By Allison Klein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 11, 2008

They lived two blocks from one another in the Shaw area of Northwest Washington. And for 15 years, members of the neighboring crews, one at Seventh and O streets and one at Fifth and O streets, were at war over nothing, really.

"There wasn't no point to ask why," said Brandon Forrest, 21, one of dozens of people who testified yesterday about crime and violence at a D.C. Council hearing. "It was going on since we were in elementary school. It was instilled in us we don't like them."

Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) has been holding monthly youth hearings since October, in the wake of shootings and slayings. Gray said he wants to hear how violence affects young people and to encourage them to share their ideas about how to end it.

Although some spoke yesterday of positive neighborhood programs they are involved in, many recounted their troubles. A 10-year-old said he found a pistol on his neighborhood football field. Another boy said gunfire keeps him awake at night.

"There is a lot of shooting when I try to sleep," said Michael White, 10, who lives in Ward 7.

One teen recalled how his best friend, Ryan Harris, 15, was fatally shot March 16 in the Fort Lincoln area of Northeast Washington.

"Please help us stop this violence," said Edward Doxen, 16. "There are still good youth here in the city."

All of the speakers said more programs are needed, especially when it's dark, to keep young people occupied and out of trouble.

Four youths from the Seventh and O crew said they came to testify because they were asked to by the Alliance of Concerned Men, a community group that a year ago helped broker a truce with their rival gang at Fifth and O.

"I wasn't going to do it," Forrest said. "But people need to hear what really goes on."

Rodney Martin, 18, said the Alliance of Concerned Men helped him realize that the feud was pointless.

"I was fighting for a street that will be there regardless," Martin said. "If I'm in jail or not, the street will be there."

The youths said that the trouble with Fifth and O started long before they were involved but that until recently, they never questioned it, even when it affected their families.

Forrest's grandmother, who raised him, lived two blocks from a grocery store in the neighborhood, but there was so much violence on her street that she refused to go. "Grandma lived in the middle of everything," he said.

The youths said young people often lack positive male role models. None of the four youths from Seventh and O grew up with a father -- two were claimed by street violence, one never knew his son and one died of a heart attack.

"None of us have a father, but we all need that man to talk to," said DeAngelo Edwards, 17, who dropped out of 11th grade but is back in school. "I got caught up in that beef. What we need is love, tough love."

Forrest, who spent four years in prison for an armed robbery, said he has had trouble finding a job. He has applied for about 20 positions. He was called back for three interviews at a coffee shop: "They sat me down and said, 'The only thing that's holding you back is you have a felony,' " he recalled.

The youths said even though they think they are facing many obstacles, they are determined to earn money legally.

"There's millions of ways to make money in America," Martin said. "You don't have to be out on the corner selling drugs."