Pubdate: Tue, 06 Jan 2004
Source: Courier-Journal, The (KY)
Copyright: 2004 The Courier-Journal
Contact:  http://www.courier-journal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/97
Author: Jessie Halladay
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04.n037.a09.html

MINISTERS HEAR RESIDENTS' ANGER

Up and down Longworth Street yesterday, neighbors questioned, with
anger and grief, the police shooting of a 19-year-old man who grew up
among them.

Four ministers, led by the Rev. Louis Coleman of First Congregational
Methodist Church, went along the street at dusk last night to offer
some spiritual relief after the shooting death of Michael Newby on
Saturday.

They found an anger they had not expected.

"How come you're never here before they die?" Anthony E. Bland asked
the group as it started down Longworth.

Bland, though glad to see some action after the shooting, told the
ministers that showing up yesterday was not enough - and should be
only the beginning of outcry over the death.

"It's time for the senseless murders to stop," Bland
said.

Coleman, along with the Rev. Aprile Cooper, also of First
Congregational, the Rev. Milton Seymour of Energized Baptist and the
Rev. James Tennyson of Golden Star Missionary Baptist, walked the
short block to hand out fliers encouraging members to look to the
churches for help.

After just three houses, Coleman said he had learned an unexpected
lesson. "We didn't know it was this bad," he said after listening to
one woman talk about the pain she feels over losing her neighbor and
her anger at police. "The anger against the police department was just
unbelievable."

The ministers looked to the residents for suggestions.

Tandra Wright, 35, said she has been asking herself what she can
do.

"The first thing we don't want to do is play the race card," Wright
said. "But there's a lot of our black men that think he was killed
because he was black."

She said anything could help, especially prayer. "I believe in the
power of prayer," said Wright, who has lived in the neighborhood 20
years.

The ministers left the neighborhood vowing to use their conversations
with residents as a call to action - but this time trying to focus on
the spiritual needs of the people, rather than strictly the political
aspects.

They said they will return on upcoming Sundays to meet with neighbors,
and they will make themselves available as the community requests.

"We have been on the streets for a long time," Tennyson said. "This is
the worst that I have heard - how people are upset. It's time now for
action, time to quit talking behind pulpits and go out in the
community." More ministers, largely from the African-American
Interdenominational Ministerial Coalition, will "monitor the progress
of all investigations in this matter, and we encourage the entire
community to cooperate by doing the same," its president, the Rev.
Clay Calloway, said last night.
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