Peace Conference In Downtown OKC Brings Solutions To Ending Gun Violence

City leaders are taking the first steps to bring peace to high-crime metro communities. They are calling for an end to gun violence and learning from what other cities have accomplished through grassroots efforts.

The goal of the three-day “Peace Needs OKC” conference is violence intervention. Community leaders are learning from experts on how to make the city safer and bring peace.

Conference attendees at the Fordson Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City are seeking solutions to the public health crisis of gun violence.

“The ideas being shared here are all geared toward building peace,” said Wayland Cubit, Oklahoma City Public School District director of safety.

The conference has drawn local leaders in law enforcement, education, and criminal justice.

“I know other metropolitans are using violence interruption programs,” said Vicki Behenna, Oklahoma County district attorney. “If it works there, I don’t know why it wouldn’t work here.”

One of those cities is Oakland, California.

“After meeting with mayors and police chiefs, probation officers, and community members, we were able to scale up strategies in Oakland that, over a five-year period, produced a 50-percent reduction in gun-related shootings and homicides,” said Michael McBride of Live Free USA.

Michael McBride helped form Live Free USA, a program that recently took root in Oklahoma City called Live Free OKC. Those on the front line are called Peacekeepers. They have direct ties to citizens in high-crime communities and intervene during violent outbreaks.

“We go in and try to work with the families and help them heal and get to a better place,” said Ryan Mukes, a Live Free OKC Peacekeeper. “Not only the people committing the crimes, so they don’t have to go back to committing the crimes, but the families don’t have to continue in these vicious cycles they have been in most of their lives.”

The conference also addressed the high rate of truancy in the Oklahoma City Public School District. District leaders said chronic absenteeism can lead to run-ins with police and the court system.

Celebrities are lending their star power to the Peace Conference. Chuck D of Public Enemy is in Oklahoma City as Friday night’s keynote speaker.

The conference continues through Saturday.