Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 5/25/16. Local Nation of Islam Leader Kevin Muhammad speaks about a patrol car he led the community in purchasing in addition to establishing a hotline to assist people in resolving conflict. These steps are among many he's taking to help inner city communities alleviate violence.Faced with growing violence in their communities and a police force they say has not met their needs, some Chattanooga residents have launched a homegrown effort to wrest control of the streets from criminals.
Nation of Islam leader Kevin Muhammad and community leaders recently purchased a patrol car, are fixing up a donated house to serve as their headquarters and have set out to take back Alton Park.
If successful, they hope to branch out, using their plan as a model to end violence in every blighted neighborhood in the city.
"We will have a small-scale model of people coming together from different faith beliefs, homeowners, young people, to set an example of how we can bring peace into the community and rid it of violence." Muhammad said.
More than 60 shootings and 15 homicides have occurred in Chattanooga this year. Police have said several shootings are gang-related.
Volunteers working with Muhammad have encouraged residents in Alton Park and other inner-city neighborhoods to expect better communities.
"When you see people bringing themselves to a higher standard, it encourages people in the community to do the same, and it makes it seem not so impossible for our neighborhoods to become a decent place to live," said Saasha Jones, a volunteer with the program.
Jones, who holds a master's degree in business administration and has 12 years' experience in after-school programs, plans to tutor youth in the Alton Park community. Other volunteers will distribute food and clothes and assist with conflict resolution.
Asked if Muhammad's plan could be helpful to the Chattanooga Police Department, spokesman Kyle Miller said the department "is always happy to hear about community members who are willing to help in focused deterrence and community support efforts. The chief looks forward to hearing from Kevin Muhammad about his plan and hopes to work with him to ensure the process operates well with community safety and law enforcement."
"Focused deterrence" is the philosophy behind the City of Chattanooga's Violence Reduction Initiative, started in early 2014, which is designed to focus on the most at-risk gang members in the city - the small core of people responsible for most of the shootings.
The strategy gives those men a choice: stop shooting and receive social services, or else law enforcement will come at them hard, and they will face the full force of the law.
But the program has not reduced gang-related gun violence.
There were 53 non-fatal gang-related shootings in 2013, 67 in 2014, 70 in 2015. Gang-related homicides remained steady, with 12 in 2013, 13 in 2014, and 14 in 2015.
Muhammad plans to use the patrol car for community policing.
The patrol car won't be used to apprehend anyone or take them to jail, nor will its driver interfere with crimes in progress such as shootings. But the organization will try to intervene in verbal disputes to prevent shootings from happening, Muhammad said.
The group plans to do community policing by driving in the Alton Park area, picking up elderly residents who need a ride to the store or transporting people to get medications. Muhammad said retired social workers, former gang members and teachers are volunteering to assist the community in conflict resolution. Members of the Nation of Islam will drive the car and train other volunteers how to do community patrol. People who need assistance can wave down the car as it drives through the neighborhood.
"This is all about prevention. If something gets to the point where you're actually shooting people, that's not us. That's the Chattanooga Police Department," Muhammad said. "We're all about prevention."
He collected donations to purchase the patrol car, and local businessman J.T. McDaniel contributed $1,000 to the effort. Mercury Cab sold Muhammad the car for $2,000, and local sign printer Andra Willis put the lettering on the car.
The patrol car will be based in the Alton Park community, but after the program is up and running, Muhammad plans to use it as a model to get another patrol car and open another office in a different community.
The Rev. Timothy Careathers, pastor of Westside Baptist Church in Alton Park, said although he and Muhammad have different faith traditions, they both have a concern for residents in the inner-city community, and Careathers is praying about ways they may work together.
"We want people to feel like Alton Park is a safe place to be," Careathers said.
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan designed the community revitalization plan Muhammad is using in Chattanooga. It began to germinate after the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March held last year in Washington, D.C. Muhammad took busloads of Chattanooga residents to attend the march.
"Farrakhan asked that, when we go back home, he's looking for 10,000 fearless men and women who will go into the community to stand between the guns and the bullets to bring peace into our communities," Muhammad said.
The Chattanooga chapter of 10,000 Fearless Men and Women joined 32 chapters in cities across the country, tasked with stopping the killings in black communities.
The local 10,000 Fearless headquarters, at 4025 Hughes Ave., is called "The Community Haven" and will be a site for programs to provide free food and clothing, nutrition classes, conflict resolution, tutoring and mentoring.
A property owner donated use of the house. Volunteers are renovating it and expect to move into the space in July.
"It's important when there's so much distrust in our community with the police that we begin to say, 'We've got to make our own community a decent place to live,'" Muhammad said.
Muhammad said a similar program run by Sharrieff Muhammad has been successful in Atlanta. Sharrieff Muhammad, a regional representative for Farrakhan, opened his 10,000 Fearless Men and Women office in Atlanta in the Bluff, an area notorious across the state for heroin. Within two months and with the help of 150 volunteers, the group transformed a block by painting and making repairs to six homes and getting two dilapidated homes torn down. The community looked better, residents felt safer and they were appreciative, Sharrieff Muhammad said.
He now travels the country assisting 10,000 Fearless Men and Women organizations being established.
"This can be done all over the country if we can just come together and put our egos aside," Sharrieff Muhammad said.
Kevin Muhammad is seeking more local volunteers, people willing to be mentors and counsel youth.
He said he especially hopes for more men to get involved.
"We're tired of funerals. We're tired of shootings," he said. "We need more men to step up and say, 'Enough is enough.'"
Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yput man@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.