Why interventions on Southside worked

Diane Finnegan

During his tenure as Southside commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police Chester Williams initiated a program of direct intervention with a team of youth counselors including Dianne Finnegan and Nuri Muhammad. The counseling team regularly met with young men and some young women trying to get out of the gang lifestyle. With at least twenty murders reported since July in the southside, Finnegan questioned today the police’s decision-making process.

Dianne Finnegan, Youth Counselor

“I can’t believe we’ve all sat back and allowed bloodshed to be just wetting our streets every single day because of a change that was made that was supposed to make this city a better place for all of us as citizens to feel safer and to feel more comfortable in. That has not happened and my question is when will those in authority see that this is not working. My thing is you said that there is now an institution that is certified, qualified and competent to carry out these interventions and get the same results. So why are we at 20 plus deaths in less than a month? Who is not doing their work? Because working in the field in the area of crime and violence is not an eight to five job, it is not a Monday to Friday job, it is around the clock, it is 24/7, it is having the capacity to, the capability, the know how of reaching these guys when  they are most vulnerable.”