What’s behind the ‘historic collapse’ in homicide and violent crime rates in major US cities | CNN

Rey Chavis knew it was life or death when his phone rang one day last summer. Chavis, a lifelong Newark, New Jersey, resident who runs The Newark Community Street Team – a group of violence interrupters – answered the call. The man on the other end said his child was beaten up by his ex’s new man. He was about to take matters into his own hands, but he called Chavis first and agreed to meet in person. “I’m almost certain he had a weapon on him,” said Chavis, who described rushing from his home on a hot summer day and spending several hours talking the man out of violence. Chavis knew the man could be violent because they spent time together in prison, but on this day the man was crying and shaking. Soon, Chavis convinced him to file a police report instead of using his weapon. “I was the intermediary before he went to his child’s mother’s house and did what he wouldn’t be able to reverse,” said Chavis, who told CNN the interaction was one of dozens of instances where the Newark Community Street Team intervened in a dispute in 2025. “Any one of those could have erupted into a homicide, if it’s not for us,” Chavis said. Interactions like this contributed t