Dealing With D.C.'s 'Wolf Packs'

In Washington and across the nation, police are reporting an upsurge in "pack robberies" by juveniles who seek out victims on the street. Not only do they rob them, looking for cellphones, iPods or cash, but they also often beat them and sometimes leave them severely injured. As D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said in an Oct. 13 news story: "There's no need to beat people in those circumstances, but that's what they do. Just senseless."

This rash of youth attacks is reminiscent of the "wolf pack" attacks that plagued my home town of Philadelphia in 1983. Small groups of young men would attack moviegoers and shoppers on the streets and even on buses and subways. Theaters and shopping centers began closing early, and restaurants' business fell off as these young marauders terrorized the city and made people afraid to venture out.

Additional police patrols and curfews did not solve the problem. But what did bring about an end to the wolf packs was a most unorthodox approach.

At the time I was studying and acting as an adviser to a grass-roots organization called the House of Umoja, led by a mother named Falaka Fattah and her husband, David. In the 1970s, the Fattahs already had brought peace among Philadelphia gangs, starting with one gang and eventually reaching the whole city with a gang truce.

When the wolf pack attacks started, we had the idea to form a unique "crime prevention task force" by enlisting the help of 135 inmates at the county jail; the inmates gave the House of Umoja the names of 150 young people from various corners of the city and said they should be brought to them. We arranged to bring the youths by bus the following Saturday, and the inmates told the young guys that their behavior had to stop. And it did -- all because the Fattahs and others in the House of Umoja had the influence to use the community to heal itself.

Unfortunately, while the House of Umoja received high praise and honors from the city for stopping the attacks, the city and traditional social service agencies turned away and did not provide support so that Umoja could implement further preventive strategies.

Grass-roots organizations such as the House of Umoja exist all over the country. They have the trust and confidence of people in the most troubled neighborhoods, and they can exert the levers of influence to reach and stop predatory youth. But because their methods, like Umoja's, lie outside the traditional police or social service approach, they do not receive the resources they need to put a stop to much of this destructive behavior. These organizations truly are the community's natural antibodies, and collectively they can act as an immune system that begins to cure the body -- the community -- of the disease of violence.

We cannot incarcerate our way out of this growing problem, and we will see more and more "wolf pack" attacks and other violence until we reach these young people in a different, more creative and effective way.

-- Robert L. Woodson Sr.

Silver Spring

The writer is founder and president of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise.