Meeting of the Minds

It was 9 a.m., early by a reporter's standards, and the U.S. Attorney's office was sponsoring a dialogue at City Hall about ways clergy can help reduce violence in the community. The room was full of police chiefs, clergy, federal prosecutors and community activists from New Haven, Bridgeport, Hartford and Waterbury.
Two kids, a 14-year-old 9th grader from Co-op High School and an 11-year-old 6th grader from Worthington Hooker stood up in front of them all at the lectern and read two essays they wrote about gangs, fear, death and stereotypes. For those who wonder about what future leaders will come from this young generation, these are them. The kids were impressive and, afterward, agreed to provide copies of their writing. It was eerie and heartening at the same time hearing the words come out of such young children.

Gang Violence in our Communities
By Blake M. Spears
Listen, can you hear her cry? A little baby girl cradled in her mothers arms while the sounds of explosions terrify her sweet little dreams in the night.
Her mother holds her
ears close and shuts all the windows. They sit on the couch in the comer away from the windows by fear that once again another flying bullet might just land itself in her house.
Brrrraaaatttt, bang, bang the sound of gunshots and the screeching of rubber tires on the cement brings tears to the poor mother's eyes. As she rocks the little baby to sleep her singing is drowned out by the war of bullets outside. This poor child is given away the right of a night's peaceful sleep and endures a lullaby of gunshots instead. By the next morning the smell of burnt rubber and the sight of dead bodies on the front doorstep wakes the neighborhood. No one dares to call the cops because they know that they won't show. This was just another regular night in the hood as it's called.
Today that little baby
girl will have to play inside until the police finally decide to take a side glance down Spring St., their worst nightmare. Today that little baby will hear the cry of a mother who's lost her only son to the heated razor of the Crypts. Today that little baby will watch her mother put down salt and baking soda on the front porch where blood was splattered. Today that little baby girl is me.
I am depressed yet hopeful to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for preventing and stopping community violence in the history of our nation. Seven score years ago, a great American, in whose unfaithful shadow we are unprotected by today signed up to become a police officer.
This young
man as well as many others in our nation have made a promise that he/she will stand for what is right and protect the innocent as well as the guilty. But in a series of unfortunate events they have failed to do that very thing. They have failed to keep peace. They have failed to keep fairness. They have failed to let good people lives their lives happily.
Instead, they have given us no chance of survival in this dangerous world. So I am here today to tell everyone that, yes, we do live in the "ghetto" or "hood"
as some like to call
it but that does not give the police authorities the right to ignore our endless cries for help when young innocent children are being sucked into gangs. It is true and happening now right here as we speak. Mother's sons and father's daughters are being sucked into deaths chokehold and making a place in the dirt for their graves!
Every time I step out of my door you hear the foul language and see their hand signs being shot up in the air. Vandalism on the food mat at the comer of Whalley, 2x 3x 4x spray painted in red, black, blue, and gray. This is the scenery that I witness every time I go outside.. .every time I try to live my life. Today was as bad a yesterday.
Nothing seems to change no matter how many people want it to. The thing that is confusing me about today is that our country is overseas killing up people for no reason at all and they can't even take a peek at what's going on here. This nation is being destroyed from the inside not the out. The average crime rate for Connecticut alone has risen about 57% in the past three years. That is more than half and let me mention again that this is just Connecticut alone, think about all the other places you see on the news.
Chicago, South Carolina, Philly and many more. All these places are being forced to live in harmful conditions. This is not what I imagine Thomas Jefferson meant when he wrote the Declaration of Independence or any of our founding fathers meant when they wrote any of the great documents of American history. Today when I looked at the news paper, the obituary took up about five pages. Deaths of mostly the young and quieted. The ones who were just "standing by" when it happened. Those are the ones who get in the most, the people who just got in the way. Yet our law enforcers are being told to go other places instead of coming to the places that need it most. This is what today looks like form the view of someone who actually lives it.
Crime has been around since the beginning of mankind but it has gotten much worse. I am here to tell you and the rest of the world simply this: that the government should enforce more police in the small communities where they are really needed not guarding somebody's mansion. We the people are doing all that we can but we cannot, I repeat, we cannot do this alone. We need their help. Police officers are supposed to be trained to work in bad areas it doesn't seem like that from what I see.
Our jails are getting
filled with unnecessary inmates. All our young kids are being held hostage by the choice
of: joining this gang so I won't die or not joining the gang and ending up shot and killed then thrown in a dumpster like my best friend. Parents aren't even letting their kids go outside and sometimes it gets worse than that. Elderly people live in these neighborhoods and when a 70 or 80 year old senior citizen is being beaten and robbed every time they go out to water their garden something is definitely wrong here!
Uh.. .pause... cause I hear a mumbler within this crowd. I hear someone who doesn't understand these unneeded numerous deaths, who doesn't understand the way of the real people, they don't understand why this is such a problem. Poor, they call us; they say we chose to live like this, that there are better things out there.
Well let me not be
rude by saying that not everyone in this world is rich like you. For some people this is all that they can afford because their parents weren't being parents so they had to drop out of school. This is all that we have; the government can give us jobs you say. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! I laugh at you and your foolishness because the government doesn't give a rats butt about us. Us, the real working people in this industry. You are having a police person guard your stupid billion dollar house while some man is beating his girlfriend to death upstairs from me. You are so wrong and so stupid to think that we choose to live like this.
When I was in the sixth grade my best friend who I shall keep anonymous was in a gang. He would get it spray painted on his t-shirt and right it on all his papers and desk at school. He was a good kid, when he wasn't on weed or pot. Yeah, I know it's always the good ones who just won't listen. He would snort it in the bathroom then come out high as a kite. Then one day the police came (what a surprise that was) and searched his book bag. They checked him and found what they needed to charge him. He went to court and was put on trial. In the seventh grade he got even worse, he would skip school and sell and use drugs. In, eighth grade he got caught with drugs, tried to run, shot at the police, and was put on trial. He is stuck injuvy until he's eighteen.
The law and the rights of not even American citizens but the rights of mankind should be enforced everywhere and the police should be trained so that they know how to handle all kinds of situations. Yeah, they have a huge risk to take going into a bad neighborhood shoot out on Whalley at 3:00 in the morning but hey, somebody has to do it. They have so much gut to go overseas and kill up everyone over there coming to a crime seen in their own neighborhood should be like training camp!
I saw a button the other day on a girls shirt that was the picture of a young boy.
When I asked who the boy was she told me that it was her older brother who had been mistakenly identified as a member of a rival gang and beaten to death.
After the body was
reported the police showed looked down their noses at the whole situation. As the little 8 year old girl was telling me this story, a 8 month pregnant lady down the street was beaten and shot to death by her boyfriend. Listen, can you hear her cry? A little girl was standing in her driveway when a drive-by shooting caught her three times in the chest Listen, can you hear her cry? An elderly man was attacked while bringing his groceries into his house. Listen, can you hear her cry? To join a gang you must be killed.
Listen, can you hear her cry? To get out of a gang you're going to be killed. Listen, can you hear her cry? Bullets flying in every direction be careful where you stand. Listen, can you hear her cry? The graveyard is becoming home to many. Listen, can you hear her cry? A mother holding her baby while outside explosions are being set off. Listen, can you hear her cry? A funeral for the little baby who was shot in the head by a bullet flying through the window. Listen, can you hear her cry?
Listen, can you hear her cry?

Corey Moore
Gang Violence Speech
To all my friends in the audience this morning, I did not come here to take up a lot of your valuable time, but I did come here to discuss one of the biggest problems this nation has ever faced, I’m talking about gang violence.
It breaks my heart to see all this robbery, murder, aggravated assault, auto theft, even larceny. But let me make it clear this problem is not just in New Haven, not just in Connecticut, but all over the United States of America, and if we don’t do something about it now, before you know it- it will be a worldwide problem that will cause a lot more trouble and use a lot more resources.
Let me share with you my view, I can only believe what I know is true and that is that young men and women are being raised the wrong way. They are being taught that violence is always the answer, and I am not saying that all kids are being taught this way but there are enough to lead to gang violence.
I am tired of being scared to go outside, I am tired of hearing about murders on the news, I am tired of families being broken apart in an undeclared war between our own people, and I know for a fact we are all tired of this long-lasting problem. Gang Violence has gone on for way to long and I’m sick of it so let’s start putting an end to it right now, so we all can have brighter and safer futures.
For those who are still locked up by the mental chains of gang violence, and don’t believe there is another way, let me tell you something: being in a gang don’t make you famous, fighting for what is not yours doesn’t make you a man, killing innocent people doesn’t make you respected, wearing your colors don’t make you strong, it makes you the guy that’s going to be behind bars, the guy that is lonely, so stop this foolishness once and for all!
For this has gone on long enough because for every problem there is a solution, and now is the time to find that solution and (unlock the door to a safe New Haven, unlock the door to a safe Connecticut, unlock the door to a safe United States, and even unlock the door to a safe world, for all human beings.) The way to do that is through speech. Stop and tell one of the 9 million gang members that what they’re doing is wrong, let them know (learn) how they are hurting themselves as well as many others. So let us all take our neighborhoods back, before it gets too late.
How many of you work to stop gang violence? Well to me every single one of you should, not just for publicity or for some kind of reward but just to know that you helped solve one of this nations biggest problems.
If you think you’re strong, well you’re not until you’ve stood and told a gang member, do what’s right. Now that’s being strong, and any one of us in here can do it we just need the heart and the faith.
So let us start now, let us begin to find a solution together, let us feel good about ourselves, let us achieve our goal of a safe society, and let us not have fear that it may not be a smooth road to a solution. It’s time to forget the past and move on to a better and safer future.
As I leave you tonight, I thank you for letting me rub off some of my (eleven year old) wisdom about the importance of stopping gang violence. I also leave us all with the responsibility to get up, get a head start, keep your faith, and let New Haven know, let Connecticut know, let the US know that we (Students, Parents, City Government, Elected officials, and community activist) – together are coming to make a difference in our neighborhood. Thank You!