The Nation

Crime fighters

Written by Allie Cook
October 18, 2007

19 Comments

Orlando is fighting crime with prayer. Last Wednesday, police chaplain Andrew Wade launched Operation Armor All – 40 days of prayer for a drop in crime. Over a hundred people attended, including the mayor, the chief of police, two city commissioners, a circuit judge and members from 37 local churches.

“There is a fight in the supernatural that is affecting us here in the physical world,” Wade told WoW.“Let’s ask God to change the hearts and minds of men.”  

The event began in the Parramore neighborhood, one of the city’s 25 crime “hot spots” and the first African-American neighborhood. “It’s a neighborhood that has bred crime,” Wade said. They chose Parramore Heritage Park to gather each night because it’s “a new landmark, and it represents new life and change.”

Wade hopes to host 25 events total, one in each of the city’s crime hot spots. He started a similar event in the Carver Court area four years ago and saw results: “One church went for a whole year. (Now) they tore down the projects, and drug trafficking is almost all dried up.”

While that event included evangelism, Operation Armor All focuses entirely on intercessory prayer and worship. Churches across denominational lines are participating.

Some people oppose the efforts because they believe the police department is wasting resources. One woman called to say they should be in Washington working on changing laws instead of praying.

Wade, however, is unfazed: “Everything’s going to have opposition, but that’s not our concern and not our focus. . . Tragedy is not ordained by God but permitted by him to call us to the place where we first knew him — and that is on our knees.”

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19 Comments to “Crime fighters”

1. by Bob Buckles 10.18.07 at 3:01 pm

Amen!
2. by Stephen 10.18.07 at 3:04 pm

So churches need the police department to tell them to get together and pray?
3. by Random Name 10.18.07 at 3:30 pm

“There is a fight in the supernatural that is affecting us here in the physical world,” Wade told WoW.

Calling “Ghostbusters.” Or maybe the Exorcist.
4. by A 10.18.07 at 4:41 pm

If “Tragedy is not ordained by God”, then it is out of his control. Praying to God is useless if He does not have the power to give and to take away.

While praying to God and pleading with Him to remove lawlessness from our land is absolutely necessary, we must recognize that God is not a bystander cringing at crime, but LORD over everyone, including criminals. He is the LORD who is sovereign to change men’s wicked hearts from lawbreakers to righteous men.
5. by Random Name 10.18.07 at 5:01 pm

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.
6. by trr 10.18.07 at 5:10 pm

There goes Random, making odd-numbered posts.
7. by Allie Cook 10.18.07 at 7:55 pm

A, I believe that was what Wade meant. If he didn’t believe God was Lord over criminals, I don’t think he’d be praying for change like they are because change comes when people are transformed. This was my understanding based on my conversation with him.
8. by Night Train 10.18.07 at 10:41 pm

Prayer to reduce violent crime? Yeah, that should do the trick.

How silly.

How pathetic.
9. by rdean 10.18.07 at 11:20 pm

It worked against the Nazis and the Japanese. That and lot’s of guns.
10. by Random Name 10.18.07 at 11:49 pm

Even even even even.

Though not prime.
11. by EYG 10.19.07 at 12:22 am

A hearty Amen.
I live right near Orlando and had no idea about this prayer effort.
I believe it will work; God can do anything.
I believe we’ll see a difference. Very encouraging.
12. by scott 10.19.07 at 1:12 am

Maybe someone will counter with a prayer for MORE crime…what will god do then? OUCH. What will you think of prayer if it doesn’t work and crime actually stays the same or goes up.
13. by trr 10.19.07 at 4:28 pm

#10
of course not prime. two is the only even prime.
14. by Night Train 10.20.07 at 12:11 am

I believe it will work;

Well, if it doesn’t, they can always try speaking in tongues.

God can do anything.

Yes, he can. He created the world. But he’s not going to do what we should be doing for ourselves. If your 14 year old son didn’t like tying his shoes because bending over was too hard, and he started loudly and incessantly begging you to tie them for him, would you do it?

I believe we’ll see a difference.

I believe we won’t. Care to check back in 6-12 months and see who’s right?

Very encouraging.

Not really. Just dumb. And pathetic.
15. by Night Train 10.20.07 at 12:57 am

A few years back, some sentimental evangelical dogooder in Philly fasted for 40 days to fight violent crime. You can read about how well that worked in the article below from CNN. Long story short, it didn’t work, and violent crime in Philly is worse than ever. I can think of no reason to expect Orlando’s equally silly prayer campaign to have any better results.

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) — On the streets of Philadelphia’s toughest neighborhoods, just trying to get ahead can get you killed.

“You got a good-looking girlfriend, you’re going to get shot; someone wants her,” said 17-year-old Andre, who asked his last name not be used for this article.

“If you’re getting a little money, you’re going to get shot — someone wants that. Any way you look at it, it’s just a bad situation.”

Andre is caught up in the tough life on the streets of Philadelphia’s Southside neighborhood. At 13, he watched his brother get shot and killed in front of his home by another teenager. By 15, he was wanted for two counts of armed robbery and theft.

“It makes you feel stronger, powerful, a bigger man,” he said of having a gun. “You even walk differently when you have a gun on you.”

He and others like him are the new face of violence in Philadelphia — a younger, harder generation that lives and dies by the gun. Though it’s spread throughout the city, the problem of youth violence is most acute in the southern, southwestern and northern parts.

Over the past couple of years, Philadelphia’s murder rate reached highs not seen since the 1980s, according to the Philadelphia Police Department. So far this year, more than 315 people have been killed, a pace of well over a murder a day, police said. That’s a higher rate, according to FBI statistics, than much larger cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York.

But Philadelphia’s situation is different today from years past in that more and more of the killers are teenagers, according to the Philadelphia Police Department and the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office.

“They just shoot at anything and everybody, without even looking,” said Shawn Banks, a former drug dealer and gang member. Now in his 30s, he said the new generation that rules the streets is made up of kids who shoot first and never consider the consequences.

“They [are] not respecting themselves and they don’t have any value for human life,” he said.

Nineteen percent of those held at Philadelphia’s overcrowded juvenile detention center, The Youth Study Center, are guilty of committing violent crimes. This is in addition to those juveniles serving time at a nearby adult facility for more serious violent crimes like murder. Nearly one in four juveniles at the center become repeat offenders.

Staff members at the youth facility said whenever a teenager makes headlines, chances are it’s someone they know.

Helping kids at the center can be difficult, according to some.

“Maybe they’re here for 9 -12 months, but if they spent 13 years in an environment that maybe isn’t good and has a bad influence on them, you’re going to lean on those 13 years,” said counselor Nelson Walker.

But the office of Philadelphia Mayor John Street said the city works hard to reach high-risk kids.

“We are not going to deny that we have a problem here,” said Joe Grace, spokesman for the mayor’s office. “And we work aggressively to work with young kids who we consider high risk.”

Grace touts the Philadelphia anti-violence, anti-drug program, which targets kids who have been through the justice system and are on probation. The city tries to help them avoid becoming repeat offenders.

As a caseworker meeting on a daily basis with juvenile offenders, Shondell Revell knows what the streets can do to a young person.

“These kids are hard, because their neighborhoods are hard,” he said. “They don’t see the other side of life.”

Reaching out to younger siblings of juvenile criminals is particularly important to stopping the cycle of violence, said Revell.

But Andre says the pull of violent street life is strong and that offenders often end up going back to the life they knew in order to survive.

“Shooting, stabbing, killing, whatever it is — whatever you gotta do to survive,” he said.

“Anything goes — anything.”

http://tinyurl.com/39u7n9
16. by Night Train 10.20.07 at 1:02 am

Nashville, Music City USA, may have to change its name to Murder City USA, judging from this article in The Tennessean, which says violent crime is out of control. Maybe they should try hiring some Southern Gospel quartets to put on free concerts in the most violent areas.

http://tinyurl.com/229ngt
17. by Random Name 10.21.07 at 11:34 am

#14

One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do
Two can be as bad as one, its the loneliest number since the number one

Maybe that’s why there is a trinity.
18. by Night Train 10.22.07 at 10:49 am

A few months back, the police chief of Philadelphia asked for 10,000 black men to come forward to patrol the streets to reduce murder and other crimes. Saturday, thousands of black men showed up to volunteer and sign up for training. If these men stick with it, this could have a significant impact on crime in Philadelphia. It sure beats praying as a weapon in the war on crime.