Why Dallas wants police to adopt a ‘light footprint’ while fighting crime
On a frigid late-February afternoon this year, fighting violent crime has brought Victor Alvelais to a fast-food drive-thru here in the southern part of Dallas.
After his chicken tenders finally arrive, he drives a few minutes down the road to the scene of a recent crime. A few weeks earlier, a gunman shot through a fence and wounded five children at an apartment complex in South Dallas.
Within two days of that shooting, Mr. Alvelais was there. The director of Dallas Cred, a nonprofit violence intervention group, he’d already been meeting with two teenage brothers who live there, talking them out of picking up their own weapons and getting revenge.
On this afternoon, he’s still responding. He’s with three other members of Dallas Cred this time, each of whom are wearing the organization’s bright-orange T-shirts, as well as a reporter he agreed could tag along.
They coax the brothers onto a porch outside their ground-floor apartment. It’s cold, so they’ve draped themselves in thick blankets. Juan Javier Pérez, a member of the team, throws some friendly shade, calling them “soft” for shivering under blankets while he’s wearing shorts. (Mr. Pérez is from the colder climes of Michigan.)
The conversation turns serious. They admonish the younger brother for picking up an assault charge. They ask him to let them know when he has a court date so they can talk to the judge.
It’s too cold for a longer conversation, and they shuffle back inside. But Mr. Alvelais says this was a productive meeting. The brothers still seem receptive to their emphasis on nonviolence. They listen to him. Perhaps they even trust his “cred,” or credibility, since he served nearly 30 years in prison for a
