Today, we should be celebrating Tom's 26th birthday. Instead, we honor his sacrifice, and we commit ourselves to doing everything we can to help save other lives from being taken far too soon by the violence that plagues our city. When Tom was born in 1996, he was the second baby to ring in the New Year in the District of Columbia. When he was killed, he was the 135th person murdered in 2018 - a year that would end with 160 homicides, a dramatic increase from 2017’s count of 116. Yesterday, DC ended 2021 with nearly 230 precious lives taken by violence - almost double the number killed four years ago in 2017.
The District is in crisis. A humanitarian crisis that can be solved, but isn't getting the attention or focus that's necessary for the scale of the problem. The Mayor, and even some Councilmembers, say that they’re "throwing" everything they can at the problem But we’re not doing everything we can - as a city or as a civil society. There are critical missing pieces in our city’s attempts to address community violence. And what the DC government is doing is almost as unfocused as it was in 2018. They’ve gone wider, with more programs and locations for violence interruption, but they haven't taken the necessary steps to go deeper into addressing the crisis. We have programs that exist not just in silos but on their own islands: separated by departments, agency divisions, and clouded by ego and political ambition. We have political infighting, finger-pointing, and an unwillingness to take responsibility and work as one with everyone at the same table.
Meanwhile, people are dying almost every day. And while Covid has not helped the situation in any city, don’t believe the politicians when they try to blame the increases in shootings and homicides on the pandemic. DC’s numbers were increasing well before the shutdowns and isolation. Our city’s approach to public health and public safety around community violence is poorly coordinated, reactive, and often improvised. By clinging to a broken system, we’re failing our children, mothers, brothers, sons, and daughters.
Since the day he was born, Tom Marmet believed in questioning everything in search of the truth. He believed in fighting for social and racial justice, putting power in the hands of the people, and tearing down old systems in order to enable the forces of change. As we continue to try to carry on Tom's loving and caring spirit and address the dire needs of the most marginalized in our city, building new systems of community empowerment and safety is the core focus of Peace For DC. And everything we do attempts to match up with Tom's vision for a more equitable society. Saving lives from violence will only happen when we stop treating communities and community partners in a transactional way. We will only make progress when we focus as much on developing people as we do on developing neighborhoods. Since it’s an election year in DC, we’ll hear lots of promises about doing more to address community violence. But the people most impacted by violence are done with promises. And we want action. Focused, specific action and a new system that places resources and solutions in the hands of the people.
So while Peace For DC is squarely focused on reducing violence, it's also about rebuilding the systems that we've come to rely upon - with horrible results - for our public health and safety. And at its core it's about three pillars: Transformation of individuals and communities most at risk of gun violence, Treating Trauma in every form, and Training individuals and communities to be able to be their best and create their own systems of safety. Communities most impacted by gun violence don't want to be delivered public safety by the heavy hand of government. They want to co-create public safety and be treated as true partners in keeping their neighborhoods safe. This can be done, and it has been done before in DC and more recently through comprehensive plans in other cities. DC is extremely fortunate to have dozens of grassroots organizations that can do the work necessary to reduce violence: they just need the resources to get the job done. So as we enter 2022, we will keep pushing our elected and appointed officials to sharpen our government’s strategy and to ultimately center more of this vital work outside of government, in order to rebuild neighborhoods that have been overlooked and mistreated for decades.
Separately, many of you have asked about the status of the criminal case involving Tom's killer. This Washington Post article sums up the situation fairly well, but there are several elements that the article doesn't describe. In brief, our faith in the justice system is broken. And the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which prosecutes homicides in DC, has failed Tom, our family, and every victim of homicide in the Nation’s Capital with their handling of this case. We’re hoping this isn’t how every homicide is treated, but with a massive backlog of cases from the court closures related to Covid, even though the prosecutors pledged not to offer up this plea agreement for Voluntary Homicide and said they would go to trial, it appears that in this and other cases, they are offering deals that they never would have made before. There’s much more to talk about, but in our experience, victims have no rights, and what rights they do have aren’t even shared with them by everyone involved in the justice system. People are hurting, and prosecutors should be there to stand up for every victim, every day. We need to fix the “system” or find a new system to serve justice and value and protect the life of every person. To do otherwise is to continue to pile on trauma and pain and perpetuate a system of injustice. As it now stands, sentencing in the case will take place on April 1, 2022. As part of the process, statements are allowed by anyone personally impacted by Tom's killing. If you'd like to take part in submitting a written victim impact statement, please let me know and I can provide details on how to send these to the Judge.
Tom’s life was a gift to all of us. He would have changed the world - or spent every day trying. We will always be grateful for the 22 years we had with him and for his enduring lessons of humility and care and dedication to the true value and potential of every person. He loved each of you who knew him. He loved DC and he had a deep respect for every person in every corner of the city. Keep telling his story, and keep embracing one another through your pain. We’re so grateful to each of you who have shared your love with us, given of time and resources along the way to Everytown, Moms Demand Action, So Others Might Eat, and now Peace For DC. Our goal is to carry on in Tom’s loving spirit. Thank you for helping us all along the way. If you want to make sure you get every email from Peace For DC, click the link below and make sure to opt-in to that list. We know we can make a difference. We know we can help treat trauma, transform lives, and help communities get the training and resources they need to transform their own neighborhoods and their own lives - in order to save lives. And this will always stand as Tom’s legacy and his mark on a world in which he can no longer walk among us. One final thought, about the systems, politicians, and prosecutors who aren’t doing everything they can to serve the weakest and most disenfranchised among us. Slogans and finger-pointing don’t help anyone. Fighting for change, admitting that the system is broken, is the honest and necessary road to travel. Some of these feelings are summed up better than I ever could in the words of Art Neville, and performed by the Neville Brothers in their song, "Sons and Daughters". On many days it helps to keep me going. It helps keep the fire, and Tom’s spirit, burning inside.
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