Bishop Willie Billips gestures in his office at the Faith Hope and Charity House of God in the Brownsville section in the Brooklyn borough of New York on Monday, Dec. 30, 2013. Billips, 51, a Brownsville native, specializes in working with gang members. He has credited outgoing New York City Police chief Ray Kelly and police commanders with teaming up with the clergy and community activists in Brownsville to try to curb crime. Although crime is down overall in New York City, in Brownsville, strategies that have dropped crime to record lows across the city haven’t taken hold. There the cycle of violence, silence and retribution seems entrenched. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)