Reverend Kenneth Simon of New Bethel Baptist Church is hoping to bring peace to the streets of Youngstown, one step at a time.
“A lot of people want to call these young people thugs and gangbangers. They're just misguided young people,” Simon said. “And we try to bring a different message.”
Simon spoke with 21 News at the first “Stop the Violence” march and prayer walk of the year, which took place Sunday afternoon in Youngstown’s south side. This is the fifth year the United Pastors, Clergy and Community Leaders of Greater Youngstown Against the Violence has organized the marches.
FBI data shows violent crime rates in Youngstown have decreased since their pandemic-era highs, following trends seen in the rest of the country. However, per-capita rates of violent crime — which includes homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault — in 2023 remained notably higher in the city than in Ohio and the U.S.
Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown attended the march and addressed the crowd afterwards. Brown said he shared the prayer walks with other Democratic mayors at a summit in Cleveland last week.
“I started talking about Youngstown, how we’ve been invested in housing, we’ve been invested in our parks, invested in jobs, but what I had to tell them that they don't have on Sunday, in other places, we're investing in our people in the neighborhood,” Brown said. “They all started thinking it's something they should be doing.”
Brown recently unveiled a new safety plan for the city’s downtown, targeting unruly crowds and underage drinking at certain bars. The announcement came after he held a press conference reminding parents about the city’s curfew policy earlier this month.
Simon applauded the mayor’s antiviolence efforts.
“Young people, you know, they need guidance, and sometimes they just need people to patrol and watch their activity because they get out of hand, and then they don't know how to tone that down,” he said.
Sunday’s event started at the corner of Lucius Avenue and Southern Boulevard and traveled north on Market Street before looping back around. According to Simon, city police helped the group plan the walking route.
“The police department, the chief of police, indicates where the violence is taking place the most in the city, and so we try to organize our marches around those areas,” Simon said.
“As we walk through the neighborhoods, we'll see the neighbors coming out on the porches and waving and thanking us for our presence, because they don't want their children to be playing outside and be shot by a drive-by shooting,” he added.