Gang Peace Treaty Holds One Year Later
During the one year anniversary celebration of the May 21, 2004 historic ceasefire initiative between the Bloods and Crips in Newark, members of Saving Our Selves (SOS), activists and community and religious leaders, observed the 9th gang set to the sign the list of signatories of the agreement.
Newark, (PRWEB) June 4, 2005 -- Since the age of nine, the only life Machete has known is that of gangs. In the last 365 days alone, the 24-year-old has lost no less than four homies" to gang-related violence. He has had enough. Following a series of meetings with Saving Our Selves (SOS), he decided it was time for his set of Bloods to do what they should have done a long time ago.
During the one year anniversary celebration of the May 21, 2004 historic ceasefire initiative between the Bloods and Crips here, Machete was joined on stage by members of SOS, activists and community and religious leaders, as his pen stroke officially added Red Dog Piru gang set to the list of signatories of the agreement.
His decision was not a difficult one, he said. In the past year, he has matured to a point where he was able to see that he was in a no win situation. We werent winning what we were doing," he admitted.
From the time the treaty was singed last May, SOS has worked hard to change the image and perception of gangs throughout the city. Co-Founder Byron Kelley admits their efforts have been slowly progressing-theyre about halfway to where they would like to be-but the organization has been able to make some strides and is headed in the right direction.
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FinalCall.com News is committed to providing continuing and in depth coverage of the historic treaty and similiar peace inititiaves which are given scant or no coverage from mainstream media.
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