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Protesters Offer to Be Part of Solution
"We have met and developed some specific plans of actions. . . . As local entertainers who many citizens come to see regularly, we have direct communication with these citizens and substantial influence that can lead to behavioral change for the good of our community," the letter said.
Ronald Moten, co-founder of Peaceoholics, a nonprofit group that works to settle disputes and decrease violence among urban youths, said his organization recently helped quash a beef between gang members from Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Robinson Place SE in Washington by bringing them together at a basketball tournament. The conflict had arisen over a shooting at Ballou High School.
  Maurice Shorter addresses the Prince George's County Council in a session held to address the concerns of people associated with the go-go community who object to the closure of nine nightclubs after a spate of homicides. Protesters marched to the meeting and offered tips on ways to curb violence. (Photos By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post) |
Moten said that his organization has met several times in the past year with representatives from the offices of Johnson, State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey and Police Chief Melvin C. High but that nothing resulted.
"We are offering to help again, because this is an emergency," said Moten, accompanied on the march by his 9-year-old daughter, Yasmeen. "They call the killing of 11 people in 11 days an emergency. We say there has been an emergency for a lot longer than that."
Greg "Sugar Bear" Elliot, frontman for the go-go band EU, said that most clubgoers are law-abiding "citizens who don't condone violence anymore than Jack Johnson does." But he said that some clubs need to do more to maintain a safe environment.
But the Rev. Clinton H. Saunders Jr., pastor of Mount Victory Baptist Church in Seat Pleasant, applauded Johnson's action. He drew jeers from some marchers when he said he thinks that his son, who is serving in the military in Iraq, is safer than he would be at local clubs.
After the meeting, some of the marchers confronted Saunders.
"If Jesus was around, he might tell you to go in those clubs and get those people out of there," Abraham said. "You made a lot of people mad with what you said."
"I have had one son shot here. I know what I'm talking about," Saunders said.
