Stop. Killing. People.

Stop. Killing. People.

It's a simple message – three words, three periods.

Stop. Killing. People.

The message is part of a poster stapled to a utility pole at Concord Avenue and Washington Street in Wilmington.

Reporter Esteban Parra took a picture of the poster and put it on his Facebook page this week. Since then, a number of people have made it their profile picture, even if just for a day or two. It is mine at the moment as I give my friends a break from my bearded, bespectacled mugshot.

Stop. Killing. People.

Three words. Three periods. One powerful message.

Will it make a difference?

The posters are being put up by Cease Violence Wilmington, a community outreach program that, according to its Facebook page, "hires culturally appropriate workers who live in the community, are known to high-risk people, and have possibly even been gang members, shooters or spent time in prison, but have made a change in their lives and turned away from crime."

These "violence interrupters" are trained to detect potential shooting events, mediate conflicts and keep safe. The group's goal is to mediate conflicts in an attempt to "prevent imminent violence and to change the norms around the need to use violence."

The city plans to spend about $200,000 on the program, according to an earlier story, and will target the most violent areas of Wilmington.

The group has a lot of work to do. When The News Journal first wrote April 22 that the program was coming here, there had been six fatal shootings in the city. As of this writing (6 p.m. Aug. 21), there have been 18 homicides in the city this year, 17 by gunfire. That's one short of the total for all of last year and nine shy of the record of 27 for 2010.

Stop. Killing. People.

Three words. Three periods. One powerful message.

If we could just get people to listen to it.

Share in the Only in Delaware conversation 24/7 on delawareonline. Contact Jeffrey Gentry at jgentry@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeffreygentry