Baltimore is trying to go 72 hours with no homicides this weekend

Baltimore residents are taking the city's homicide crisis into their own hands, calling for a 72-hour cease-fire beginning Friday and running through Sunday, ABC News reports. The efforts come in response to record-high murders in the city, which passed 200 last week.

The August cease-fire has been in the works since mid-July. "I've seen the momentum build over the past several weeks," Baltimore police spokesman T.J. Smith told The Baltimore Sun. "We are all in this together, and we're 1,000 percent supportive of the efforts."

The cease-fire is being promoted with the blunt slogan "nobody kill anybody," which has been printed on T-shirts and flyers. The movement is not engineered by a specific organization, though; rather, "this ceasefire is the product of Baltimore residents not only being exhausted by homicides, but believing that Baltimore can have a murder-free weekend if everyone takes responsibility," activists said.

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Some are skeptical about the movement, as other similar community-organized cease-fires have failed in the past. But "we understand that this is not what normal should be, and we deserve something better," said organizer Erricka Bridgeford. "Looking at each other and saying, 'We deserve peace, for three whole days' — that's powerful."