Greater Grace Crime Summit/Gun Buyback

...This thursday, 12/16, there will be a gun buy-back program at Greater Grace Temple Church in Detroit, dequindre/mchnichols area, from roughly 8 am - 4 pm. No questions asked, cash paid for guns.. must be unloaded..

there was a public meeing this tuesday concerning crime prevention/control in the city of detroit..

Aside from Bishop Edgar Vann, There were about 20 or so individuals on the panel, mostly representing different aspects of law enforcment.. members of Detroit Police Dept., Detroit Public School Police, Michigan DEA, Michigan ATF, Homeland Security, Michigan Dept. of Corrections, Wayne County Sheriffs, Michigan State Police, Kym Worthy of the wayne county prosecutor's office, US Justice Dept. Barbara McQuade, the local head of CrimeStoppers Michigan; an executive of the Skillman Foundation, representaives from some local non-profit social-work/CDCs..
it was sparsely attended, though obviously i'm sure the weather contributed to the low turnout..

The panel was moderated by Charles Pugh of city council.. Brenda Jones was in the audience but not on the panel.. Each panelist had roughly two minutes explaining their agency's function and what program[[s)/practices are in effect in Detroit that are ongoing..

Questions [[written on index cards and read by Pugh) were asked of the panel.. the one that got the most debate was concerning prisoner re-entry.. the Dept. of Corrections rep mentioned the programs they had, and made passing mention of Kym Worthy's disagreement with some of their policies.. Worthy offered a sharp rebuttal about her concerns of violent offenders being released prematurely and not just non-violent offenders.. counter-points were made by both of them for a few minutes before finally moving on..

Other questions raised-- what can schools do about bullying... how can the gang issue be addressed, in light of school consolidations and neighborhood rivals being corralled together.. what is the benefit of testifying regarding crime... is crime-stoppers truly anonymous.. why are there no more police mini-stations in the city.. is it wise to "confront" the known malefactors in the neighborhood..