Community acts to end the killing: 4,000 vow to take back the mean streets in Oakland

Community acts to end the killing
4,000 vow to take back the mean streets
By Cecily Burt
Chauncey Bailey and Martin G. Reynolds - STAFF WRITERS

OAKLAND -- They came by the thousands to Oakland City Hall Saturday in what was billed as a rally for peace but sounded more like an old-fashioned revival meeting.

From points east, west and north they marched, chanting for Jesus and wearing the faces and carrying aloft the pictures of loved ones cut down in the prime of life by guns and knives.

They were young, old, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, cousins. Many were devout. With 55 murders in Oakland so far this year and another young man shot in the head Saturday morning and barely alive, the marchers had one purpose: to find a way to bring

an end to the violence that is tearing a hole in the black community.

The March For Peace started at three points: Allen Temple Baptist Church in East Oakland, St. Columba Catholic Church in North Oakland and Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in West Oakland. Prayers at each site sent the marchers on their way.

The timing was perfect as all three contingents -- representing more than 80 churches, ministries and community organizations -- converged on City Hall by noon with a healthy crowd of about 4,000.

They prayed for peace and promised action. But the people they needed to reach most -- the ones carrying guns, dealing drugs and hangin' on the corners -- weren't there. They didn't hear the speeches, didn't hear the love, didn't hear that a whole lot of people care what happens to them.

If they won't come, we will go to them, the marchers vowed.

"This is the first step, to bring people together," said Pastor Gerald Agee of the Friendship Christian Church, one of the many religious organizers of Saturday's march. "No one alone can make a difference. United we can do an effective job.

"We have to establish focus groups to look at issues, look at other cities that have had similar problems and how they solved them, develop strategies, ... do outreach and mentor our young people," he said. "Things won't change unless we do that. This is just the beginning, the day we will roll up our sleeves, because everybody wants it to stop."

Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who marched from Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in West Oakland, agreed.

"Today we march, tomorrow we go to work," she said. "We need to shift more money from bombs to recreational facilities, from jails to school."

Young people marched in great numbers, but their voices were noticeably absent from the speeches.

"We're here to let everybody know we don't want any more violence in Oakland," said Leonard Palmore, 18, a student at Oakland High, whose cousin Clarence Lewis was shot and killed on Feb. 17, 1997. Palmore admitted he is sometimes scared the same thing will happen to him.

"There's too many crazy people out there that don't know their mind. I don't want no one else to suffer," he said.

Several elected officials joined the march and rally, but more than anything it was the religious community's show of power. They urged the young men who are on the path of violence to set down their guns and pick up a Bible.

"The police aren't going to solve this problem, the parents aren't going to solve this problem. Only God is going to solve this problem," said the Rev. Bob Jackson of Acts Full Gospel Church.

Most others agreed that God has to be part of the equation, but not the only ingredient. Mayor Jerry Brown challenged those at the rally and beyond to come up with solutions and shower young people with attention before they pick up a gun, not after. Police Chief Richard Word and Deputy Chief Michael Holland said the entire community must be part of the solution.

"Without you, we can accomplish nothing," Holland said. "As you march today, make a decision about what you are going to do tomorrow to stop the violence. We didn't get here today. It's taken 40 years to get here. Young people think violence is a way of to stop problems because they were never taught differently."Sharing of grief

For those who have lost children or siblings to violence, the march was almost cathartic; a chance for them to take their grief out of the privacy of their homes and share it with others.

"It will be one year tomorrow," said Sherrell Douglas, whose son Derrick Lamar Tolliver was shot five times outside her front door in East Oakland on July 14, 2001 He was Oakland's 43rd homicide of that year. He was only 24.

"I'm hurting very bad," she said.

Tolliver's sister LaTanya Douglas said her brother's death was a wake-up call. She sees young men on the streets dealing drugs, carrying guns. She is a single mother with three young boys of her own, and she is worried.

"The neighborhood we live in is not safe," she said. "I try to stay positive, to do positive things with my sons. But all I can say is my children have God to look over them."

The marchers walked, sang and chanted "Stop the violence, increase the peace" and "J-E-S-U-S!" The Precision Drill Ministries livened things up when they joined the march at 30th Street, wearing their pressed uniforms and banging out staccato rhythms on their drums.

Residents and workers peered out of windows and stood in doorways to see what was going on. Passing cars honked in support, as marchers waved back in appreciation. People on the street were encouraged to join in. A few did, most didn't.

A good number of young people were among the marchers, which one man commented was a good thing. Twenty-year-old Taliah Hawthorne and her girlfriends were among them.

Her solution to the violence seemed rather unique for a person of her age. "I think parents need to be harder on their kids," she said without hesitation. After their child shoots someone, "the parents will be on the TV saying how good a boy is. When he pulled the trigger he knew what he was doing."

She said she believed the discipline and standards her mother set for her were the reasons she graduated from high school and will attend San Francisco State University in the fall.

"My mom was hard on me," Hawthorne said. "She believed a neighbor had a right to beat you if you were doing something wrong."

Ashante Washington, 14, also believed it would take more than church to end the violence.

"It's way deeper than that," she said, adding that she knows someone who is getting into trouble because he's hanging with a bad crowd.

"He's doing bad because he's from a single parent home and he's looking for a father figure in his friends," she said.

Gregory Joe Bledsoe, organizer for the Oakland Street Peace Festival at Eastmont Mall July 20, said Oakland has a lot to overcome.

"There are two and a half generations affected by drugs in Oakland and not a lot of role models," he said.Mother and babies

Fifty mothers from the Healthy Babies Project, a residential drug and alcohol program, joined the march with their strollers and chanted in unison "Healthy babies for peace." Daramani Swift, 8, wore a shirt that read "R.I.P -- rich in potential."

-byline-saving mothers, there will be one less killer or one less drug dealer on the street, said executive director Majeedah Rahman, adding that including the children and their mothers in Saturday's march was very important.

"Whatever we expose their mothers to, we're exposing them to," she said.

A couple of neighborhood men walked by the group and were asked what they thought of the march. One man replied, "I hadn't given it much thought, my brotha'." He kept walking and never looked back.

Washington and her friends said they didn't think there were enough young people involved in the rally at City Hall. But a separate Release the Peace Conference held at Laney College attracted several hundred attendees, including dozens of young people.

Organizers agreed to set up a youth services drop-in facility at Foothill Square Shopping Center in two months. The youth center would offer job referrals, computer training, counseling and crisis intervention.

"We will need some donations," said the Rev. Brandon Reems of Center of Hope Church in East Oakland. "There are many programs in Oakland but they are not reaching the right people."

Shannon Reeves, president, Oakland NAACP, also suggested that churches get black men to work as mentors and join street patrols in neighborhoods to interact with young, black males who would get information about programs and services.

Police Chief Word agreed: "We have to recruit those who have lived those lives," he said. "The (young people) don't listen to us. We have to go out and reach them on the street. I hope this is a start."

Among the local officials who marched all the way from Allen Temple on 85th Avenue were Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley and Oakland City Councilmembers Larry Reid (East Oakland Hills-Elmhurst) and Ignacio De La Fuente (Fruitvale-San Antonio).

"I have faith (that progress will be made)" said Miley, as he passed New Life Church on International Boulevard and a rest stop where bottled water was dispensed to marchers.

"It shows people's indignation, and that's good," said Reid.

"The community has to come together," added De La Fuente.

An organ was mounted on a lead flatbed truck. As marchers sang spirituals, onlookers responded with "Amen." A man blowing a trumpet played "We Shall Overcome," the civil rights anthem.