Creep, Jayce, and Loose — three Newark gang members involved in anti-violence campaign — urge the Newark Interfaith Coalition for Hope and Peace to back their efforts at reaching younger teens tempted by crime. Photos by Robert Wiener
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Gangs of NewarkApril 10, 2008
Christian, Muslim, and Jewish clergy members are launching an interfaith effort to reduce street violence among Newark gangs.
The Newark Interfaith Coalition for Hope and Peace will seek recognition and financial support for grassroots efforts at crime and violence reduction in both the inner city and its suburbs. Participants envision awareness campaigns, job programs, and support for houses of worship in the line of fire.
Representing the Jewish community in the coalition is Rabbi Matthew Gewirtz of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Short Hills, a synagogue whose roots are in Newark.
“Why a suburban rabbi? Because we feel we won’t make it out here unless Newark makes it,” said Gewirtz.
He spoke with NJ Jewish News a day before the first public meeting of the coalition April 3 at Newark’s Symphony Hall.
“The problems going on in Newark in many ways are pervasive and permeate our borders,” Gewirtz said. “In the suburbs, there may be different drugs, but there are drugs in the streets. There may be different alcohol, but there are kids drinking here. So, by dealing with these issues on an urban level we will also be able to deal with them on a suburban level.”
The joint city-suburban mission was born in the weeks of pain and outrage after four college-bound black teenagers were shot point-blank last August outside a Newark school.
“Everyone was so appalled by those killings,” said the rabbi. “They were saying, ‘To hell with all our differences.’ We are not converting anyone to Islam, to Christianity, to Judaism. We just want to get these kids off the street. That has been the motivation.”
The Rev. Reginald Osborne, a coalition member, described his Newark church, the Bethel World Outreach Ministry, as a place of worship “particularly for addicts and people in gangs.”
“We are going to encourage our faith-based community to join forces with a loving group of people — rabbis, imams, pastors — to show that we love each other and we love these kids,” Osborne said at a reception prior to the meeting.
Inviting current and former gang members to discuss prevention and intervention at Shabbat services “would be the easy part,” said Gewirtz. “What I do see is myself and other Jeshurun members who are ready and prepared to walk the streets with Christians and Muslims this summer and to get gang members help in retraining them and giving them jobs. I really do.”
The clergy members announced their intentions at Symphony Hall at a gathering of social workers, politicians, community organizers, and members of an antiviolence project called The Council. Council members — men and women who are both active and inactive gang members — inspired the formation and support of the Interfaith Coalition.
‘Something more’
Three Council members addressed the gathering, speaking of their own experiences as “gang-bangers” and their commitment to a frontline effort to visit schools and steer students away from violent lives.
A woman with the street name “Jayda” said she joined the Bloods gang at the age of “13 or 14” and has “been living this lifestyle for over 10 years.... There are a lot of things I’ve done over the 10 years I’m not proud of. I’ve seen the jails. I’ve seen the institutions. I’ve lived through the rapes, through the banging.”
She and others in the Council are uniquely qualified to reach a younger generation, Jayda said.
“I had a counselor tell me, ‘I know what you’re going through.’ I said, ‘Man, you come from the Brady Bunch family. You never had to starve. You are lying,’” she said. “I really know what they are going through. That is the unique technique that myself and my brothers use to reach the at-risk community.”
Defying urban myth about gang rivalry, Jayda’s boyfriend, “Creep,” is a Crip who also visits schools to spread a message of anti-violence.
Rabbi Matthew Gewirtz, left, listens as Newark Mayor Cory Booker tells the coalition he wants “something more” from everyone in fighting urban violence.
“The whole reason for gangs is to police our own neighborhoods, to protect our neighborhoods,” Creep explained. “Every gang member is a man or woman first. You hear ‘gang member’ and you act like we came from a different planet. We’re not aliens. We’ve got mothers and fathers just like y’all. Some of us don’t have mothers and fathers, and the next step is a gang.”
“Loose,” a fellow Crip, also said the coalition should enlist current members in its prevention programs.
“They are sending people into our neighborhoods who don’t have no life skills and don’t know how to deal with our neighborhoods and our communities,” he said. “Why not send us?”
That coalition received out-of-town support from a visiting cleric, Imam Earl El-Amin, a Muslim leader active in anti-violence and interfaith initiatives in Baltimore.
He urged his audience to “put our humanity before our ethnicity. We have to define what human beings really do. We have to stop glorifying the ills of the ’hood. You have to be able to define your own destiny.”
Imam W. Deen Shareef of the Waarith ud Deen mosque in Irvington urged less talk than action.
“Many pastors, ministers, priests, imams, and rabbis get a little comfortable standing in front of a microphone,” he said. “We think that because we’ve said it that we’ve done it. There is a big wide gap sometimes between what we have said and what we have accomplished.”
Winding up the evening, Newark Mayor Cory Booker said he had high expectations for the coalition.
“I am going to be the most frustrating, demanding, gettin’ ugly mayor there is in America,” he pledged. “I am going to demand from everybody in this room to do something you have not done yet. Give me something more. Give your city something more. Give your nation something more. We are a nation that has pulled itself up and stood strong because of strong people. May we show that strength now.”
Rabbi Matthew Gewirtz says suburban Jews must become involved in battling inner-city gang violence because “we won’t make it out here unless Newark makes it.”
Gangs of Newark
THE BLOODS, CRIPS, Latin Kings, and other gangs are active in Newark and other communities across the state. According to the Association for Children of New Jersey, Newark police have a roster of 3,600 suspected or confirmed adult gang members in the city. Most are between 18 and 25 years old.
While hard data on juvenile gang membership in the city is scarce, the gang intelligence officer at the Essex County Juvenile Detention Center told ACNJ in 2007 that 85 to 90 percent of the crimes for which youth in the county are detained are gang-related, and 55 to 60 percent of those charged with crimes related to gang activity are full-fledged gang members.
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