Twenty-Five Years After Rebellion, Gang Peace Treaty: The Struggle Fo... about:reader?url=http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_Ne...

finalcall.com

Twenty-Five Years After Rebellion,

Gang Peace Treaty: The Struggle For
Justice, Progress Goes On In Los
Angeles
9-11 minutes

By Charlene Muhammad -National Correspondent- | Last updated: May 2, 2017 -

8:34:34 PM

What's your opinion on this article?

The savage beating of Rodney King by White police

officers, their acquittal and the subsequent civil unrest has
done little to change Americas divided society many say.

1 of 8 5/11/17, 8:17 AM
Twenty-Five Years After Rebellion, Gang Peace Treaty: The Struggle Fo... about:reader?url=http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_Ne...

Katynja McCory, lead docent for the Re-Imagine Justice

art exhibit, looks at L.A. Riots photos featured in the
exhibit at the Community Coalition, Apr. 18, in Los
Angeles. When she thinks back to what she recalls of the
Rodney King riots, McCory concludes she had been living
in a bubble called childhood innocence. It was one that
was forever shattered on that dayher mother told the
13-year-old to get on the floor of their home and stay
there, lest she be hit by a stray bullet. Photo: AP/Wide
World Photos

LOS ANGELESActivists, non-profits, grassroots organizations,

gang members, gang intervention workers, and artists marked the
25th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Uprising and the Los Angeles
Gang Peace Treaty with panel discussions, a march, rally, film
screenings, food, music and more.
Have things changed in community-police relations and police
brutality since L.A. went up in smoke 25 years ago, in part after a
predominantly White jury acquitted four White officers of the savage
beating of Black motorist Rodney King?

Lora Dene King was seven-years-old when police pummeled her

2 of 8 5/11/17, 8:17 AM
Twenty-Five Years After Rebellion, Gang Peace Treaty: The Struggle Fo... about:reader?url=http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_Ne...

father after a high speed chase. She has mixed emotions about her
fathers legacy, which she feels will always live on.

As for change, shes seen very little. Its been adjusted and shifted,
but I dont think theres been any change, and the magnitude of
people dying is a serious matter, but I think the media has a
tendency to replay it to condition us to think this is normal, and its
not normal for people to get shot in broad daylight, at night, kids,
Ms. King said. Its crazy! Its insane! You cant condition a real
human being to think that this is okay.

What police did to her father affected him not only mentally, but in
every way possible, she said. Many dont realize he suffered a
tremendous amount of brain damage, said Ms. King.

I mean it still affects me day-to-day. Its a struggle. You know, its a

struggle, she said. The circumstance surrounding her fathers
death is still a head scratcher for her. She feels things dont quite
match up.

His death was ruled an accidental drowning on June 17, 2012,

however, he was a proficient swimmer, she said. So whatever
happened, it happened before he hit the water, Ms. King said.

The sad part is that the county that he died in is bankrupt, so they
just ruled it out. D I thought they didnt do an extensive
investigation, she said.

3 of 8 5/11/17, 8:17 AM
Twenty-Five Years After Rebellion, Gang Peace Treaty: The Struggle Fo... about:reader?url=http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_Ne...

Family members of Rodney King and Latasha Harlins,

two key figures leading up to the 1992 LA Rebellion; l-r:
David Muhammad, Denise Harlins, Lora King. Photos by
Charlene Muhammad

Aqeela Sherrills, Rudolph (Rockhead) Johnson, and

Daude Sherrills tell how theyve worked to maintain peace
for decades during panel talk at the Lighthouse Church in
Watts on April 29

4 of 8 5/11/17, 8:17 AM
Twenty-Five Years After Rebellion, Gang Peace Treaty: The Struggle Fo... about:reader?url=http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_Ne...

The family of Latasha Harlins attended the march and rally in her
honor.
Korean grocer Soon Ja Du, who was 51-years-old, shot the
15-year-old Black girl in the back of the head, claiming she was
trying to steal a bottle of orange juice from a liquor market.

Ms. Du faced 1st degree murder charges for the March 16, 1992
shooting. She was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and
received probation from a White, female judge. Outrage over her
death, tensions with Korean store owners and the light sentence
helped sparked the rebellion.

Pretty much what we think about it now is what we thought about it

then. Things, believe it or not have gotten progressively worse,
Student Minister Tony Muhammad of the Nation of Islam mosque in
Los Angeles told The Final Call.

As far as at the criminal justice system,

the economic depression, the
over-incarceration and criminalizing of
young brothers who lived in that
neighborhood, nothing as far as the state,
city or county to this day is doing
anything to kind of mitigate all of those
circumstances, he added.

Tybie Obard recalled her best friend Watts resident Mycall

planned to become a lawyer, because Million breaks from '92
she saw some injustices in their Watts/L.A. Peace Treaty
neighborhood. 25th Anniversary
As a child, she knew that. And as kids in celebration for a photo.
that neighborhood, you either grow up
fast or you get swallowed whole, Ms. Obard said.

She still lives in the neighborhood. Everything has changed now,

but as far as the attitudes towards Blacks with Korean owners, its

5 of 8 5/11/17, 8:17 AM
Twenty-Five Years After Rebellion, Gang Peace Treaty: The Struggle Fo... about:reader?url=http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_Ne...

not as obvious as it once was, but its still there, she continued.

Latasha Harlins friends and family joined Watts activists and

peacekeepers for the 25th Anniversary of the Watts-L.A. Peace
celebration. Its theme was Nobody Can Stop This War But Us.

Activities included film screenings, Imperial Dreams, the story of

reformed gangster Bobby Yay Yay Jones, and Jim Browns
Amer-I-Can Dream, which chronicles the former NFL greats work
with ex-gang members to end gang violence, a panel discussion at
the Lighthouse Church, and a special reception at LocoL Watts,
which serves wholesome, quality food at affordable prices.

Gang peace came the day before South L.A. revolted against an
unjust system, said architects of the peace treaty. However, little
has been mentioned about their act of self-determination 25 years
later, they said.

It was a moment in which we redefined public safety. The Peace

Treaty was a community strategy to address the heavy handed
approach of law enforcement killing our children with impunity, said
Aqeela Sherrills, a co-founder of Amer-I-can.

The times are similar, he said.

The community has never

been protected or
supported by law
enforcement. I hear all
across the country now
where, Oh! We have to
create a better relationship
with the police. Im like, we
didnt have one! We never
had one. It was that slave
master-enslaved
relationship, Mr. Sherrills L.A. Peacemaker Malik Spellman at

6 of 8 5/11/17, 8:17 AM
Twenty-Five Years After Rebellion, Gang Peace Treaty: The Struggle Fo... about:reader?url=http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_Ne...

stated. Even now they talk Florence and Normandie for 25th
about the Rodney King trial Anniv. of the L.A. Rebellion on April 29
as if Rodney King was on
trial.
He emphasized how Peace Treaty movement began in 1998. And
in 1989, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of
Islam brought his Stop the Killing Tour to Los Angeles. That really
galvanized Crips and Bloods from all around the city to come
together and talk about how can we stop this killing ourselves, said
Mr. Sherrills.

From there, consistent organizing started at Mr. Browns home.

That activity birthed the Amer-I-Can Life Skills Management
Program now being taught in schools, jails, and prisons across the
country.

We felt like our cries for help were falling consistently on deaf ears,
because of this label gangs that was put on us. It dehumanized the
people behind it, desensitized the public to our plight, so therefore,
regardless of what we said, the systemeven though they saw this
video, and we had been complaining about this for yearsstill it
was like oh, thats not happening to folks, Mr. Sherrils added.

His brother Daude Sherrills said the language of the Peace Treaty
is about a way of life and crime and violence reduction. The gangs
in Watts agreed to cease fire, then come together in a truce, and
then declared they were working for peace, he explained.

For over 25 years, we have done that, cease fires, developed

truces, and created plans, Daude Sherrils said.

Seeing so much violence, death and the cycle of death and

violence and destruction, for me, it had to be a change after, he
said, especially after he had a child.

At 50 he wants to continue to lay a foundation for liberation,

helping people affected by poor education, poor housing, a lack of

7 of 8 5/11/17, 8:17 AM
Twenty-Five Years After Rebellion, Gang Peace Treaty: The Struggle Fo... about:reader?url=http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_Ne...

jobs and opportunities.

Other speakers were Rudolph Rockhead Johnson, former

Compton Crip leader, now, coach of the I-Can Allstars Basketball
program; Ms. Ferlin, Attorney Salamon Zavala, and panel facilitator
Dr. Melina Abdullah, Black Lives Matter L.A. organizer and chair of
the Pan African Studies Department at California State University
L.A.

V-Dog, also known as Brother Wali, commended the events

organizers. He said he was 13 and lived in the Jordan Downs
Housing Projects, when the Peace Treaty was forged.

These brothers motivated me to do what I do now. Im the national

field marshal of the Black Panther Party. It changed our lives
forever, because we were watching them. We went to Jims house
and Jim offered everything he could, and didnt ask for nothing, but
showed everybody love, he said. I never thought 20 years later or
nothing like that that wed be at this point, said the 38-year-old.

8 of 8 5/11/17, 8:17 AM