May 5, 2023 • 28 mins
We continue our interviews with candidates running for Mayor with State Representative Amen Brown. https://amenforphilly.com/
First, we speak to Dr. Dorothy Johnson-Speight, founder and National Executive Director of Mother’s in Charge, celebrating twenty years of working to address violence in our city and supporting those who’ve lost loved one’s to violence. The organization is holding their 20th Anniversary Gala May 24, 2023 at the Linc from 5:30 to 9:30 pm. For tickets go to www.mothersincharge.org.
First, we speak to Dr. Dorothy Johnson-Speight, founder and National Executive Director of Mother’s in Charge, celebrating twenty years of working to address violence in our city and supporting those who’ve lost loved one’s to violence. The organization is holding their 20th Anniversary Gala May 24, 2023 at the Linc from 5:30 to 9:30 pm. For tickets go to www.mothersincharge.org.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Good morning. You're listening to Inside, a show about empowering our community.
I'm Lorraine Balladmorrow, we conclude ourinterviews with candidates running from mayor with State
Representative Aman Brown. First, there'san organization very dear to my heart that's
celebrating its twentieth anniversary of working toincrease the piece. Twenty years ago,
an organization was born, Mothers inCharge, that is there for people who
(00:24):
have lost loved ones to gun violence. And that organization has grown and expanded
and is helping so many people.Celebrating its twentieth anniversary this May twenty fourth.
We're going to talk all about thisanniversary with its co founder, doctor
Dorothy Johnson Spite, who is withus right now. Very good to see
(00:44):
you, Dot And I think I'mone of the few people that go through
that right, Yes, And thattells the story of how how far we
go back? We do go backquite a long ways. Well, before
we get into the specifics of theevent that's coming up to celebrate the twentieth
anniversary, let's talk origin story.Tell us the origin of Mothers in Charge.
Sure, the origin of Mothers inCharge is a mother who lost her
(01:11):
only son, her firstborn and wantedto die. Didn't think I was going
to survive the death because of thepain and grief, but decided I wanted
to get out of that dark placeand do something and not have colleague Dabar
Johnson's death be in vain. That'show Mothers in Charge was born. And
it started in a very small multipurpose room at Dian Baptist Church on a
(01:38):
Saturday morning, where I thought maybea few folks who had lost loved ones
would come out. But on thatSaturday morning, that room was packed with
a lot of pain and grief,but people who wanted to do something about
the violence of the city of Philadelphia. And that was in May of two
thousand and three. You know,it's so I don't know's I guess it's
a measure of how far we've come, but also how far we need to
(02:01):
go. That when you started yourorganization, there really wasn't anything like it.
There wasn't anything that very specifically wastargeted, particularly to mothers who've lost
loved ones, to provide this communityof support and hope. Tell us what
(02:22):
you started out doing and what youare doing now to support those who've lost
loved ones to gun violence. Sure, So I had met several mothers who
had lost loved ones to violence priorto the starting Mothers in Charge, and
I knew their pain and agony andgrief. So initially the goal was to
(02:42):
bring these women together, mother's,grandmother's, an sisters, wives who had
lost sons, daughters, and lovedones together to support one another. That
was the goal initially, But aswe came together, we realized that we
wanted to do more than just kindof talk about our feelings and go through
our emotions together supporting one another.We wanted to make a difference. And
(03:05):
that's how Mothers in Charge began thedifferent advocacy programs that we did then and
we're currently doing now. Everything fromwell it started in the beginning. I
guess we want to go into theschools and talk with children about bullying and
conflict resolution and things like that,and we did that, you know.
So, I mean a lot ofthings have happened in terms of what we
(03:27):
call PIE prevention, intervention and education, and that's our mission and our mandate
now is how do we make adifference, not just with the families that
we walk through on this journey,but how do we make a difference with
things that are going on in thecity. Your program started in Philadelphia,
but the model of it has expandedoutside of the city. Tell us more
(03:51):
about how the mission has grown.Yeah, you know, this is just
not a Philadelphia problem. Unfortunately,it's a problem across the country. So
when I began my work, andbecause we were reaching out, you know,
through social media and word of mouth, folks and other places got to
(04:11):
hear about Mothers in Charge. Andso I met other mothers who were kind
of in the same situation as I. They had lost the son and daughter
and wanted to make a difference,wanted to do something positive with the anger
and the emotions that they felt,the tears of pain. And so we
have chapters now in La San Francisco, when by the name of Paula Dix
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is leading, that Mattie Scott inSan Francisco, rosalind Temple, amazing woman.
All of them are courageous women inKansas City. So and then there
are other affiliates that are not apart of the actual Mothers in Charge program,
but they do similar work and weare affiliates of them as well,
(04:53):
and I'm looking forward to seeing allof them on Wednesday, May twenty fourth.
Well, let's get into the specificsof this event to celebrate the twentieth
anniversary. Tell us again, it'son the twenty fourth, that's the anniversary,
the twentieth anniversary. Tell us allthe details. Well, they're coming
together now in a very powerful way. Our theme is honoring our past and
(05:16):
defining our future. So we're bringingfolks to the table, I say,
to the table. We're bringing folksto the gala that have been a part
of our past. Mothers who havecome through our doors, who've gone on
and did other things with their livesto make a difference on this issue.
Children that we've mentored through our differentteam mentoring programs, women that we have
(05:40):
supported through our re Entry a womenand men who we support it through our
re entry program. So we doall these kinds of different things that we're
trying to bring all of that togetheron Wednesday, May twenty fourth at the
Lincoln. The Eagles have been asupporter of Mothers in Charge, so they're
supporting us with this beautiful event thatwe're going to host at the Lincoln Financial.
(06:02):
I'm honored to say and glad himso appreciative to say that Governor Josh
Shapiro will be there. He hasbeen someone who's been supportive of Mothers in
Charge. He has something special hewants to do that night, and so
we're looking forward to his attendance there. We're going to look at some of
our local shearros. We're honoring thefirst African American Archbishop Mary Palmer. She
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will be honored and recognized that night, and a young lady in city council
who has done amazing work on thisissue. She's a part of our pastor
she I'm sure she's going to be, you know, defining our future as
well. And that city councilwoman JamieGardier. She has been on the front
lines fighting this issue of gun violenceon many different fronts, and so we
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want to thank her and acknowledge andrecognize her for her work. And lots
of other folks are going to bethere, lots of we're expecting to have
close to three or four hundred peoplethere that you are coming from different parts
of the country, and of coursethe city here is recognizing the work of
Mothers in Charge twenty years. Andit's not easy work when you touch your
(07:12):
own pain every single day doing thiswork. So I salute all the courageous
women who've come through our doors onthe twenty years that we've been doing this
and have gotten support and have goneon to support others well. And you
have been and you have been anatrical part of that, Lorraine. I
just want to add that as well, you know, putting the word out,
getting the word out, doing thework you know to address this issue.
(07:33):
And that's what we need. Allhands on deck, and I thank
you for all that you've done well. I have to give major props to
you. Over these twenty years.You have taken the worst possible thing that
can happen to any mother is losingtheir child, and you did not allow
that to destroy you. You builton the legacy of your son, who
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sounded like such a special young man, and and you, in his memory
and in his honor, you havecreated this extraordinary organization that has touched so
many people, so many mothers andso many individuals out there, not only
with supporting them in their grief process, but also creating programs that are about
(08:18):
prevention, because that's where we needto go, is figuring out the strategies
for preventing the violence that ends thelives of so many of our especially young
black men. So I thank youfor that and I want you to tell
us if people would like more informationabout this event and joining you on May
twenty fourth at Lincoln Financial from fivethirty to nine thirty. Where did they
(08:41):
go to buy tickets? Well,they can always go to our website www
dot Mothers in Charge. All informationis there. We have an event right
page. They can call our officeor go to our website sent as a
matches. There's many different ways thatthey can reach out to us, but
our number at the this is twoone five two to eight one seven one
(09:03):
eight or our website www dot Mothersin Charge dot org. Fantastic doctor Dorothy
Johnson Spite, otherwise known by meas DOT, who is the co founder,
president CEO of Mothers in Charge celebratingits twentieth anniversary of doing so much
good for not only the city ofPhiladelphia but the country. Thank you so
(09:24):
much for everything that you do.Dot. Thank you, Lorraine, thank
you so much. My husband hada gun. Him and his friends would
go shooting. The ammunition unfortunately wasnot stored separately. In a million years,
we never thought that Emily could.There's a hole in our family that
(09:45):
can never ever be filled. Sixtythree Americans a day die by gun suicide.
With safe gun storage, we cangive our loved ones a second chance
in life. Learn more at infamily fire dot org. Brought to you
by Brady and the ad Council.On May sixty primary election day, Philadelphia
voters have many important choices to make. The ballot is long and requires your
(10:05):
utmost attention. In addition to votingfrom mayor, city controller, city council
at large, district, city councilposts, and judicial seats, there are
important ballot questions to focus on.Please study all candidates and questions carefully because
your voting matters. You can voteby mail or at the polls Tuesday,
May sixteenth. Remember it is yourright, your privilege, and your duty
(10:26):
to vote. You're listening to Insight. We continue our interviews with mayor candidates
for the one hundredth mayor of theCity of Philadelphia, and joining us right
now is Amen Brown. He's Democraticcandidate for mayor. He's a state representative
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in the tenth district. Brown isrunning on a platform focused on improving public
safety, increasing affordable housing, andinvesting in education and workforce development. He's
also a community servant and self madeentrepreneur. And we are going to be
talking to Aman Brown. So webegin with the question I ask all of
the candidates, why are you running? Yes, first and foremost, thank
(11:11):
you for having me on the show. I really appreciate this opportunity. I'm
running Famaire to give our city afresh start in a new beginning that we
all know we desperately need at thismoment. I'm running Famaire to protect the
citizens of Philadelphia. Our streets arenot safe. There used to be safe
(11:31):
communities in Philadelphia, but now it'slike every community is unsafe no matter where
you go, and so it's ourgoal to make sure each and every block
community is safe. I'm running Famaireto give our young people a fighting chance
at a bright future. I'm thatrole model that I needed when I was
a kid, and everything that I'vebeen fighting for and building all my life,
(11:56):
it comes from the things that theresources that I had access to when
the things I needed in my home. And I stay in here as that
man um and our young people needto see a positive image in black men
um. You know right now,our young people, their role models are
rappers and and and fantasy stuff ontv UM. And so I'm running to
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show them that no matter what yourbackground is, no matter what you've been
through in life, no matter yourfinancial um situation or your education, or
if you've been arrested before, orif you've been shot before, because I
have been all of that. Iwas shot at a very young age of
then my little time on state road, and now I sit here as a
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state representative for each and every communitythat made me UM. And that's and
that's the story to tell UM.And this is what our young people need
to see because the problem that we'reseeing right now is that the young people
there they we have to we haveto change the mind where they are mentally
because they feel like they don't haveany hope. And so and each and
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every encounter that I face with youngpeople, it's a positive environment and they're
like, Wow, you've been throughall of that and you're here standing here
as an elected official. And itsaddens me because I see myself in them.
I was once that person. Iwas that young man who didn't know
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that you know, if you getarrested, and like like when I was
arrested, I thought my entire lifewas over because there was no one to
tell me to keep pushing and thatyou're going to be okay. And that's
what I am for a city,and that's why I'm running from there.
Tell us about your proposals to easethe terrible gun violence that's affecting Philadelphia.
(13:54):
What would be your plan? Yeah, so we have a very comprehensive plan,
very detailed, fair and balanced plan, I might say it was.
It was drafted by myself in toplaw enforcement officials across the country, one
mainly being um Joel Fitzgerald, whowas a cousin of mine. Um he
(14:15):
just lost his son, my littlecousin, Sergeant christohits Gerald on Temple campus.
He was a Temple police officer.So you know, we we came
together to draft a very fair andbalanced plan. So now here you have
a black legislator and you have ablack farmer police chief, and he was
a farmer police chief in Texas andFort Worth, Texas and he's still in
(14:37):
law enforcement and he came up throughthe Philadelphia Police Department. So he knows
the streets and he knows the needof law enforcement in our communities just as
well as I do. So ourplan includes reboosting them around the police department.
That's one we have to show theofficers that the mayor's administration is going
(15:01):
to be supportive of you and workwith you, not against you. But
at the same time hold the badactors accountable in the police department and make
sure that we reform the police apartmentbecause we know we need that as well.
So boosting them around the police department, addressing these open bench warrants for
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the repeat violent offenders that are onour streets hiding behind ski mask and so
to that point, we're going tobe making ski masks illegal and we're going
to be aggressively making sure that folksdon't wear them because the ski mask component
law abiding citizens, innocent women andchildren, and myself and my children.
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We should not feel as though oncewe see a group of individuals with ski
mask going, we automatically feel aslike we're the next victim and we're going
to end up on the news tonight. That is not how we should be,
that's not how we should be living. So doing away with the ski
mask is going to make the communityfeel better. It's going to automatically take
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away that fear of feeling like you'reabout to be victimized. We're also going
to create something called Neighborhood Police Officersto bridge the gap between cops and community.
And this one hundred and sixty onehundred and eighty officers, they're going
to be charged with serving that community. UM. And we're going to start
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with the high violent crime areas,and these these officers will be charged with
when we get a call, anon violent call, those officers will be
able to walk to that to thatscene, or to that house. UM.
These officers will also be walking upand down the streets. So if
miss miss Jones is trying to gether shopping cart up the steps, you
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have somebody there to serve you.Because we have to we have to make
police put least back into this positivelight like they used to be when I
was young growing up, we hada relationship with the police in our community.
But over the years that has thathas lost that UM. So we're
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going to be taking a very fairof a balance approach and and we're going
to have to make some tough decisionswhich is going to make us be tough
on crime, because the reality iscrime is being tough on us, and
so we have to address it.Appropriately. The opioid epidemic has spread throughout
the city, but certainly in Kensington. What would you do to address the
(17:37):
opioid epidemic. Yes, we're goingto have to first and foremost, that
whole situation down there is just it'sjust unbelievable. My team and I we
go down once a week just tobe in that environment and actually see what's
going on so we can come upwith a real tangible solution. And the
open air drug market is a majorproblem. So we have to remove those
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guys off the street. A lotof those individuals who are contaminating that community
not even from there, right they'renot even from our city, but they
know that this is a lawless community, well lawless city right now. There's
no one being held accountable because wehave a DA who is letting a lot
of things slide. And then wehave we have those community folks who feel
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like the city city government don't careabout them because we ignore too much of
the violence and the drug trafficking goingon down there. So we are going
to partner with each and every lawenforcement agency, city, federal state to
go heavy handily on that community toremove those individuals and then for the folks
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who need treatment. We're going topartner with the professionals in that space to
make sure our plan is tight andthat we're actually serving people and getting them
the treatment that they need and thatand that is going to entail giving them
two options. You're either going toinvoluntarily go get this treatment that the federal,
state and the city government that we'refunding right now, or you're going
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to involuntarily go. But the resultis you're going to go get this treatment.
Because I've been in the space wherein my personal family where we've witnessed
individuals in my family, if wedidn't force them to go, they would
have never went right. And ifit worked in my family, it would
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definitely work in other families. Sowe're going to remove the violent criminals all
the street in the drug dealers,and make sure we get people in treatment
and off the streets so we canshow that community that we do care about
you and that you do matter.How do we manage development and rapidly gentrifying
neighborhoods without displacing long time residents andbusinesses, providing affordable housing, and also
(19:59):
at the same time encourage economic developmentand population density. Yes, so thank
you for that question. We rarelyget asked that question because the topic has
been public safety. Public safety,but we this affordable housing, gentrification,
all of that stuff goes hand tohand with solving this crime problem. The
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City of Philadelphia owns the most vacantlots in our town right now, and
our plan includes working directly with PHA. PHA currently at the moment, they're
operating off of a four hundred milliondollar budget, which ninety three percent of
that budget comes from the federal government, six percent of that budget comes from
rents from the tenants, and onepercent comes from City of Philadelphia grants.
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So our plan, we're going tomake sure we're giving a line item each
and every year in the budget toPHA so they can afford to build.
Because of that four hundred million,seventy five to eighty percent of that goes
toward maintenance, up heat, andstaff, so there's no way that they
can take that little bit of extramoney to create more units. So it's
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going to be our job as thecity to make sure we're funding PHA enough
so they can build on the cityowned vacant land. But we're not just
trying to create renters. We're goingto make sure that there's a system in
place where we're creating homeownership after acertain amount of time, so we can
so we can help families create generationalwealth by ownership and the amount of parcels
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on each block, especially in WestPhilly, North Philly, Southwest Philadelphia.
Once we start filling in those voids, then that a level to plan filled
with this gentrification piece. Because Ido understand private business owners and developers,
they have rights to Philadelphia is thepoorest large city. What would you do
to move the needle on poverty?Job create quality, job creation in home
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ownership. You know, I'm probusiness and I'm pro my people, and
I'm pro people period. So theway I the way I was raised,
no one in my household had ajob right, So it was struggle after
struggle. Asking for a five dollarsfrom this neighbor, asked for for ten
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dollars from this neighbor. So Iunderstand poverty and the conditions of my home.
We were horrible. You know,we prayed that it didn't rain because
of the leaks in the roof theheating system. We had an oil heating
system. Mother couldn't afford oil.Several times throughout the winter. But I
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will say this, my mother,she did everything she could to make sure
she took care of her seven kidsby any means necessary. So I know
firsthand what it's like to experience poverty, and I would and change not one
thing that I experienced in my lifebecause those lived experiences give me a seat
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at the table to solve the problem. So the things that my mother needed
and other families in our neighborhood theyneeded access to quality jobs. We need.
We need to remove the red tapethat qualifies people to start small businesses
because maybe if we helped folks whowant to be entrepreneurs an individual and want
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to be small business owners, maybeI wouldn't ended up in the situation that
I was in, with the issuesthat I faced, but from those experiences
that made me better and stronger.So when we talk about poverty and job
creation and being an entrepreneur and owninga small business, I took all of
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the hits for the families of Philadelphia. So moving forward, once I become
mayor, I know what needs tobe fixed so no other family or no
other individual have to go through whatI went through. I took the hitch
for you, Philadelphia, and that'swhat that's what we're going to do to
fix this poverty problem. My finalquestion is what would you plan to accomplish
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in your first ninety days? Oh? Wow, making the city safe.
You know, you have a lotof candidates that say, oh, I'm
going to reduce crime in fifty percentin my first year, but they have
a history of being anti law enforcement. Right, you can't solve this problem
without having a relationship with law enforcement. Law enforcement have to trust you because
(24:33):
if you if they do not,then you see what's going on. Now,
you know, cops can't show upthe crime scenes. I got constituents
and residents that call nine one one, then I answering the phone because the
shortages. So we need someone inthe mayor's office that the officers are going
to trust. You know, alot of candidates are calling, I'm going
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to hire five hundred cops, threehundred cops, fifty one hundred cops.
Now you're not. You're not becausethey don't trust you because you failed them
in the past. And so inthe first ninety days, we're going to
make sure we change some of thepeople at the top to boost the morale.
We're going to make sure that weare making getting rid of the bad
(25:21):
apples. You have to do that. There's there's there's a handful of folks
that that shouldn't be around that areand the good cops that I do business
with and that I have relationships with, they know which cops need to be
removed from the department. Good copssomething like bad cops. And there's bad
apples in every bunch. So we'regoing to fix the fix the police department,
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boost the morale. Uh, Andwe're gonna make these streets safe.
And I'm gonna be right there nextto them. And we're going to evaluate
each and every school within the firstone ninety to one hundred days to see
which schools need to be knocked downor rebuilt or fully renovated or relocate it
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because the conditions of our schools arehorrible and we can't expect our children to
learn in these conditions. Trust me, I was there the school that I
grew up in. It was itwasn't, it wasn't what it should have
been, but it was better thanmy home. So my family and I
we depended on school for guaranteed meals, shelter, and heat. So me
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knowing that this is what families experience. We have to make sure these schools
are in tip top shape and they'recurrently not like that. And lastly,
we're going to evaluate each and everydepartment to find waste in these departments,
see what's been working and what's notbeen working, and re allocate those funds
to creative twenty first century everything.For example, we're going to open an
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office of Firearms Surrender and pay individualscompetitive prices for their firearms with no repercussions.
Because you had folks who are outhere saying, oh, I have
a gun buyback program. I wantto give you a twenty five or fifty
dollars gift card to a grocery storewhen the street price and the street value
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of these illegal firearms are eight hundredto eleven hundred dollars each. So if
we really want to solve this crimeproblem, we have to know what's going
on in these streets, and wehave to be willing to be competitive in
this space so we can really addressthe issues at hand. If people would
like to know more about the campaignof Amen Brown, where do they go?
(27:41):
Yes, I'm in for Philly dotCom. It's a M E N
F O R PHI y dot comand the social media handles are the same.
All right, Amen Brown, who'srunning for the Democratic nomination for a
mayor of the City of Philadelphia.Thank you so much, Oh thank you.
You can listen to all of today'sinterviews by going to our station website
(28:02):
and typing in keyword Community. Youcan also listen on the iHeartRadio app keyword
Lorraine with one R. Follow meon Twitter and Instagram at Lorraine Ballard.
I'm Lorraine Ballard Morrow, and Istand for service to our community and media
that empowers. What will you standfor? You've been listening to Insight and thank you
Good morning. You're listening to Inside, a show about empowering our community.
I'm Lorraine Balladmorrow, we conclude ourinterviews with candidates running from mayor with State
Representative Aman Brown. First, there'san organization very dear to my heart that's
celebrating its twentieth anniversary of working toincrease the piece. Twenty years ago,
an organization was born, Mothers inCharge, that is there for people who
(00:24):
have lost loved ones to gun violence. And that organization has grown and expanded
and is helping so many people.Celebrating its twentieth anniversary this May twenty fourth.
We're going to talk all about thisanniversary with its co founder, doctor
Dorothy Johnson Spite, who is withus right now. Very good to see
(00:44):
you, Dot And I think I'mone of the few people that go through
that right, Yes, And thattells the story of how how far we
go back? We do go backquite a long ways. Well, before
we get into the specifics of theevent that's coming up to celebrate the twentieth
anniversary, let's talk origin story.Tell us the origin of Mothers in Charge.
Sure, the origin of Mothers inCharge is a mother who lost her
(01:11):
only son, her firstborn and wantedto die. Didn't think I was going
to survive the death because of thepain and grief, but decided I wanted
to get out of that dark placeand do something and not have colleague Dabar
Johnson's death be in vain. That'show Mothers in Charge was born. And
it started in a very small multipurpose room at Dian Baptist Church on a
(01:38):
Saturday morning, where I thought maybea few folks who had lost loved ones
would come out. But on thatSaturday morning, that room was packed with
a lot of pain and grief,but people who wanted to do something about
the violence of the city of Philadelphia. And that was in May of two
thousand and three. You know,it's so I don't know's I guess it's
a measure of how far we've come, but also how far we need to
(02:01):
go. That when you started yourorganization, there really wasn't anything like it.
There wasn't anything that very specifically wastargeted, particularly to mothers who've lost
loved ones, to provide this communityof support and hope. Tell us what
(02:22):
you started out doing and what youare doing now to support those who've lost
loved ones to gun violence. Sure, So I had met several mothers who
had lost loved ones to violence priorto the starting Mothers in Charge, and
I knew their pain and agony andgrief. So initially the goal was to
(02:42):
bring these women together, mother's,grandmother's, an sisters, wives who had
lost sons, daughters, and lovedones together to support one another. That
was the goal initially, But aswe came together, we realized that we
wanted to do more than just kindof talk about our feelings and go through
our emotions together supporting one another.We wanted to make a difference. And
(03:05):
that's how Mothers in Charge began thedifferent advocacy programs that we did then and
we're currently doing now. Everything fromwell it started in the beginning. I
guess we want to go into theschools and talk with children about bullying and
conflict resolution and things like that,and we did that, you know.
So, I mean a lot ofthings have happened in terms of what we
(03:27):
call PIE prevention, intervention and education, and that's our mission and our mandate
now is how do we make adifference, not just with the families that
we walk through on this journey,but how do we make a difference with
things that are going on in thecity. Your program started in Philadelphia,
but the model of it has expandedoutside of the city. Tell us more
(03:51):
about how the mission has grown.Yeah, you know, this is just
not a Philadelphia problem. Unfortunately,it's a problem across the country. So
when I began my work, andbecause we were reaching out, you know,
through social media and word of mouth, folks and other places got to
(04:11):
hear about Mothers in Charge. Andso I met other mothers who were kind
of in the same situation as I. They had lost the son and daughter
and wanted to make a difference,wanted to do something positive with the anger
and the emotions that they felt,the tears of pain. And so we
have chapters now in La San Francisco, when by the name of Paula Dix
(04:32):
is leading, that Mattie Scott inSan Francisco, rosalind Temple, amazing woman.
All of them are courageous women inKansas City. So and then there
are other affiliates that are not apart of the actual Mothers in Charge program,
but they do similar work and weare affiliates of them as well,
(04:53):
and I'm looking forward to seeing allof them on Wednesday, May twenty fourth.
Well, let's get into the specificsof this event to celebrate the twentieth
anniversary. Tell us again, it'son the twenty fourth, that's the anniversary,
the twentieth anniversary. Tell us allthe details. Well, they're coming
together now in a very powerful way. Our theme is honoring our past and
(05:16):
defining our future. So we're bringingfolks to the table, I say,
to the table. We're bringing folksto the gala that have been a part
of our past. Mothers who havecome through our doors, who've gone on
and did other things with their livesto make a difference on this issue.
Children that we've mentored through our differentteam mentoring programs, women that we have
(05:40):
supported through our re Entry a womenand men who we support it through our
re entry program. So we doall these kinds of different things that we're
trying to bring all of that togetheron Wednesday, May twenty fourth at the
Lincoln. The Eagles have been asupporter of Mothers in Charge, so they're
supporting us with this beautiful event thatwe're going to host at the Lincoln Financial.
(06:02):
I'm honored to say and glad himso appreciative to say that Governor Josh
Shapiro will be there. He hasbeen someone who's been supportive of Mothers in
Charge. He has something special hewants to do that night, and so
we're looking forward to his attendance there. We're going to look at some of
our local shearros. We're honoring thefirst African American Archbishop Mary Palmer. She
(06:29):
will be honored and recognized that night, and a young lady in city council
who has done amazing work on thisissue. She's a part of our pastor
she I'm sure she's going to be, you know, defining our future as
well. And that city councilwoman JamieGardier. She has been on the front
lines fighting this issue of gun violenceon many different fronts, and so we
(06:50):
want to thank her and acknowledge andrecognize her for her work. And lots
of other folks are going to bethere, lots of we're expecting to have
close to three or four hundred peoplethere that you are coming from different parts
of the country, and of coursethe city here is recognizing the work of
Mothers in Charge twenty years. Andit's not easy work when you touch your
(07:12):
own pain every single day doing thiswork. So I salute all the courageous
women who've come through our doors onthe twenty years that we've been doing this
and have gotten support and have goneon to support others well. And you
have been and you have been anatrical part of that, Lorraine. I
just want to add that as well, you know, putting the word out,
getting the word out, doing thework you know to address this issue.
(07:33):
And that's what we need. Allhands on deck, and I thank
you for all that you've done well. I have to give major props to
you. Over these twenty years.You have taken the worst possible thing that
can happen to any mother is losingtheir child, and you did not allow
that to destroy you. You builton the legacy of your son, who
(07:56):
sounded like such a special young man, and and you, in his memory
and in his honor, you havecreated this extraordinary organization that has touched so
many people, so many mothers andso many individuals out there, not only
with supporting them in their grief process, but also creating programs that are about
(08:18):
prevention, because that's where we needto go, is figuring out the strategies
for preventing the violence that ends thelives of so many of our especially young
black men. So I thank youfor that and I want you to tell
us if people would like more informationabout this event and joining you on May
twenty fourth at Lincoln Financial from fivethirty to nine thirty. Where did they
(08:41):
go to buy tickets? Well,they can always go to our website www
dot Mothers in Charge. All informationis there. We have an event right
page. They can call our officeor go to our website sent as a
matches. There's many different ways thatthey can reach out to us, but
our number at the this is twoone five two to eight one seven one
(09:03):
eight or our website www dot Mothersin Charge dot org. Fantastic doctor Dorothy
Johnson Spite, otherwise known by meas DOT, who is the co founder,
president CEO of Mothers in Charge celebratingits twentieth anniversary of doing so much
good for not only the city ofPhiladelphia but the country. Thank you so
(09:24):
much for everything that you do.Dot. Thank you, Lorraine, thank
you so much. My husband hada gun. Him and his friends would
go shooting. The ammunition unfortunately wasnot stored separately. In a million years,
we never thought that Emily could.There's a hole in our family that
(09:45):
can never ever be filled. Sixtythree Americans a day die by gun suicide.
With safe gun storage, we cangive our loved ones a second chance
in life. Learn more at infamily fire dot org. Brought to you
by Brady and the ad Council.On May sixty primary election day, Philadelphia
voters have many important choices to make. The ballot is long and requires your
(10:05):
utmost attention. In addition to votingfrom mayor, city controller, city council
at large, district, city councilposts, and judicial seats, there are
important ballot questions to focus on.Please study all candidates and questions carefully because
your voting matters. You can voteby mail or at the polls Tuesday,
May sixteenth. Remember it is yourright, your privilege, and your duty
(10:26):
to vote. You're listening to Insight. We continue our interviews with mayor candidates
for the one hundredth mayor of theCity of Philadelphia, and joining us right
now is Amen Brown. He's Democraticcandidate for mayor. He's a state representative
(10:50):
in the tenth district. Brown isrunning on a platform focused on improving public
safety, increasing affordable housing, andinvesting in education and workforce development. He's
also a community servant and self madeentrepreneur. And we are going to be
talking to Aman Brown. So webegin with the question I ask all of
the candidates, why are you running? Yes, first and foremost, thank
(11:11):
you for having me on the show. I really appreciate this opportunity. I'm
running Famaire to give our city afresh start in a new beginning that we
all know we desperately need at thismoment. I'm running Famaire to protect the
citizens of Philadelphia. Our streets arenot safe. There used to be safe
(11:31):
communities in Philadelphia, but now it'slike every community is unsafe no matter where
you go, and so it's ourgoal to make sure each and every block
community is safe. I'm running Famaireto give our young people a fighting chance
at a bright future. I'm thatrole model that I needed when I was
a kid, and everything that I'vebeen fighting for and building all my life,
(11:56):
it comes from the things that theresources that I had access to when
the things I needed in my home. And I stay in here as that
man um and our young people needto see a positive image in black men
um. You know right now,our young people, their role models are
rappers and and and fantasy stuff ontv UM. And so I'm running to
(12:18):
show them that no matter what yourbackground is, no matter what you've been
through in life, no matter yourfinancial um situation or your education, or
if you've been arrested before, orif you've been shot before, because I
have been all of that. Iwas shot at a very young age of
then my little time on state road, and now I sit here as a
(12:43):
state representative for each and every communitythat made me UM. And that's and
that's the story to tell UM.And this is what our young people need
to see because the problem that we'reseeing right now is that the young people
there they we have to we haveto change the mind where they are mentally
because they feel like they don't haveany hope. And so and each and
(13:07):
every encounter that I face with youngpeople, it's a positive environment and they're
like, Wow, you've been throughall of that and you're here standing here
as an elected official. And itsaddens me because I see myself in them.
I was once that person. Iwas that young man who didn't know
(13:28):
that you know, if you getarrested, and like like when I was
arrested, I thought my entire lifewas over because there was no one to
tell me to keep pushing and thatyou're going to be okay. And that's
what I am for a city,and that's why I'm running from there.
Tell us about your proposals to easethe terrible gun violence that's affecting Philadelphia.
(13:54):
What would be your plan? Yeah, so we have a very comprehensive plan,
very detailed, fair and balanced plan, I might say it was.
It was drafted by myself in toplaw enforcement officials across the country, one
mainly being um Joel Fitzgerald, whowas a cousin of mine. Um he
(14:15):
just lost his son, my littlecousin, Sergeant christohits Gerald on Temple campus.
He was a Temple police officer.So you know, we we came
together to draft a very fair andbalanced plan. So now here you have
a black legislator and you have ablack farmer police chief, and he was
a farmer police chief in Texas andFort Worth, Texas and he's still in
(14:37):
law enforcement and he came up throughthe Philadelphia Police Department. So he knows
the streets and he knows the needof law enforcement in our communities just as
well as I do. So ourplan includes reboosting them around the police department.
That's one we have to show theofficers that the mayor's administration is going
(15:01):
to be supportive of you and workwith you, not against you. But
at the same time hold the badactors accountable in the police department and make
sure that we reform the police apartmentbecause we know we need that as well.
So boosting them around the police department, addressing these open bench warrants for
(15:24):
the repeat violent offenders that are onour streets hiding behind ski mask and so
to that point, we're going tobe making ski masks illegal and we're going
to be aggressively making sure that folksdon't wear them because the ski mask component
law abiding citizens, innocent women andchildren, and myself and my children.
(15:46):
We should not feel as though oncewe see a group of individuals with ski
mask going, we automatically feel aslike we're the next victim and we're going
to end up on the news tonight. That is not how we should be,
that's not how we should be living. So doing away with the ski
mask is going to make the communityfeel better. It's going to automatically take
(16:10):
away that fear of feeling like you'reabout to be victimized. We're also going
to create something called Neighborhood Police Officersto bridge the gap between cops and community.
And this one hundred and sixty onehundred and eighty officers, they're going
to be charged with serving that community. UM. And we're going to start
(16:30):
with the high violent crime areas,and these these officers will be charged with
when we get a call, anon violent call, those officers will be
able to walk to that to thatscene, or to that house. UM.
These officers will also be walking upand down the streets. So if
miss miss Jones is trying to gether shopping cart up the steps, you
(16:52):
have somebody there to serve you.Because we have to we have to make
police put least back into this positivelight like they used to be when I
was young growing up, we hada relationship with the police in our community.
But over the years that has thathas lost that UM. So we're
(17:14):
going to be taking a very fairof a balance approach and and we're going
to have to make some tough decisionswhich is going to make us be tough
on crime, because the reality iscrime is being tough on us, and
so we have to address it.Appropriately. The opioid epidemic has spread throughout
the city, but certainly in Kensington. What would you do to address the
(17:37):
opioid epidemic. Yes, we're goingto have to first and foremost, that
whole situation down there is just it'sjust unbelievable. My team and I we
go down once a week just tobe in that environment and actually see what's
going on so we can come upwith a real tangible solution. And the
open air drug market is a majorproblem. So we have to remove those
(18:02):
guys off the street. A lotof those individuals who are contaminating that community
not even from there, right they'renot even from our city, but they
know that this is a lawless community, well lawless city right now. There's
no one being held accountable because wehave a DA who is letting a lot
of things slide. And then wehave we have those community folks who feel
(18:26):
like the city city government don't careabout them because we ignore too much of
the violence and the drug trafficking goingon down there. So we are going
to partner with each and every lawenforcement agency, city, federal state to
go heavy handily on that community toremove those individuals and then for the folks
(18:48):
who need treatment. We're going topartner with the professionals in that space to
make sure our plan is tight andthat we're actually serving people and getting them
the treatment that they need and thatand that is going to entail giving them
two options. You're either going toinvoluntarily go get this treatment that the federal,
state and the city government that we'refunding right now, or you're going
(19:10):
to involuntarily go. But the resultis you're going to go get this treatment.
Because I've been in the space wherein my personal family where we've witnessed
individuals in my family, if wedidn't force them to go, they would
have never went right. And ifit worked in my family, it would
(19:33):
definitely work in other families. Sowe're going to remove the violent criminals all
the street in the drug dealers,and make sure we get people in treatment
and off the streets so we canshow that community that we do care about
you and that you do matter.How do we manage development and rapidly gentrifying
neighborhoods without displacing long time residents andbusinesses, providing affordable housing, and also
(19:59):
at the same time encourage economic developmentand population density. Yes, so thank
you for that question. We rarelyget asked that question because the topic has
been public safety. Public safety,but we this affordable housing, gentrification,
all of that stuff goes hand tohand with solving this crime problem. The
(20:21):
City of Philadelphia owns the most vacantlots in our town right now, and
our plan includes working directly with PHA. PHA currently at the moment, they're
operating off of a four hundred milliondollar budget, which ninety three percent of
that budget comes from the federal government, six percent of that budget comes from
rents from the tenants, and onepercent comes from City of Philadelphia grants.
(20:45):
So our plan, we're going tomake sure we're giving a line item each
and every year in the budget toPHA so they can afford to build.
Because of that four hundred million,seventy five to eighty percent of that goes
toward maintenance, up heat, andstaff, so there's no way that they
can take that little bit of extramoney to create more units. So it's
(21:07):
going to be our job as thecity to make sure we're funding PHA enough
so they can build on the cityowned vacant land. But we're not just
trying to create renters. We're goingto make sure that there's a system in
place where we're creating homeownership after acertain amount of time, so we can
so we can help families create generationalwealth by ownership and the amount of parcels
(21:33):
on each block, especially in WestPhilly, North Philly, Southwest Philadelphia.
Once we start filling in those voids, then that a level to plan filled
with this gentrification piece. Because Ido understand private business owners and developers,
they have rights to Philadelphia is thepoorest large city. What would you do
to move the needle on poverty?Job create quality, job creation in home
(21:59):
ownership. You know, I'm probusiness and I'm pro my people, and
I'm pro people period. So theway I the way I was raised,
no one in my household had ajob right, So it was struggle after
struggle. Asking for a five dollarsfrom this neighbor, asked for for ten
(22:22):
dollars from this neighbor. So Iunderstand poverty and the conditions of my home.
We were horrible. You know,we prayed that it didn't rain because
of the leaks in the roof theheating system. We had an oil heating
system. Mother couldn't afford oil.Several times throughout the winter. But I
(22:45):
will say this, my mother,she did everything she could to make sure
she took care of her seven kidsby any means necessary. So I know
firsthand what it's like to experience poverty, and I would and change not one
thing that I experienced in my lifebecause those lived experiences give me a seat
(23:07):
at the table to solve the problem. So the things that my mother needed
and other families in our neighborhood theyneeded access to quality jobs. We need.
We need to remove the red tapethat qualifies people to start small businesses
because maybe if we helped folks whowant to be entrepreneurs an individual and want
(23:27):
to be small business owners, maybeI wouldn't ended up in the situation that
I was in, with the issuesthat I faced, but from those experiences
that made me better and stronger.So when we talk about poverty and job
creation and being an entrepreneur and owninga small business, I took all of
(23:48):
the hits for the families of Philadelphia. So moving forward, once I become
mayor, I know what needs tobe fixed so no other family or no
other individual have to go through whatI went through. I took the hitch
for you, Philadelphia, and that'swhat that's what we're going to do to
fix this poverty problem. My finalquestion is what would you plan to accomplish
(24:11):
in your first ninety days? Oh? Wow, making the city safe.
You know, you have a lotof candidates that say, oh, I'm
going to reduce crime in fifty percentin my first year, but they have
a history of being anti law enforcement. Right, you can't solve this problem
without having a relationship with law enforcement. Law enforcement have to trust you because
(24:33):
if you if they do not,then you see what's going on. Now,
you know, cops can't show upthe crime scenes. I got constituents
and residents that call nine one one, then I answering the phone because the
shortages. So we need someone inthe mayor's office that the officers are going
to trust. You know, alot of candidates are calling, I'm going
(24:56):
to hire five hundred cops, threehundred cops, fifty one hundred cops.
Now you're not. You're not becausethey don't trust you because you failed them
in the past. And so inthe first ninety days, we're going to
make sure we change some of thepeople at the top to boost the morale.
We're going to make sure that weare making getting rid of the bad
(25:21):
apples. You have to do that. There's there's there's a handful of folks
that that shouldn't be around that areand the good cops that I do business
with and that I have relationships with, they know which cops need to be
removed from the department. Good copssomething like bad cops. And there's bad
apples in every bunch. So we'regoing to fix the fix the police department,
(25:42):
boost the morale. Uh, Andwe're gonna make these streets safe.
And I'm gonna be right there nextto them. And we're going to evaluate
each and every school within the firstone ninety to one hundred days to see
which schools need to be knocked downor rebuilt or fully renovated or relocate it
(26:03):
because the conditions of our schools arehorrible and we can't expect our children to
learn in these conditions. Trust me, I was there the school that I
grew up in. It was itwasn't, it wasn't what it should have
been, but it was better thanmy home. So my family and I
we depended on school for guaranteed meals, shelter, and heat. So me
(26:30):
knowing that this is what families experience. We have to make sure these schools
are in tip top shape and they'recurrently not like that. And lastly,
we're going to evaluate each and everydepartment to find waste in these departments,
see what's been working and what's notbeen working, and re allocate those funds
to creative twenty first century everything.For example, we're going to open an
(26:55):
office of Firearms Surrender and pay individualscompetitive prices for their firearms with no repercussions.
Because you had folks who are outhere saying, oh, I have
a gun buyback program. I wantto give you a twenty five or fifty
dollars gift card to a grocery storewhen the street price and the street value
(27:18):
of these illegal firearms are eight hundredto eleven hundred dollars each. So if
we really want to solve this crimeproblem, we have to know what's going
on in these streets, and wehave to be willing to be competitive in
this space so we can really addressthe issues at hand. If people would
like to know more about the campaignof Amen Brown, where do they go?
(27:41):
Yes, I'm in for Philly dotCom. It's a M E N
F O R PHI y dot comand the social media handles are the same.
All right, Amen Brown, who'srunning for the Democratic nomination for a
mayor of the City of Philadelphia.Thank you so much, Oh thank you.
You can listen to all of today'sinterviews by going to our station website
(28:02):
and typing in keyword Community. Youcan also listen on the iHeartRadio app keyword
Lorraine with one R. Follow meon Twitter and Instagram at Lorraine Ballard.
I'm Lorraine Ballard Morrow, and Istand for service to our community and media
that empowers. What will you standfor? You've been listening to Insight and thank you
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