Boston's 'Interrupters' Work To Prevent Violence

In both of WBUR's mayoral election polls this fall, Boston voters said public safety was one of the top issues facing the next mayor. But aside from traditional law enforcement efforts, what is being done to intervene and prevent violence?

In recent years, the city has turned to so-called "violence interrupters," people whose lives have been affected by violent crime and who are now working to stop violence before it starts.

We went to Mattapan to meet with Tony "Big Time" Seymore, a 52-year-old violence interrupter who says he's learned from bad choices he made as a young man.

"Fifty-two armed robberies," Seymore said. "That's all I did was rob people."

Seymore works closely with Arthur Kitty. At 34, Kitty is no stranger to crime and spent nine years in prison for killing a man. He says he's spent the years since trying to make up for it.

"After that it was just a real cleansing process," Kitty said. "I've done everything I could do to try to counter my negative ways and actions. From that day forward, I made a commitment to walk a certain way.

We walked around the streets of Mattapan with Kitty and Seymore, where they were on the lookout for young people they could try to help make the positive choices when faced with tough life pressures.