2022
June
06
Monday

Monitor Daily Podcast

June 06, 2022
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Joaquin Ciria spent 32 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. Every night, during his first few years behind bars, he closed his eyes and cried. He told himself that when he opened them again, it would all be a dream, and he would be home with his young son.

Mr. Ciria’s nightmare ended on April 20, when he was released. His was the first case reviewed by the Innocence Commission, an independent panel of experts set up by San Francisco’s district attorney to correct wrongful convictions. That district attorney, Chesa Boudin, faces an unprecedented recall election on Tuesday for being too soft on crime.

I recently met Mr. Ciria in a park near his son’s home. We sat under a tree where I listened to the story of this polite and generous man. He was born in Cuba and came to America as a teenager during the Mariel Boatlift, when Jimmy Carter was president. He was arrested in San Francisco for the murder of a friend, based on a rumor started by the real killer. Under police pressure, a witness perjured himself.

It’s very easy to lose your mind in prison, Mr. Ciria told me. It happens when you give up hope. But he decided to try to save himself. He began visiting the law library. He also took every program the prison offered, from meditation classes to Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous. He didn’t have any addictions, but he wanted to help people who did.

He also told me about his spiritual journey – from utter rejection of God to complete surrender. After that, he said, things began to turn around. The mother of the man in the neighboring cell became his second momma. She introduced him to his wife. His neighbor’s lawyer, Ellen Eggers, became his lawyer. She dug into his case and, together with the Northern California Innocence Project, brought it to the commission. A judge vacated his conviction in April.

Now Mr. Ciria wants to help free other innocent people. He wants to hear their stories, because when somebody listens to you, he says, it’s a miracle.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Elaine Thompson/AP/File
A semi-automatic rifle, with "God Bless America" imprinted on it, is displayed for sale on the wall of a gun shop in Lynnwood, Washington, Oct. 2, 2018. In an NRA magazine, phrases like “God-given” and “God bless” have been used more frequently in the past 20 years.

Gun rights supporters see a righteous cause in defending liberty through the object of a firearm. Gun control advocates see an “idolatry of the gun” that elevates a weapon over human life. Both frame the debate in almost religious terms.

A recall vote facing San Francisco’s district attorney may indicate an underlying doubt that criminal justice reforms across the country can handle the challenges posed by rising crime rates.

A deeper look

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
“In my heart I want to believe that nobody is ever going to have to go through what I went through, that one day it’s just all going to stop,” says Eugenia Charles-Newton, a member of the Navajo Nation Council who says she was abducted as a teenager.

On Native lands, a crisis in unresolved cases of missing and murdered Native women has long remained in the shadows. Now, advocates see the potential for progress in raising their voices and working together. 

Luke Franke/Courtesy of Audubon
Randall Poster, an influential Hollywood music supervisor, found solace in the sounds of nature during the worst of the pandemic. Colleague Rebecca Reagan then encouraged him to invite notable musicians to create music built around birdsong. The result is “For the Birds: The Birdsong Project.”

There’s often inspiration right in front of us, if we’re willing to look for it. A new music project aims to help people appreciate birds and birdsong – and the environment that makes their gift possible.


The Monitor's View

AP
Rev. Glenn Grayson, above center, and city outreach workers in Pittsburgh pray at a June 4 march for peace as they remember those lost to gun violence.

Mass shootings that capture the national spotlight, like the recent events in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, tend to focus public attention on Washington – specifically the stuck debate over gun control in Congress. That often reinforces frustration that from one tragedy to another nothing changes.

That can obscure attention from the growth of solutions in cities that have cut gun homicides by as much as 60% in some urban neighborhoods, according to the San Francisco-based Giffords Law Center To Prevent Gun Violence. Those programs, called community violence intervention initiatives, seek local solutions to gun violence. They are built on qualities of compassion, forgiveness, and redemption that help bind a community and suppress violent behavior.

One measure of the credibility of these approaches is how philanthropies are taking note. In 1996 Congress banned the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from studying gun violence as a public health issue. That entrenched a narrow definition of gun violence as a criminal justice issue and deprived private foundations of a critical source of data for developing and promoting other solutions to the problem. The block was repealed in 2018. Since then philanthropies have begun to boost funding to fill the research gap on the broader social and economic causes and costs of gun violence.

“The good news is that philanthropy’s approach to gun violence is evolving,” the news site Inside Philanthropy noted recently. “There has been an uptick in activity as the funding ecosystem shifts from a punitive mindset to a prevention and public health mindset.”

Local officials have been waiting for the shift. In recent years cities have created various models of violence intervention. Those programs unite community stakeholders – religious groups and hospitals, social workers and educators, police and in some cases gang leaders – to identify threats and stop violence before it happens.

These violence intervention programs have shown impressive potential. According to a June 3 survey by the Center for American Progress, they have reduced gun shootings and homicides in Oakland, California, by 50% over the past seven years in areas where they were tried. Chicago saw a 50% decrease in gunshot injuries over an 18-month period starting in 2019 during a program involving 234 men from two neighborhoods; among the participants, 85% reported a personal or family tie to gangs. Shootings and killings dropped by 30% in Baltimore and New York City neighborhoods where respected community figures served as “violence interrupters.”

But these programs represent just a beginning. Cities require funding and research to broaden their reach and share what works. Last year the Biden administration sought to enlist mayors from 16 cities together with law enforcement officials and philanthropic leaders to increase investment in community violence intervention programs. The American Rescue Plan Act, passed by Congress last year, included $350 billion for local initiatives, including $122 billion for violence intervention in schools.

A range of new private funding initiatives for research on gun violence as a public health issue, meanwhile, shows that philanthropy is attempting to align with shifting public policy approaches. But there’s a hurdle. Foundations often have their own approaches and priorities, but community-based violence prevention models depend on local currencies of trust and credibility. That presents a cultural challenge.

“By combining the power of policy change and community action, we can end gun violence. The answers exist,” wrote David Brotherton, the Kendeda Fund’s adviser for gun violence prevention, in The Chronicle of Philanthropy. But “what if the most important step a foundation can take is a humble one – a willingness to learn from others and invest in copying or expanding solutions that have already proven effective?”

As the United States seeks a new balance between gun rights and public safety, violence prevention programs are showing the creative urgency of democracy to find local solutions through civic renewal. That starts with a recognition that the most important resources are already within the most vulnerable communities – which have lessons to share.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

Each weekday, the Monitor includes one clearly labeled religious article offering spiritual insight on contemporary issues, including the news. The publication – in its various forms – is produced for anyone who cares about the progress of the human endeavor around the world and seeks news reported with compassion, intelligence, and an essentially constructive lens. For many, that caring has religious roots. For many, it does not. The Monitor has always embraced both audiences. The Monitor is owned by a church – The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston – whose founder was concerned with both the state of the world and the quality of available news.

As we come to recognize that we are all children of God, who is infinitely good, we more naturally avoid making troublesome mistakes in our interactions with others, and love, goodwill, and patient understanding increasingly become the norm.


A message of love

Jeremias Gonzalez/AP
World War II veteran Charles Shay, 97, pays tribute to soldiers during a D-Day commemoration ceremony for the 78th anniversary of those who helped end World War II, in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, June 6, 2022.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thanks for starting your week with us! Tomorrow, keep an eye out for Christa Case Bryant’s profile of U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. 

More issues

2022
June
06
Monday

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