in a while and cook it Irish-style: in a pot with cabbage and potatoes. As such, it resembles a meaty version of a cabbage-based borscht my Jewish ancestors made in Ukraine. h The Irish of Montana, meanwhile, are a bit more “Wild West.” h In Missoula, my favorite breakfast joint serves corned beef hash, aka chopped corned beef and potatoes, fried until brown and tossed with scrambled eggs.
Where: Chilispot
Location: 1178 Kenny Centre Mall, Northwest Side
Contact: 614-929-5565, www.chilisoptcolumbus.com