March a Tribute to Fragile Truce

Teetering on the hard edge between peace and warfare, Bloods and Crips leaders from some of the city’s most embattled housing projects marched through Watts on Friday to commemorate--and perhaps reinforce--the fragile gang truce that they forged three years ago, days before the Los Angeles riots.

About 200 people, many of them current or former gang members, chanted slogans--”No more killing; peace in the ‘hood”--during the two-hour procession from Jordan Downs to the Haciendas, Nickerson Gardens and Imperial Courts projects. Many recalled times when gang boundaries and the fear of bloodshed made it all but impossible to make such a journey, even to visit close relatives.

“There’s no way, before the truce, that Bloods and Crips could go in each other’s area, period,” said Minister Mujahid Abdul-Karim of Masjid Al-Rasul, an Islamic organization that helped plan the march. One of the event’s goals, Abdul-Karim said, was to promote peace among younger gang members, who are seen as most in danger of renewing hostilities in Watts and other communities.

“We want to . . . stop the senseless violence and killing--in Pasadena, Long Beach or wherever it is,” he said.

Tenuous gang truces have arisen in recent years in parts of South-Central Los Angeles, Venice, Long Beach and the San Fernando Valley. Though helpful in reducing the number of gang-related murders, they generally have failed to put a significant dent in overall gang violence, police said. The truce in Watts is one of the most enduring, kept in place by community groups that have organized baseball and basketball games among youngsters from the projects, and by the rival gang members themselves, who are now seen by police talking to one another rather than fighting.

Even so, gang violence and crime continue to plague the area, with many murders now committed by smaller, relatively young gang “sets” based outside the projects, police said.

“It’s time for us to stop killing each other and start sticking together,” said Shawn Fudge, 24, a longtime Jordan Downs resident who was recently released from a juvenile facility after serving 8 1/2 years for a gang-related murder. Fudge said he was only 15 when, after a disputed dope deal, he shot five people, including a 12-year-old boy on his bike who died.

Moments before joining the march, Fudge said the truce has won support in part because rival gang members in Watts tend to know each other from school. In many cases, families from different projects are related. Fudge said he can see bonds forming because of the truce. He is hanging out with people from other projects. He sees fewer weapons.

“It seems like everybody’s walking around without carrying guns,” Fudge said. “Before I went (to jail), it seemed like all the homies were carrying guns.”

Watts’ relatively small, close-knit nature has played a strong role in making the truce there successful, in contrast to what occurred elsewhere in South-Central, where a similar Bloods-Crips truce rapidly fell apart, according to some activists.

“There are a hundred and some neighborhoods in South-Central,” said Charles Rachal, executive director of the nonprofit South-Central Youth and Community Services organization, created as a result of the truce.

“There’s not the togetherness like there is in Watts. We came together . . . trying to forgive each other,” Rachal said. “(But) it started to slide out of place. There was no guidance . . . no role models. After about a year, people started going back to what they normally do.”

Violence never did go away. Murder rates in South-Central and Watts were among the highest in the city before the truce, and they even climbed slightly in 1993, the first full year after the riots. More recently, the numbers have begun to decline once more, but the Los Angeles Police Department’s 77th Division, which covers most of South-Central, led the city with 135 killings last year.

The Southeast Division, which encompasses Watts, was second with 101 murders. LAPD Capt. Ken Small, who oversees operations in that 10-square-mile area, said the Watts truce has indeed eased tensions among the three or four large gangs that dominate the projects. The trouble is, that is only a small fraction of the overall problem.

Altogether, there are 52 gangs in Watts and surrounding neighborhoods, Small said. Even when gangs stop preying on each other, many still prey on other members of the community, he said. Many still deal in narcotics. Some still terrorize residents within their own projects, or war with gangs from surrounding neighborhoods that are not involved in the truce.

“We still have plenty of drive-bys and walk-ups and every sort of gang shooting,” Small said. “My officers tell me there are a lot of very, very young gang members . . . maybe 14 to 17 . . . who continue to be very violent.”

At one street corner, the marchers stopped and called for a moment of silence in honor of those killed by gang violence. Then they moved on, chanting, “Put the guns down. People put the guns down.”

Some activists wonder how enduring the truce can be in a city where jobs are scarce, drugs are prevalent and all too many directionless teen-agers are looking for a way to make a mark.

“There’s always going to be somebody that, regardless of the truce, is going to invade the neighborhood,” said Hector Reyes, 24, a former gang member who now works for a program called L.A. Building Up.

“It could get out of hand, and eventually it will, if we don’t (reach) the younger ones. We’ve got a long ways to go,” he said.