Embracing Peace

Hand in hand, about 400 people encircled Hubert Humphrey Memorial Park on Saturday, calling on God and each other to heal racial divides and end a streak of violence that has doubled the number of homicides in the area compared with last year.

The human chain, which surrounded two entire baseball fields behind the Humphrey Park community center, was dotted by signs that read “Unity/Unidos” and “Trust in the Lord.” Organized by more than 40 church leaders of many denominations and ethnic groups, the prayer circle was meant to symbolize the churches’ embrace of the whole northeast Valley.

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon, who represents the area, Los Angeles police officials and representatives from Mayor Richard Riordan’s office were also at the event. The prevailing attitude was not that the neighborhood needed government’s help, but that it was time for residents to help themselves.

Pastor Ian Robertson of the Church of the Nazarene in San Fernando invoked the image of Joshua and the priests blowing their trumpets outside Jericho, causing the city walls to tumble down. “Shout!” he hollered, quoting from the Book of Joshua. “Shout! For the Lord hath given you the city!”

And shout the congregants did. And cheered. And clapped.

The theme was carried on by other clergy, including the Rev. William T. Broadous, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Pacoima. “We gather here out of a sense of urgency,” he said. “We come open, and transparent, asking God to tear down first the walls in our personal lives, and then to tear down the walls within our community.”

Although the neighborhood surrounding the park is predominantly Latino, perhaps two-thirds of those attending the rally were African American.

With gospel choirs singing and preachers shouting out passages from the Bible, the meeting had the undeniable feeling of a church revival. But it was, in fact, Humphrey Park that the attendants hoped would be revitalized.

The park is at the center of an area that long has been plagued by violence. Alarcon said the number of homicides in the area dropped between 1992 and 1996--the years after a gang truce. But this year, despite the fact that other types of crime are dropping, the homicide rate is on the rise.

Black and Latino gangs have been fighting over turf in the area, including the park, said LAPD Foothill Division Capt. Ronald Bergmann. Of more than 20 killings this year in Pacoima--not all of them gang-related--most of the victims have been Latino. But the Aug. 17 shooting death--thought to be gang-related--of high school student Jaret Harris, an African American, raised racial tensions in the neighborhood around the park. Two other African Americans were killed in September, worsening the situation.

Alarcon got community leaders to work with mediators from the U.S. Justice Department--the same kind who worked with Alabamians after several predominantly African American churches were burned in their state. The clergy who met there conceived of the prayer rally.

The grand community gesture wasn’t lost on the LAPD’s Bergmann. “I was glad to see the turnout,” he said. “It can be so difficult to motivate the community.

“They’re saying, ‘This is our park and we’re not going to be scared out of here,’ ” he said.

Some police and community efforts already have worked, officials say. The Humphrey Boys gang, which used the park as a base, has at least moved to another park.

But Pacoima isn’t close to getting back to the way Annie White remembers it. White, 46, raised her children in the area and has lived in the northeast Valley for 30 years.

“I remember when my kids were young, you could come to the park and not worry about violence,” she said. “I went to San Fernando High School and there was always rivalry, but now if someone says the wrong thing, you have to worry about a knife or a gun.”

She brought her 27-year-old daughter and her 5-year-old grandson with her to pray for peace in Pacoima.

As the hundreds of people walked back to their homes and cars after two hours of prayer and singing, the Rev. Jordan Davis, one of the event’s organizers, was aglow with excitement at the turnout.

The racial tensions that marked earlier community meetings were absent. This is the start, he said, of achieving peace, of reaching harmony.

“We’re not naive. We know there is gang violence,” said Davis, pastor at the Parks Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church. “But these children have families that go to church.

“If we don’t go after them, then we’re lost.”