Tony Wrice

Where the crocodiles swim

Though his father Herman died five years ago, Tony Wrice still walks in his footsteps. And though Tony’s full-time job is as head track/field and cross-country coach at Cheyney University, his footsteps always lead him back to the street corners of his Philadelphia neighborhood at night and on the weekends.

With his “Wrice Process,” an aggressive, citizen-based method to push drug dealers out of neighborhoods, Herman Wrice left a legacy not only for Tony, but for scores of people in his own community and around the country. Today, Tony is following his father’s lead as director of Turn Around America (TAA), which offers training and technical assistance to drug, violence and other crime prevention groups, municipalities, law enforcement and neighborhood organizations in over 300 communities in 20 states. TAA’s methods have also been used in Canada, Mexico and Africa.

One of the Wrice family’s trademarks is leading a group of neighbors in non-stop chanting in street marches or on a street corner where drug dealers are known to be. Those involved wear matching T-shirts and white hardhats. “No more drugs, no more pain, we don’t need your crack cocaine,” is just one of many chants. Another: “Down with dope, up with hope!” Other weapons in TAA’s arsenal for the war on drugs include legal action, the clean-up of neighborhoods, media interviews, and the circulation of pictures of residents arrested and released for selling drugs. Above all, citizens using the Wrice Process are called to unite with the police for the single purpose of fighting drugs.

“We take the corner from the dealers for the evening, stay there chanting for two to four hours, sometimes all night,” says Wrice. “You want to annoy them to make them so tired they would want to leave. We’re like a broken record. And it works.”

The bold chanting often brought on more than annoyance. Dealers throw bricks and bottles down on the group, and Herman Wrice was shot at. “If I said I didn’t fear for my life, I’d be lying,” says Wrice. “You get over it for that moment and then do it all over again. We live in a war zone on the street corner and around the world. You choose your wars: mental, social, religious whatever. We choose the drug war.”

It’s an attitude passed on from his father, who summed it up with this often-used quip: “You gotta go where the crocodiles swim.” The idea is that people tend to go the opposite direction from where trouble is. “People close their eyes to problems,” says Wrice. “Sometimes you gotta go where there is danger, but this is not for everybody either. You have to understand that you might not come out. But someone has to do this.”

While Philadelphia is named “the city of brotherly love,” most people know the city by its crime rate, instead. Wrice hopes that in 20 years time, all of that will change. “I would like it to be the city of hope,” he says. “That famous saying is, ‘Up with hope, down with dope.’ Eventually that dope part will diminish. But hope and faith are important, and people need to be encouraged with that. We have to be front-runners. This job is not for everyone. If no one is standing up and volunteering, I’ll be there.”