Community key to fighting gun violence
Strategic engagement by the community needed to effect social change
“Violent crime in Albuquerque is a scourge, and we will attack the roots of that scourge with targeted deployments of manpower and resources.”
-Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham
Like most New Mexicans we couldn’t agree more with Gov. Lujan Grisham’s frank assessment of the current gun violence in Albuquerque. However, we might take issue with her thinking “targeted deployments of manpower resources” will somehow get to the “roots” of the violence, patterns that are complex and deeply cyclical.
If you don’t believe this, think back to March of 2018, December of 2017 or, say, the years immediately preceding the release of the Department of Justice findings in 2014 when we saw similar spikes in gun violence in Albuquerque.
While it’s hard to argue with the current need for immediate action that includes the deployment of additional public safety resources, let’s also not confuse this with having a systemic, strategic and collaborative approach to addressing gun violence. Throwing resources at a crisis like gun violence may reduce shootings and assuage our community’s sense of a lack safety in the short term, but it is also naïve to think that these approaches hold the potential for long-term sustainable change. In the meantime, many residents and business owners are understandably frustrated and frightened; some are angry, which is also indicative of a growing vulnerability across the city.
While the Albuquerque Police Department, the Bernalilo County Sheriff’s Department, the Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office, the courts and others may each have interventions, there does not appear to be a long-term collaborative, strategic direction, one that builds shared capacity for understanding an addressing the violence we are witnessing. Having said this, we certainly want to acknowledge the recent collaboration proposal between the city, state, UNM and DA’s Office.
However, here’s what we think is a better idea in getting at the roots of the violence in Albuquerque and across New Mexico. For starters, our agency leaders need to begin to think and work together as a “system” rather than as individual “silos.” If we truly want to get to the root of this problem, the community must be a stakeholder at the table in addressing our current responses to gun violence and other complex social problems. Our age-old approach of public agencies developing strategies and then announcing them to the community does not lead to sustainable change. When we learn, reflect and act with the community, we are developing both our institutional and community capacities for changing patterns associated with complex social issues.
Here in Albuquerque this capacity for community engagement in social change already exists. We saw it first hand when we recently attended one of the monthly District 6 Neighborhood Coalition meetings that brings together 17 different neighborhood group leaders, including those in the International District and Nob Hill. District 6, as many already know, is “ground zero” for where much of gun violence is currently taking place. What we saw was a smart, engaged and collaborative group of committed citizens who are making a difference in improving the quality of life in a number of important areas in their district. When agency leaders develop strategies without the input and support of a group like this, to us it seems rather shortsighted. We believe that people tend to support what they have a direct stake in.
Last, in thinking about how to assess change involving complex social problems like gun violence, we turn to research approaches such as Participatory Action Research (PAR). PAR is grounded in the belief that people in any walk of life can learn and participate in creating change, and by doing so, become more informed citizens and proactive partners in addressing public safety and other quality-oflife issues in their communities.