Mayor Randall Woodfin ran his campaign in 2017 on the notion that he had the answers that could solve the issues of gun violence and crime in Birmingham. The young attorney promised that he would ensure public safety, fight for criminal justice reform and racial justice, and hold police accountable. He believed the root cause of violence and crime was disinvestment in low-income communities and persistent, generational poverty.
However, many activist groups who supported Woodfin and his vision are now looking to elect a new mayor, hoping that they can do what he has been unable to: solve the issue of violent crime in Birmingham.
In Birmingham, murders have increased 5 percent in the city in 2021, and 2020 was the deadliest since 1995. So far in 2021, the city has recorded 65 criminal homicides, putting it on pace to surpass last year’s record, and most victims are young, Black men.
In a detailed article, Slate reported on how Birmingham’s crime rate has risen even while Woodfin has tried to attack this issue from all sides. Woodfin argues that simply making arrests doesn’t solve the problem. During his time in office, he has helped establish many alternatives to simply policing and arresting criminals. He established the Mayor’s Office of Peace and Policy to target recidivism among Black men through social support and group therapy. The next year, he launched the Birmingham Promise Initiative, which gave students paid internships and covered the cost of their higher education.
Many young progressives assume that all Black people want a smaller police force. But in Birmingham and many cities, that’s not the case. Woodfin has said that most of his constituents want more patrols, especially older people. Many still see police as the main way to combat violence. National surveys show that younger people are more likely to support defunding the police.
“When I talk to the mommas and the big mommas in the neighborhoods, they want more police,” he said in 2018. “People my age and younger say more policing is wrong. As mayor, I’m in the middle.”
Woodfin faces three main challengers in this election, and all of them are positioning themselves to be more “pro-police” than Woodfin himself. Mayor William Bell, businessman Chris Woods, and Jefferson County Commissioner Lashunda Scales are critical of how Woodfin has handled crime, saying he’s missed the mark.
“People want to box me in and make me choose between reform and accountability measures, and policing and keeping the city safe,” Woodfin said in a June interview. “No, I reject your ultimatum. I can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can do both.”
As the election draws near, Woodfin, activist groups, and previous Woodfin supporters continue to roll out new initiatives and ideas to address this complex problem. In April, Woodfin created the city’s first Civilian Review Board to investigate complaints of police misconduct. He pardoned 15,000 people for past misdemeanor marijuana convictions. In July, Woodfin banned the use of no-knock search warrants.
Some groups have called for Woodfin to use American Rescue Plan money to help the issue. Many have pushed to fund alternative public safety strategies because they believe that relying primarily on law enforcement doesn’t work, and even that gets support from some law enforcement officials.
Gregory Clarke argues that police are not the answer. “I’m not saying they don’t do their job—they do their job of responding to crime,” said Clarke, the founder of Birmingham Peacemakers and a leader of the local Fund Peace campaign. “The police had their budget increased. But the effect on crime didn’t match. Matter of fact, it went up.”
Many groups who supported him in his last election have put their support behind other candidates. In January, the Birmingham chapter of Our Revolution publicly rescinded its endorsement. The local Black Lives Matter chapter called for his resignation after police shot and killed a 28-year-old Black man named Desmon Montez Ray Jr.
“This family has been demanding that the leadership of this community, Mayor Randall Woodfin, council members, the police chief, anybody in leadership should have come to this family to offer their condolences,’’ BLM Birmingham co-founder Eric Hall stated. “That’s the right thing to do. That’s what leadership is.”
“Birmingham voters believed that any work initiated by Mayor Woodfin to deter crime and violence would center root-cause analysis and comprehensive grassroots and community-based solutions,” several Black Lives Matter leaders wrote in an open letter at the time. “This is why it was a hard pill to swallow.”
“I am sick and tired of people talking negative about our city,” City Councilor Crystal Smitherman said at a July summit in support of the Fund Peace campaign. “It’s time for the communities to step up and take charge of our neighborhoods.”
