Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams: Overall crime is decreasing, but city's youth violence is 'out of control'

Take me back to Monday night

That was in the middle

We had 2 teens shot on Sunday um less than

7 hours after another 3rd teen had been shot and

killed on Alston Avenue on Monday

You're sitting there at the city council meeting and you

had some strong words for your colleagues and the community

Walk me through your message in that moment

Well one I was exhausted because I could not sleep

I couldn't sleep because

People are dying and I know there's you know whatever

causes that there are you know there I know there's

some response and retaliation and you know whatever it is

I haven't seen the investigation but I was tired you

know uh and I woke up that morning Monday morning

to all of these messages of you know um you

know the mayor isn't doing enough he's not doing anything

and it's all on social media with social media can

be very misleading um

And I throughout the day I'm thinking like wait a

minute we had resources we had opportunities to do something

and whenever there is an opportunity to do something we

have community members that come about 10 of them they'll

come to City Hall and they fight us on every

every bit of it tooth and nail and my colleagues

compel they they follow suit and they vote it down

ShotSpotter was well the study wasn't compelling enough you know

um

Real-time crime center uh we are are definitely not gonna

support this you know we don't wanna over-police and surveil

and give information to ICE and it's AI and it's

not even AI you know so we're not only dealing

with misinformation we're dealing with disinformation

Bull City United was discontinued and I couldn't even ask

the mayor tell you why right now

And so I have been fed up which is why

I've pulled together this comprehensive collaborative effort uh that's gonna

be community driven

You know if folks have so much to say then

bring your contributions to the table and let's build a

framework around that but that's later on down the road

We're starting now but it's later on down the road

But it's I I've lost my patience

I've lost my patience of Hearing from folks say oh

I'm not doing enough you know show show me someone

else who's trying to raise a million dollars to invest

directly into our kids

Show me someone else who has a per like a

literally a 100% voting record to support the things that

will curb violence

We have to be yes reactionary we have to be

proactive as well

And if we're gonna shoot down anything

That involves the police then we're not serious about keeping

people safe

And if I have to deal with another white person

coming to my office telling me that we don't need

to over-police the black and brown community without speaking to

the people who live in that community I'm gonna lose

my mind because that's what's happening

I there are organizations that are black led that are

white in body and yes it is broken down into

racial dynamics because we utilize the words of black and

brown when those are the people that are living in

this on a daily basis

So you can bring that to me all you want

but go and talk to the mother that's lost their

child

I sit on their couches I speak with them go

talk to the people the neighbors who hear the gunshots

and every night they have to duck

Because what I get on my phone is who was

shot and killed or who was shot underage

I don't even get the reports of the amount of

gunshots that are out there

So we're we're relying on relationships to bring down violence

in our community and and violence like crime is overall

going down

I wanna highlight that but our youth violence is out

of control

And I I you know I can run down the

city's budget of all the things that we're investing in

We have fare free bussing we have heart we have

you know we we have our CIP you know we

have Vision Zero for transit

Why can't we have a Vision Zero for our youth

from killing each other Why don't we have more youth

centers downtown We don't even have a freaking grocery store

downtown

We I mean why don't we have more jobs for

them downtown And so when I think about an innovation

district downtown to bring companies in to allow our young

people to experiment and be a part of creating the

future oh we'd rather have a park

So I'm done being patient I'm done being nice I'm

not gonna I'm not bending on this

My goal is to save lives and it's more than

lip service with me

The Bull City Future Fund is there for everybody to

play a part in

You can donate or shut up

Get involved in saving a child's life or shut up

Do not come to me saying oh the mayor is

not acknowledging my work

I'm not

I I I it's I can't acknowledge every single person

that is doing everything in the city but you shouldn't

be doing it for my acknowledgement

You should be doing it to make sure that these

kids are safe in this community

So our priorities are out of line

I see the messages online I'm gonna challenge the mayor

the mayor is calling us out

No I I I'm not calling you out if you're

not an activist that's coming up to fight everything that

we're trying to do I'm not even thinking about you

I'm thinking about the people who are fighting us on

everything that we try to get through and then the

council compels

They they they they follow suit

So look at my voting record I can tell you

what I voted for

And my values are reflecting my actions

I cannot answer for anyone else when it comes to

safety in the city

And we're going to talk about long term in a

moment but short term what is being done in Durham

right now on the issue of crime

So I'm fielding a lot of calls of course since

all of these shootings happened I know I've received over

300 calls over 300 calls

Everyone has an idea

Hey man I wanna meet with you

I need to sit down and talk with you cause

I'm meeting I'm I'm I'm saving youth in this community

It's a lot of that

Like everyone and I and I appreciate it cause everyone

wants to do something that calls me

I know they wanna do something

My job is to create capacity for them to do

it but I can't meet with everybody

I can't take 200 meetings in a matter of 3

days

Uh so what I would say to everyone if you

have an idea go do it

Don't come to the city for funding yet because we

function we operate on a on a on a fiscal

year

But I say to our corporate community find a nonprofit

and invest in them or invest in the Bull City

Future Fund so we can disperse this money out to

the organizations that are needing to do it uh to

save the save these kids' lives

So in the short term I am working on uh

pulling together an emergency task force that could help mitigate

uh the engagement of nonprofits that are in our community

Uh if you have an organization where you're working with

you

I want you to be able to I want that

task force to work with you on implementing it

Maybe we can provide some resources you know um maybe

we can help you know raise more money to help

fund it you know so that you can get activities

done for your kids

But I'm only one person and I you know many

of the phone calls that I'm getting they're 18 years

too late

That's just the reality

So I'm working on an emergency task force

I will be having a press conference to lay out

some of the things that are that are happening in

the immediate uh such as town halls community conversations uh

and and helping people understand how they can play a

role in this collaborative effort that we're doing to bring

down violent crime amongst our young people in the city

And that collaborative effort it's bringing together the city and

the county

We there was a lot of coverage as well as

nonprofit organizations you know but it will be evidence-based

It will be data led

It would not be generated by popularity

There are some people that speak really loud on social

media and they talk about you know I've been doing

this for years I've been doing this for years I'm

boots on the ground

Good keep going

But I if if you have been doing it for

years and you're effective then you're gonna be a part

of the solution

But I'm not doing any of this

I'm not engaging you to stroke your ego

Kids are dying and I just don't have the patience

for that

So you're either gonna be a part of the evidence

and the data that's gonna lead us where we're going

or not

The long term plan where does that stand right now

So that's starting with that is gonna be community-centered it's

gonna be a community it's gonna be a framework of

strategies that will be from the city county all of

our professional resources and nonprofit organizations

I'm going to talk about those community conversations because that's

where I would need people to come to show us

what you got

And and that that summit workshop is gonna be all

about putting together the plan the strategy

Uh and you know the first thing we have to

do is triage

We have to stop the bleeding and we have to

stop it now

That's what I'm focusing on in the immediate

Um but we have to understand you know um what's

the diagnosis what's causing this and we have to have

a very targeted response

And then we get to the treatment

That's when we look at the holistic you know the

the holistic approach to it the services around it the

wraparound services and then we'll get to prognosis

You know how do we keep this from happening again

And it's going to we're gonna have to use every

partner every entity in our community that we possibly can

You talked about this

You want me to pause Are you OK OK

You we talked about this a little bit but some

of those

Efforts and initiatives that Durham has had ShotSpotter Bowl City

United the real-time Crime Center that did not pass do

you see any of those coming back Do you believe

any of those should come back I do think they

should come back but you know we're going to have

to let the data tell us that

Because they're expecting Leo to say hey we need this

and I'm gonna continue to be ignored

But um we'll just at this point what resources we

have will be data led and it's gonna be up

to this council and the commissioners to what be what

to determine if we accept it or not

And so could those things be part of the discussion

with the long term plan Absolutely

Yeah um anything else that you want to add that

I didn't ask you about on this topic Uh no

I I I think that you know the conversation does

need to expand

You know I'm the mayor of the city but I'm

only one vote and I think that this conversation has

to expand to other stakeholders and ask where they stand

on it you know we we and that and and

they're gonna have to answer to the community

You know but I'll continue to do my part