BALTIMORE (WBFF) — We're coming to the end of a tragic week in Baltimore.
 

Deadly violence is touching all corners of the city and of all ages, from a five-year-old girl in her home to a senior citizen volunteering in her church.
 

Baltimore City and its citizens are in a war against violent crime.
 

"If we keep waiting for someone to do something about it, such as pointing fingers at a figurehead, a political figurehead, we’re going to keep falling into this trap, this self-fulfilling prophecy. We’re not going to see anything done. We have to rally around ourselves. We have to mobilize ourselves," says Munir Bahar, a city activist who works directly with city youth.
 

The city needs to look beyond politicians, he says, putting out the call for people to step up.
 

"You need men and women, but mostly men to step up and create watch groups within neighborhoods across the city. Those watch groups need to organize themselves tactically so that the same protocols are being used throughout the same neighborhoods, which will create a more efficient usage of that type of deployment. We almost need a military-style intervention to combat some of the violence, to see a real time change right now -- not in five years, but this week, next week, this month," Bahar says.
 

"The neighborhood has to step up. Community people have to step up and take this as their responsibility, not just law enforcement, but communities' responsibilities and priority to implement safety protocols."
 

What law enforcement can do right now is prioritize arresting the most violent criminals says Sean Kennedy with the Maryland Public Policy Institute.
 

"One of the most important things is to identify those with outstanding warrants who appear on something called the strategic subjects list," he says. "That list is compiled by the state's attorney, Baltimore police, federal authorities, US Marshals, federal prosecutors. It is the list of likely or currently known killers and those to be killed."
 

Kennedy says those committing violent acts should be arrested on whatever charges police and prosecutors can make a case for.
 

"They are going after them as they can, but they know the state's attorney or in this case sometimes federal prosecutors, are not putting them on a priority list. If they say 'no this case takes precedence because this individual, though it seems like a minor charge, is likely to commit more violence,' then they go to the top of the queue. That’s not happening."
 

"A few years ago we know the warrant squad in Baltimore had something like 40,000 outstanding warrants, and they were going in chronological order. They were not going in priority order. That has been fixed, but the priority number needs to be focused on violence, not on other criteria."