Pubdate: Wed, 28 Nov 2001
Source: Munster Times (IN)
Copyright: 2001 The Munster Times
Contact:  http://www.thetimesonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/832
Author: Claire Goldstein (Medill News Service)

SHARPTON, JACKSON PLEDGE TO STOP GANG VIOLENCE

Activist Leaders Blast Chicago For Over-Staffing Loop With Police After 
Sept. 11.

CHICAGO -- The Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson pledged to stop gang 
violence Tuesday at a meeting of church and community leaders at Liberty 
Baptist Church.

"I came here this morning because there is a national rise in gang 
violence," Sharpton said. "We're going to use our teeth and our tongues to 
stop the violence."

Jackson called for a stop to the "growing culture of violence."

"Let's deal with easy access to guns and easy access to drugs. Let's deal 
with first-class jails and second-class schools," he said.

Gang violence is of special concern in Chicago after three youths were 
killed last week in what police suspect were gang-related shootings.

While Sharpton and Jackson said they are not anti-police, they are 
"anti-police brutality." The message was clear that police are at least 
partially responsible for putting an end to the violence.

"Police are empowered," Jackson said. "They know where the gun shops are. 
We know where the crack houses are. Police have the responsibility to 
detect drug houses and the source of gun flow."

The Rev. Paul Jakes Jr. also spoke to reporters, saying that although 
Chicago Police officers had attended the meeting, they might have left 
because, "it got intimidating with the comments that the community was 
making," he said.

Patrick Camden, deputy director of news affairs for the Chicago Police 
Department, confirmed that there was a police representative at the meeting 
but declined to comment on whether the representative left the meeting 
prematurely.

Jakes also scolded Mayor Richard Daley for not responding quickly enough to 
last week's gang-related shootings, adding that the late Mayor Harold 
Washington would have acted immediately to involve the community in 
stopping gang violence.

Jakes said parenting classes, drug intervention programs and meetings with 
elected officials, judges and other empowered community leaders were all 
discussed during the meeting.

But it was Jakes' comment about the Chicago Police Department that set the 
tone of the meeting.

"In this last terrorist attack, there was deployment of officers downtown 
and not to the South and West Sides. If officers weren't out in the hood, 
we need to know why," Jakes said.

Camden responded to the charge that police were redeployed downtown.

"That is absolutely, positively, 100 percent not true," Camden said. 
"Service in the community has not in any way been disrupted."

Still, one South Side resident, Marc Balance, 44, said the violence among 
youth in his neighborhood has gotten so bad that he is afraid to take out 
the garbage after dark.

"I see the National Guard at the airport and I am ready to see them on my 
block," he said. "We are being held hostage by these gang members."

Balance said it was great that Sharpton and Jackson were on hand to get the 
community's attention but added, "(Sharpton and Jackson) can say a whole 
lot, but bottom line is that when they leave, we still have guns and drugs 
on our streets."
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