Crips, Bloods In Newark Agree To Truce

WNBC Television ^ | 5/25/2004 | Puppage

[Puppage]

NEWARK, N.J. -- Two rival street gangs long associated with violence have signed a peace agreement, garnering praise from city officials but skepticism from law enforcement.

Members of the Crips and Bloods said the level of violence had become even too much for them.

"The problem is us. The only way to fix this is us," a member of the Bloods faction called Pirus -- an acronym for Powerful, Intellectual, Radical, Universal Soldiers -- told The Star-Ledger of Newark.

"I think this is a first step to calm some of this down," said Deputy Mayor Ras Baraka, one of the mediators of the truce between the gangs.

"It's a good thing, but it remains to be seen if it will cease criminal activity these gangs are associated with," said Sgt. Kevin Rehmann, a spokesman for the New Jersey State Police.

In April, authorities attributed a spike in violence in Essex County to increased gang activity. The violence included 46 slayings since the beginning of the year, 32 of them in Newark.

On Friday, more than 150 gang members gathered in the basement of the Newark Housing Authority headquarters, where representatives from eight factions signed the Newark Street Peace/Cease Fire Initiative, an 10-point pact that called for an immediate truce.

Other provisions obligate gang members to forgo the use of hand signals, graffiti or other symbols to call for the killing of a rival gang member. The agreement designates public places such as schools, parks and houses of worship as neutral zones, and gang members agreed not to encroach on each others' communities.

Two other factions of the Crips and another of the Bloods were also expected to sign the accord, which is modeled after a truce protocol written by Stanley "Tookie" Williams, a co-founder of the Crips now on California's death row.

Williams now speaks out against gang violence and is the subject of the film "Redemption."

The Newark truce began to take shape earlier this year when two Crips members and a member of the Bloods who were friends agreed a time had come to end hostilities, said Dave Muhammad, an aide to Baraka.

The trio and Baraka enlisted the help of the Nation of Islam and Byron "Boogie" Kelley, a Newark resident familiar with gang members on both sides. Following a meeting with Kelley and Baraka, gang members began to craft the truce.

Kelley, Baraka and Saving Ourselves Inc., a group formed by the Bloods and Crips in Newark, will mediate any future conflicts.

Officials will also try to reach out to gang members in the Essex County Jail, where there have been fights between members of the gangs.

[Puppage]

Can ya feel da love?

[EggsAckley]

Hey, maybe we should send them all over to Iraq to do a little "housekeeping."

[OXENinFLA]

Now all we need to do is get their anger focused at al-Qudia.

[Lunatic Fringe]

[hellinahandcart]

Can ya feel da love?

I can feel the power and the intellect too.

Powerful, Intellectual, Radical, Universal Soldiers

Wow, I'm actually getting all weak in the knees here.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Well, this is a good move for them, a bad move for law enforcement. All this will do is allow the gangs to concentrate less on killing each other, and the like, and more time concentrating on drug sales, burglaries etc...

[LanPB01]

This is a ridiculous news item that gives quasi-legitimacy to groups of degenerates. A more accurate headline would read, "Trash pretend to temporarily stop killing each other."

[blanknoone]

Is this mayor any relation to the disgraced NJ poet laureiate?

This is disgusting. The government should be enforcing the law, not giving credability and sanction to these thugs. If there are two laws in town (nevermind three), there is no law. I wonder how various tax paying residents feel about having their neighborhoods classified as to whether they were in blood or crip territory.

[goodnesswins]

"The trio and Baraka enlisted the help of the Nation of Islam and Byron "Boogie" Kelley, a Newark resident familiar with gang members on both sides."

[inflation]

Would it be too hard to arrest them? Illegals and gang members get a pass but do you DARE even think about riding around without a seatbelt!

[Chad Fairbanks]

Yeah, I caught that. I still stand by what I said. :0)

[Southern62]

this reminds me of the movie "Warriors"

I don't understand why once we had them all in one place we didn't arrest them...

These gangs are nothing but terrorist organizations - wipe em out.

[Alberta's Child]

This may not be such a bad thing after all. Someone suggested a few years ago that the solution to America's urban problems was to build walls around these inner cities for ten years and then take them down. We might not recognize what we find in terms of civil government, but he speculated that it would probably function like a well-oiled machine.

[Puppage]

... but do you DARE even think about riding around without a seatbelt!

Funny you should mention that.

Here...have a look.

http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=1889109

[Alberta's Child]

I wonder how various tax paying residents feel about having their neighborhoods classified as to whether they were in blood or crip territory.

That's not really an issue here. With the exception of a few areas around the city, there hasn't been a tax-paying resident living in Newark in 35 years.

[ZULU]

I have a better idea about what to do with them - did you see "The Gladiator"?

[Khurkris]

uh...excuse me...Hey LEO's and DA's...What ever happened to R.I.C.O. ?

[sharktrager]

The Crips vs. Bloods feud has become a media creation.

Sure these gangs fight. Of course, the media kind of ignores that they also fight any other gang they come across, and fight different "sets" within their own gang. If the war was the way the media describes, the Bloods would cease to exist. During the heyday of the war in LA, before the gangs were as widespread and high profile, Bloods were outnumbered something like 10-1. They survived because, given the choice, the Crips would rather have spent their time trying to take out the other Crip set a few blocks over so they could expand their territory.

The fights are not about colors or pride. They are about territory and control of the drug market in that territory. I think the media has almost romanticized the whole thing.

[Pearls Before Swine]

This may not be such a bad thing after all. Someone suggested a few years ago that the solution to America's urban problems was to build walls around these inner cities for ten years and then take them down. We might not recognize what we find in terms of civil government, but he speculated that it would probably function like a well-oiled machine.

Appealing as the idea is, I have to say it hasn't worked out too well in the Pali refugee camps. The thugs rule the roost there, and it is anything but civil.

[Blue Jays]

Hard to believe that Newark was a stunningly beautiful city only about forty years ago. The downtown district was well-regarded on the entire East Coast. It, along with many other cities in Essex County have had a long slide downhill.