TED Talks Daily - The grassroots movement transforming public safety | Aqeela Sherrills

Episode Date: September 16, 2025

In 1992, something unprecedented happened in Los Angeles: rival gang members negotiated a historic peace treaty, significantly reducing violence across the city. Aqeela Sherrills, one of the key negotiators of that treaty, continues to bring his vision of community-led peace programs to cities across the US. He shares how the new initiative Scaling Safety is empowering trusted local leaders to redefine public safety and create lasting change from the inside out. (This ambitious idea is part of The Audacious Project, TED’s initiative to inspire and fund global change.)Interested in learning more about upcoming TED events? Follow these links:TEDNext: ted.com/futureyouTEDSports: ted.com/sportsTEDAI Vienna: ted.com/ai-viennaTEDAI San Francisco: ted.com/ai-sf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Be smart. Join the 15 million customers who choose Wise. Download the Wise app today or visit Wise.com. Terms and conditions apply. This episode is sponsored by Airbnb. On one of my first visits to Vancouver, I spent the morning biking around Stanley Park, just me, the trees, the seawall, and the quiet. I grabbed lunch by the harbor and thought, next time I want to come back here with my people. When you're traveling with family or friends, you want more than just a place to sleep. You want a kitchen for big pancake breakfasts, a living room where everyone can pile in and play games and laugh about the day, and space to stay up late without whispering

in the dark. That's why for our next trip I'm looking at Airbnb. The homes feel personal and thoughtful and with guest favorites, the most loved homes across Canada, it's easy to find a stay that's already made someone else's trip special. Now I just need to decide, is it Tefino for beachwalks and seafood dinners or a cozy cabin near Whistler with a view of the mountains? You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hugh. In 1992, urban peace activist Akela Shirelles helped to broker a historic peace treaty between two rival gangs in Los Angeles, California. It's a truth that led to a significant decrease in gang-related violence in neighborhoods across the city.

In his talk, Akela shares how this experience changed his perspective on the power of dialogue and collage. and began to redefine what public safety can look like. And stick around after the talk for a Q&A between Akela and Ted's head of media and curation, Helen Walters. In 1992, the Laird that the Los Angeles homicide rate reached an all-time high. Members of the Crips and Bloods, two of the largest gangs in the U.S., set down, together and brokered a peace treaty. This historic event ended a three-decade-long urban war that claimed more than 10,000 lives in LA County alone,

not including those permanently maimed or incarcerated for life. I was one of those gang members who negotiated that treaty. Growing up in the Jordan Down Housing Projects in the White section of Los Angeles, I witnessed things no child should ever be subject. how should ever be subject to. By time I was 16, I had attended 20 funerals of friends. And like so many youth, surrounded by violence and poverty,

I was desensitized and angry, and joining the neighborhood gang was my solution for safety and protection. Now, it's important to understand that black American gangs aren't inherently violent. Less than 3 to 5% of so-called gang members are actually committing violent crime. More often, they're like surrogate families. We're protecting one another, sometimes the only way we knew ought to survive. In the first two years of the peace treaty,

homicides in Watts declined by 44 percent, changing the quality of life in my neighborhood. I was just 23 years old, and my firstborn son, Terrell, had just turned seven. Driven by the belief that our children would not inherit our conflicts, we took the call to peace to 16 more cities contributing to a national decline in youth violence. You see, peace was possible because nobody could stop that war,

but us. Those of us at the center of the conflict. It took months of intense high state conversations, starting with a handful of brothers from the four housing projects. During the negotiation, I asked, who was winning the war that we were waging against each other? Every time we die or go to prison, no one was there to provide direction and guidance for our kids. You see, violence is about proximity. I had known most of my so-called enemies my entire life from school and from the neighborhood. A small group of us went into so-called enemy territory. The news of the peace treaty spread like wildfires.

Hundreds of some youth from formerly warring gangs attended celebrations in the projects to mark the new beginning. The peace treaty inspired similar agreements across the country and lasted for 12 years. Fast forward into today, the cycle of violence remains an extremely concentrated problem with unequal impacts. Residents in low-income urban communities of color are 15 times more likely to be harmed by violence,

but yet three times less likely to get help. And for black males ages 14 to 25, violence is the number one cause of death. As this crisis is worsened than cities, overwhelmed police departments are joining forces with community leaders to say that arrests alone will not end the cycle of violence. Many solutions are being proposed.

But what we're proposing is an internal solution, a solution led by those most impacted by violence, a solution that lifts up non-traditional leaders to play a key role in creating safety in their own respective communities. You see, investing in non-traditional leaders as a compliment to policing works. In 2014,

I got a call from my friend Rasbaraka, mayor of Newark, New York, New Jersey. Mayor Barack asked me to help him to strengthen his community violence intervention strategy. Now, Newark had been on the top 10 most violent city lists for almost 50 consecutive years. With a modest investment from local philanthropies, I launched a Newark Community Street team. I hired 16 credible messengers, many of them ex-game members and formerly incarcerated folks who have deep relationships in the neighborhood. We trained them in conflict resolution and mediation strategies and deployed them in high violence areas and asked them to use their relationship capital

to intervene and mediate gang disputes that could leave the violence. Now, you know, law enforcement investigations are crucial but not always successful and often painstakingly slow, whereas the credible messengers can prevent the next shooting in real time. We launched a safe passage program to ensure our kids went to school safely because violence often happens before and after school. We launched the city's first trauma recovery center to provide therapeutic services to victims to help them heal.

We also provided mentoring and outreach and case management. You see, safety isn't just one intervention. It's a shared strategy and requires an ecosystem of programs that residents trust. When we started our work in Newark in 2014, the city had 103 homicides. In 2024, we had 37. Now, family, these are not just numbers, they're actual lives saved. Newark now has nine consecutive years of decline, and we're no longer on the top 10 most violent city list.

Now, what we achieved in Newarkers more than historic lows in violence. and violence. Local law enforcement credits us as the essential strategic partner in reducing violence in the city. And today, the Newark Street team has over 80 staff, is a former partner with the city, and receive millions of dollars in public funding. Now, family, we're not just the only ones that's improving safety in our cities. It's just rarely recognized and support it. Take my good friend, Ms. Brenda Glass, a survivor violence from Cleveland, Ohio. Brenda started Cleveland's first trauma her recovery center, but had to cash in her retirement fund just to keep her doors open. And despite being the city's only 24-hour assistant for victims, it took the city five years

before they granted her money. Another champion is my brother Lau Muhammad from Miami, who employs credible messengers in some of the most violent neighborhoods, but struggles to provide a livable wage and ongoing training for her staff. These often overlooked groups are most of the time ineligible for public funding. But what they do have is deep commitment, lived experience, trust, and community support. Now, other cities are primed to replicate the successes that we had in Newark and following the steps of leaders like Brenda and Lau. But very few essential community organizations have the know-how to become a permanent part of the city's public safety workforce. Family, we're about to change all of that. With a generous investment from the audacious

TED community and support from people just like you. We're launching scaling safety, an initiative to put the public back in public safety. Our solution is simple. Redefined public safety by investing in a coordinated set of high-impact resident-led programs that create real lasting change. In 2021, I launched a community-based public safety collective to spread the newer Community Street Team strategy nationwide. We've already helped 150 organizations in 60 plus cities.

Now we're teaming up with the Alliance for Safety and Justice, the nation's leader in public safety advocacy. ASJ has unlocked $3 billion in funding and led 150 policy reforms to support community safety programs. Together, we're creating a stronger, more effective approach to safety, one that complements law enforcement and breaks cycle of harm. Now, addressing violence is extremely complex, but just as we no longer rely on hospitals and emergency rooms alone to improve public health, we cannot rely on the justice system alone to create

safety. In public health, community health workers emerged to improve preventative health care by training residents and outreach and peer support. They've reduced the burdens on emergency rooms and improved public health. We believe the same can be done with public safety because racially equitable access to safety begins with community engagement. Now, in 2003, my oldest son, Terrell,

that was seven years old when I negotiated the treaty, graduated from high school and was accepted into Humble State University. The proudest day of my life family was driving this kid to school to start his first day as a college student. Terrell was an inspiration to his younger siblings, and the reason why I became a lifelong advocate for peace. He came home from winter break. He went to a party with some of his friends in an affluent neighborhood in L.A. There some kids from a local gang showed up at the party, mistook his red Mickey Mouse sweater for gang colors, and shot him to death.

Family, I'm no novice to violence. I've witnessed it my entire life, but nothing prepares you for the loss of your child. But what I've come to understand is that peace is a journey and not a destination. And that public safety is not just the absence of violence and crime, but the presence of well-being and the infrastructure to support victims and survivors in their healing journey. safety is our healing journey, and my continued commitment to Terrell and Oscar Gizhar and Ronzea Pointer and the thousands like them that their deaths were not in vain. Thank you. Okay, come right here. I have a question.

Thank you for sharing your story. I speak on behalf of everybody when I say that we're so sorry for your loss. Thank you. We talked a lot this week about actionable hope. What you're doing exemplifies a spirit that too many of us have no idea what you've experienced and what you do on a daily basis. What advice do you give those who are trying to dig deep in this time to step up and to find actionable hope. How do you do it?

Yes, I would say that where the wounds are in the personal life is where the gift lie. Sometimes we have to sit long and hard and the anguish and the pain of the things that we suffered and keep our eye on the prize, you know, continue to look for the gift despite, you know, the circumstances around you. You know, the thing that I would encourage folks to do

is to find someone that you know or don't know. Sometimes it's easy to talk to people that you don't know and expose the deep secrets in your personal life. you know, as a way of accessing the gift of you, you are. Because when you undress yourself, others can't undress you, right? And I would say for those who are the folks who are the listeners, because, you know, people always, you know, come to us and they tell us to her story. Hold space for them. Behold them. Don't define them as their experience

because we're not the things that we've perpetrated or the things that have been done to us. Those things are only informing who we become. They don't define who we are. Akila, you're an inspiration. Thank you. Thank you. That was Akela Shirel speaking at TED 2025. This ambitious idea is part of the Audacious Project, TED's initiative to inspire and fund global change. Learn more at audaciousproject.org. If you're curious about Ted's curation, find out more at ted.com slash curation guidelines. And that's it for today. Ted Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This talk was back-checked by the TED Research Team and produced and edited by

our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Lucy Little, and Tonicaa Sung Marnivong. This episode was mixed by Christopher Faisi Bogan. Additional support from Emma Tobner and Daniela Balezzo. I'm Elise Hugh. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening. This episode is sponsored by Airbnb. On one of my first visits to Vancouver, I spent the morning biking around Stanley Park, just me, the trees, the seawall, and the quiet. I grabbed lunch by the harbor and thought,

next time I want to come back here with my people. When you're traveling with family or friends, you want more than just a place to sleep. You want a kitchen for big pancake breakfast, a living room where everyone can pile in and play games and laugh about the day, and space to stay up late without whispering in the dark. That's why for our next trip, I'm looking at Airbnb. The homes feel personal and thoughtful, and with guest favorites, the most loved homes across Canada, it's easy to find a stay that's already made someone else's trip special. Now I just need to decide, is it tofino for beachwalks and seafood dinners or a cozy cabin near Whistler with a view of the mountains?

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