'Fearless Peacemakers' trying to stop Boston's next shooting before it happens
DORCHESTER – They march the streets chanting, "Black families: We love you, stand up." About a dozen Black men, wear bright orange hoodies, the color of construction, to signal a work in progress.
They call themselves the "10,000 Fearless Peacemakers" of Boston, and they have marched the streets of Dorchester every single Tuesday night since the 2019 murder of grandmother Eleanor Maloney in Mattapan.
The men start their journey at Muhammad's Mosque in Dorchester at 7 p.m. every Tuesday, and walk the streets together for an "Hour of Power," reaching out to men and women of all ages they encounter in the street to offer "neutral conflict resolution."
"We want to try and intervene and prevent some of the violence that's going on. We want to catch up before it starts up," said Minister Randy Muhammad, who leads the pack. "If you know that there is a situation that's brewing, we offer ourselves up as a neutral third-party that can come between two beefing crews and hopefully resolve the conflict before it escalates."
Muhammad said the group's goal is to stop violence before it happens, not to be reactionary.
"Conflict is a natural part of life, but every conflict doesn't have to end with somebody being stabbed, shot, or murdered. So we want to teach some of our young people and some of our older people how to resolve conflict peacefully," he said.
The Peacemaker's walk on Tuesday was timely, following the murder of a 14-year-old boy in Roxbury the day before and a shooting outside Boston's Jeremiah Burke School the week before.
"We are trying to change the culture, and let's do some work, not wait until the tragedy happens," Muhammad said. "We want to encourage people not to just respond when these type of incidents happen, but we have to be consistent going out there and helping to change the culture."