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BETWEEN THE LINES: Message To The Masses: 'Brothas (Gangs) Gonna Work It Out'-For The Sake Of Peace and Survival
(March 21, 2006)
This weekend, I witnessed history and what many thought was both an impossible,
even dangerous endeavor, a citywide "Crip" conference for peace. Pulled together by Stan Muhammad, Tony Massengale and the Cease Fire Committee of the Community Call to Action and Accountability, a breakfast meeting of over 300 gang leaders (not gang members)-the "Big Ballers," the "Shot Callers," the young "Gs," the "Old Gs," I even met what was called "Triple OGs." I never even knew there was such a thing, but these were the guys that were there from the start of this phenomena-started out of a desire to protect communities-and have witnessed the emergence of at least three generations of so-called gangs members.
These are the guys that have lived "the life" almost all their life, and now, out of their own mouths, stated that they now realized that something has gone awfully wrong. Well, of course, anybody who has lived in Los Angeles, and any other major city the past two decades where gang warfare has decimated lives and communities the past 30 years, could have told you that. In the last 20 years alone, Los Angeles has lost over 15,000 people to gang violence. More than America lost in the Gulf War of 1991 and this so-called War on Terrorism going on in Iraq combined. Between the police and gang members, urban communities knew what terror and terrorism was long before 9/11. And of course, we've heard of peace accords, treaties, cease fires and other intermediate forms of interventions over the years that, for whatever reason, never lasted very long and caused such proclamations of peace to be viewed with cynicism and suspicion. Not this time. Hearing those who know the game and understand the time-as Minister Tony Muhammad told me that morning, "Time dictates the agenda," know that it's not just about peace this time, but about survival. They get it, and are now trying to work it out on their own. There's a message in this.
For years, the community has asked law enforcement and legislators to "do something," anything to stop gang violence. What they've done instead, is pass a host of suppression legislation and spent billions of dollars on weaponry under the guise of citizenry protection. Now, understand that the community was tired of the killing, but we also needed to be careful what we asked for. Well, we're at that point where we're all targets. The game for gang violence is in the fourth quarter, some even say the last two minutes, where the federal government, the state and local municipalities all have enacted or proposed legislation directed-not just at gangs but-communities that house so-called gangs, giving them open license to arrest (and harass) anyone with "known gang affiliations." That's mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, neighbors and friends (people we commonly associate with community and call "homies," persons from your home community), in essence anyone from a particular community is now subject to this legislation.
On the federal level, it's called "gangbuster legislation ( H.R. 1279). On the state level, it's called "Operation Nutcraker," and under the guise of "neighborhood stabilization," known affiliates of gang members (again family and friends) and any one with a tattoo, are categorized as "Domestic Terrorists," subject to detainment and arrest, and any teen found in violation of dawn to dusk curfews will be recognized as a domestic terrorist suspect and made subject to arrest.
What does that mean? Consider the "Re-entry Population," the 10,000 to 15,000 parolees that will be released back into society every year for the next ten years, that will work during the day and go to school at night, won't be able to move around without being subject to detainment and arrest. Of course they will confronted. On the local level, its gang injections that prevent any three gang affiliates from even coming together in public, violating curfew or any other "nuisance activity." What is most chilling about all this legislation is the overly-punitive penalties for just being associated with the life. All these legislative policies carry 25 years to life sentences. As one "triple OG" stated, "They giving out 25 to life like its Christmas candy; if you Black, you can come get some." Notice he didn't say, "if you down," or "if you bangin'," you can get some. This legislation is targeted at any black male. Or anybody else that live in our communities.
Then there's the "growth industry" politic that has become a sobering reality for anyone caught up in the game, and the so-called gang members understand this first because they are most impacted by it. Genocide is at the front door and the back door is a prison cell door. The growth industry in the black community has been prisons and mortuaries. The prison population has doubled in twenty years from 80,000 in 1985 to over 160,000 in 2005. Slavery is not coming back for black people-slavery is back through prison industrial complex. What faces black men when they go to prison is not just the slave labor of seven cents an hour to make anything from furniture to tennis shoes, but conflict from all directions-from the guards, to other races, that as another "Triple OG" stated "everything is against us." The only thing left for black men is prison or death. Or peace and survival. These brothas have finally come to realize that the only way to beat the prison industrial complex is to shut it down. The only way to keep morticians from becoming millionaires is to stop the killing. And the only way to beat this new set of "King Alfred-Cointel-PRO" government activity is to build the community and instead of destroying community.
Now it's up to the rest of us to help them. Since LAPD Police Chief William Bratton likes to spend money on "consultants," he (and the City of Los Angeles) needs to hire some of these brothas, through their organizations, to spread this peace message. The business community needs to return work back to the inner cities, or allow them to set up businesses that will allow them to feed their families, buy homes and get back to protecting communities (without the violent aggression). And have patience that, this time, those who helped create this mess will work their way through the "clean-up." It's a mess that is 30 years in the making, and we pray it will not be 30 years in the clean-up, but the important thing is that they now know it is time to make a change for the better. Men who have never, ever come together before, came together to try to work it out.
Unlike any other time, this time-I believe these brothas (and sistas) are gonna work it out, and believe their acts will spread to other sets, other cities and around the country. More than any other time, this is a time to believe in the impossible. The ultimate sign that God is present and working for those who strive for truth and justice, and can touch anybody for his purposes.
Anthony Asadullah Samad is a national columnist, managing director of the Urban Issues Forum and author of 50 Years After Brown: The State of Black Equality In America (Kabili Press, 2005). He can be reached at www.AnthonySamad.com
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