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THE TRUTH ABOUT BLOODS AND CRIPS!! |
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February 25, 1994
Leaders of Crips, Bloods call for truce
Help promised to stop gang violence M.C. Moewe Star-Telegram Writer
FORT WORTH -- Leaders of the Crips and Bloods, two of the city's largest warring gangs, called for a truce yesterday afternoon while city and county officials made promises to help find alternatives to their dangerous lifestyle.
"I'm here today to start a gang truce between the Bloods and the Crips gangs, to stop all the shooting and killing, to help the little kids be raised right and not be scared to go outside thinking they're going to get shot because they wear blue or red," said one of about 10 gang members during the meeting, which was closed to the media but was broadcast over KHVN, a religious radio station. The gang leaders, who represented six gang factions, selected the station and put the word on the street beforehand that the broadcast was going to take place, according to city and law enforcement officials who attended the meeting.
At a subsequent news conference that the gang members did not attend, community leaders pledged to work together to help gang members find alternatives to street violence.
Many of the leaders were part of a committee that included City Council members, local clergy and Chamber of Commerce officials, as well as members of the Fort Worth gang task force and the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department.
A mission statement the group released says, "We the citizens of Fort Worth are determined to provide viable responses and alternatives to gang members in exchange for not participating in violent gang activities."
Yesterday's announcement followed months of secret negotiations that initially involved only two Crips and Bloods members and law enforcement officials. "I think this is the only way to reach our gang problem," said H.T. Young, a Fort Worth gang officer who participated in the talks, which began in November. "We can go out kicking in doors all day but until they change their way of thinking, the way they're going to live their lives, we're just defeating the purpose."
Young estimated that the truce could affect as many as 90 percent of Fort Worth's estimated 3,900 gang members.
Last year, 16 people were killed in gang-related incidents, according to police statistics. A total of 173 drive-by shootings were reported last year in Fort Worth -- an average of three a week. Statistics for this year are not available.
"We are probably the first city in the nation to sit down with gang members and come up with a resource package to meet their needs," said Luther Perry, the Police Department's community liaison.
Truce negotiations began after two rival gang leaders -- one of whom was in Tarrant County Jail -- approached Tarrant County sheriff's Deputy Bill Farmer twice and asked for help in stopping violence among rival gangs.
"They're the ones who initiated it," Farmer said. "They expressed that they would like to be able to talk to each other and I hooked them up."
Working with Young, Farmer arranged two meetings between a jailed Crips leader and a Bloods leader. At the encounter, they talked about the same hopes. A Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter attended the early negotiations on condition that they not be made public until a truce appeared possible. The gang leaders talked about the losses on both sides. "We ain't going to have a chance -- we're dying left and right," the Crips leader said at the first meeting.
Several other meetings took place among law officers and gang members on the streets, including two meetings at a local coffee shop. After numerous discussions, the officers decided in late December to ask community leaders to help. A 30-member committee was formed that included representatives from two churches, the Fort Worth City Council, the Tarrant County Crime Commission, the Fort Worth school board, Tarrant County Junior College, the Police Department, the Sheriff's Department and the State Board of Pardons and Parole.
A Bloods leader known as "Evil," who appealed to his fellow gang members to begin a truce during yesterday's radio broadcast, said after the announcement that he feels optimistic about success. "Some are going to listen," he said. "I feel like we'll get about 70 percent of them back. As long as authorities come with the jobs."
To get the peace message out, the gang leader had a T-shirt made that depicts a Blood in red and a Crip in blue shaking hands. He has sold 100 and plans to have more made. "That's the only thing I could think of to get the word out." One 20-year-old gang member with the street name "Clack" said his mother told him last night about the truce. The Five Deuce Hoover Crips member said that he was skeptical but will honor the truce if his leaders tell him to. "It's a lot of things they (the Bloods) have done that they ain't been paid back for," said the gang member, who has been shot twice in the past eight months in gang violence. "I don't want anybody to think I'm a punk."
Clack said his leaders -- called "OGs" or Original Gangsters -- are currently in jail but he still follows their orders.
Clack said he was going to discuss the truce with his fellow gang members. "They're going to have a lot of questions," he said.
It's not uncommon to have gang leaders in jail still having power in the streets, Young said.
Officials at the jail have supplied gang leaders telephones to call members and ask them to abide by the truce. "I feel that the majority at this table started it (the gang fighting)," a jailed Crips member nicknamed "Copperhead" said during yesterday's radio broadcast. "We talked to a lot of people last night and there are a lot of people" for the truce again.
"It was a flimsy one, a very short-time one," said South Los Angeles Bureau Chief Mark Kroeker. The truce lasted only a few months in his section of the city, he said. "But you can't criticize it because it saved some lives." In nearby Compton, the truce is believed to have caused a 30 percent drop in the city's overall homicide rate -- 59 killings in 1992, compared with 87 in 1991.
Lt. Reggie Wright supervised the gang-homicide unit in Compton, which has a population of about 100,000, when the truce began. His department has documentation -- either by arrests or interviews -- of 7,500 gang members in the city.The truce held for about a year in Compton, and Wright said he considers it a success. "Prior to (the truce) I was averaging five or six drive-bys a week," Wright said. "We're still nowhere back to that alarming rate that I was before the riot. We're up to one every couple of weeks or so."
Kroeker said that even though the truce was short-lived, it was worth it. "I'd try it again. There's got to be a way."
SO IF YOU READ THIS WHOLE THING......GOOD JOB......BUT IF YOUR STILL GOING TO BE ONE OF THESE THEN YOU NEED TO THINK TWICE ABOUT WHAT YOUR KIDS ARE GOING TO THINK ABOUT IT AND IF UR KID IS GOING TO DIE IF THEY WEAR RED OR BLUE.... IT'S UR CHOICE BUT UR NOT EFFECTING YOU AND UR RACE UR EFFECTING THE FUTURE!!!!
sweetie to u · Tue Apr 03, 2007 @ 07:16am · 1 Comments |
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