Gang Summit Ends With Call for Jobs
Snapping pictures for souvenirs and exchanging hugs, current and former gang members wound up a three-day summit Sunday with a show of unity and a call for jobs.
The National Urban Peace and Justice Summit, conducted behind the closed doors of an inner-city Baptist church, advocated “the immediate establishment of 500,000 jobs for at-risk youth” by public and private employers.
Other recommendations, released at a news conference Sunday, called for the government to make public the status of 15,000 police brutality cases and for President Clinton to appoint an independent commission “of people of color to oversee and monitor police brutality.”
Summit participants, mostly current or former members of black and Latino street gangs, spoke of a spirit of unity.
At a sermon at the host church, St. Stephen Baptist Church, the Rev. Mac Charles Jones said: “I don’t see any gangsters in here. I do see brothers and sisters and sons and daughters. That’s how we have got to operate.”
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