Nine months after the 10,000 Men movement was launched with great fanfare, the organization that vowed to mount a massive campaign to retake Philadelphia's crime-ridden streets has fielded only four patrol units totaling about 200 men.
Some of the thousands who attended the organization's initial rally Oct. 21 said the project had failed to capitalize on the outpouring of enthusiasm for organizing African American men into crime-fighting patrols. They say the movement has lost momentum.
"There was an image after the event that there was going to be this massive amount of people out on the streets, and that didn't happen," said Bilal Qayyum, a community activist who helped organize the 10,000 Men project.
"Clearly there should have been way more men out in the streets by now."
Qayyum said he was no longer involved with the movement because he wanted to devote time to his own antiviolence venture, the Father's Day Rally Committee.
"It was sort of disappointing," said Frederick L. Whiten, an educator who operates a consultancy, Because Mentoring Works. "Everyone was excited. There were so many brothers out there - so much love - it was infectious. It was almost like we were an army ready to go to battle."
Norm Bond, a spokesman for 10,000 Men: A Call to Action, acknowledged "logistical" and funding challenges but said the project was still active.
He said the organizers had found that not so many men were eager to join potentially dangerous field units.
As a result, the project seems to have gradually shifted its focus to encouraging men to become more active as volunteers in other organizations, such as Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Precisely when the mission shifted is difficult to pinpoint because organizers do not fully acknowledge that anything has changed since the massive inaugural rally at Temple University's Liacouras Center.
"This whole notion that this organization would essentially be a quasi-military organization that went from neighborhood to neighborhood - that whole depiction was never what our goal was," said radio personality E. Steven Collins, one of about 10 men who still meet monthly to plan the group's activities.
Outwardly, the organization appears to have stalled. It opened an office at 1501 Christian St. in a property owned by Kenny Gamble, the entertainment mogul and one of the organization's high-profile founders. But with no paid staff, the headquarters is open only by appointment, Bond said.
And the 10,000 Men Web site (www.10000menphilly.com) has not been updated in months. It still headlines an April 5 Community Action Fair to encourage volunteerism, the organization's biggest public event since its inaugural rally.
The organizers deny the project has sputtered, and say many of its accomplishments have gone unnoticed.
"I don't think we've lost momentum," Collins said. "I think there is a majority - a huge, vast number of men who participated and who I am in contact with via my radio show and in public appearances - who are as committed today as they've ever been."
It's true that the 10,000 Men movement had multiple missions from the start, and its overarching goal was to encourage African American men to become more involved in their communities and with their families. But its novel call for street patrols of unarmed civilians was what attracted national attention, and what raised the most worries.
Some law-enforcement officials and Mayor Nutter expressed concern that untrained - and unvetted - members of foot patrols might come into conflict with armed gang members and corner drug dealers, and the organization decided to take a cautious approach, Bond said.
Joe Certaine, former city managing director, devised an elaborate training manual that was reviewed by then-Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson, who was also a founder. The group expended much effort to devise uniforms and an African shield logo. It identified members of the "vanguard" those with experience in law enforcement, the military or Town Watch who would lead the street patrols.