Brokering Peace

"I started learning the power that I had," Moten said.

Upon his release in 1995, he got involved with Cease Fire: Don't Smoke the Brothers, an anti-violence group that works with ex-offenders. There, he met Abraham. They became fast friends, throwing parties and reaching out to youths in trouble.

They formed Peaceoholics in 2003, figuring the name would be catchy on hats, T-shirts and jackets.

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The young man was agitated, stomping his feet and huffing through the bleachers. Moten had come to the football game at Anacostia High School looking for the leaders of Choppa City, the street crew whose members reside around historic Anacostia.

"I ain't with no Peaceoholics," one young man said, loudly, so everyone could hear. A half-hour later, at the urging of some friends, the young man stood near the end zone, listening to Moten's appeal.

"Y'all ain't making no money on the streets," Moten said. "They're charging you as adults when you get locked up. I'm asking y'all to sit down and come to the table."

Abraham was doing much the same at Woodland Terrace, a public housing complex that is home to a group known as Lench Mob. Tension between Choppa City and Lench Mob had led to many street fights and school suspensions. In November, during a fight between the groups, a youth got in a Metrobus and drove it away.

The men offer incentives to do the right thing; sometimes, it's peeling off a $20 bill or handing out a free T-shirt.

This night, Moten dangled go-go music as a hook. A radio station was sponsoring a concert for teens at the Tunnel nightclub in Northeast. He had passes.

A dozen young men piled into three cars, headed for the go-go. Among them, the kid who said that he wasn't with Peaceoholics. That led to dinners, meetings and small gatherings of crew members.

Moten and Abraham began going to court on behalf of those with pending charges.