After back-to-back shootings at two metro Detroit malls left three young men dead earlier this month, community violence intervention leaders say the tragedies are the predictable result of a generation carrying guns, trauma and almost no tools for resolving conflict.
“Conflict resolution skills is absolutely nonexistent. Mental health issues is real. … A lot of these kids have gone through the bowels of hell,” said Kaino Phillips, a CVI leader in Pontiac who mediates disputes before they result in bloodshed. Violence interrupters like himself serve as mentors to at-risk youths.
And while he knows firsthand the impact trauma has on youths, as well as what he describes as the glorification of violence in the music and entertainment they consume, he still asks himself: “How are we even at this point?”…