Statement on the passing of local hero Dante Barksdale

Mr. Dante Barksdale was a hero to so many.  After being in the streets of Baltimore and incarcerated, Mr. Barksdale helped advance the Safe Streets movement, working to disrupt gun violence in our City.  He did it with the same principles we learn in conflict mediation - listening, giving voice to those who feel they have no voice, and creating action steps.  He became a violence interrupter, because he knew that much of the violence in our city is about a conflict. Solving conflicts with guns is not the answer, and he knew it.  

I am sorry I never met Mr. Barksdale. But I knew of his tremendous passion for our city, and his impactful work in the heart of it.  Gun violence, which he worked to stop, took him from us. Yet it is not an excuse to stop our work. In fact, it is a wake up call to action. 

As a trained mediator and past Board Chair of the Baltimore Community Mediation Center, I can only imagine how difficult Mr. Barksdale’s work was. But I also know  the possibility and potential. As a member of the Baltimore City Council’s Public Safety and Government Operations Committee, we need to explore more of the solutions that Mr. Barksdale promoted to get to the heart of gun violence.

My family and I join thousands of people in Baltimore in expressing our condolences to Mr. Barksdale’s family and friends, his colleagues, those whose lives he saved, and all who knew him. May his legacy continue in all of our words and deeds.

To learn more about the Safe Streets movement, click here. To learn about Mr. Barksdale, click here. Photo Credit: Baltimore Sun