Philadelphia's '10,000 Men' Plan Starts Slowly

Last fall, city leaders in Philadelphia put out the call for volunteers to help keep the peace on the city's turbulent streets. The effort began with fanfare and optimism. But nearly eight months later, the movement has yet to live up to expectations.

The effort to put 10,000 volunteer peacekeepers on the streets of Philadelphia started with a huge rally — and plenty of media coverage. But the reality has not lived up to that initial promise.

Thousands of men answered the call to action last October. The crowd nearly filled the 10,000 seats at the Liacouras Center in North Philadelphia, as a parade of community leaders stepped up to the microphone.

Even the men behind the movement admit it took them longer than expected to build an organization that could train and deploy volunteers. Anthony Murphy is director of Philadelphia Town Watch and one of the organizers of the 10,000 Men project.

"To build that organization is what took the time," Murphy said. "It's like a baby … you gotta grow. Folks didn't realize it would take some growth and some time for that."

But thousands of men may have gotten tired of waiting. Frederick Whiten runs a business devoted to mentoring young people in Philadelphia. He was at the Liacouras Center. And he says he never got a follow-up call, either.

"It's almost like the people were set up. And that was somewhat disillusioning to me," Whiten said.

The organizers of the 10,000 Men movement initially talked about squads of volunteer peacekeepers patrolling three nights a week in high-crime neighborhoods all over Philadelphia. The reality is much more modest.

There are still no street patrols; organizers concede they have only a few hundred reliable volunteers.

Volunteer organizations say they have been seeing more volunteer activity in Philadelphia this year — but they can't say for sure that the 10,000 Men movement has anything to do with it.