March Calls for Peace in South-Central L.A.

About 200 protesters took to the streets Saturday morning in a two-hour march against violence in a South-Central Los Angeles neighborhood struck by a rash of shootings in recent weeks.

The protesters included children accompanied by their parents, and they called on residents to envision their lives in a world without violence.

“It’s like, ‘Wow! What does that mean? I wonder what it would be like if there was no violence,’ ” said Eric James, a youth counselor with L.A. Bridges who organized the event. “And if you can envision what it would be like, I think that’s the first step. . . . Now you have a goal. You have something to work for. That’s what I would like people to leave with today.”

With T-shirts and signs bearing the phrase “Envision No Violence,” the marchers snaked through some of South-Central Los Angeles’ most crime-ridden neighborhoods. With Los Angeles police providing an escort, they started near the corner of Imperial Highway and Main Street, then headed east to Central Avenue, north to Century Boulevard and back again, forming a chain about a quarter-mile long as they marched along the sidewalk.

As the marchers chanted “Stop the violence! Increase the peace!” passing motorists offered honks and cheers of support.

The march culminated in a rally at Gompers Middle School, where two students were wounded recently by gunfire in separate, off-campus incidents.

The march was organized by El Nido Family Centers and L.A. Bridges, two anti-gang organizations that provide after-school programs, counseling and other youth services.

At least one speaker expressed disappointment that more parents weren’t involved in the protest.

“This is great what you did, but we need the adults,” said James Harris of the gang intervention group Negative to Positive. “We need the men. So go back and tell your fathers, your uncles, your next-door neighbors, that when it’s something about the community, they better be encouraged about this like they are about the Lakers. They need to be out here.”

Eric James said he and his L.A. Bridges-Gompers colleagues came up with the idea for the peace march after reading news accounts of the sudden surge in violent crime in South-Central.

Crime is also up citywide. LAPD statistics released Friday show a 7.2% increase in violent crime in the first six months of the year over the same period last year, and a 28% increase in homicides. The number of gang-related killings, meanwhile, is up 80%.

“It’s unacceptable,” boomed Kahlid Shah, executive director of the Stop the Violence, Increase the Peace Foundation. “It’s unacceptable for a father to be picking up his children at a day-care center, and some idiot who couldn’t shoot straight to kill him and take his life and leave a family fatherless.

“Our babies are dying. This is not a game. We are burying our own children.”

James said he hopes Saturday’s march can be the catalyst for more positive action. If nothing else, he said, the event imparts the notion to young people that shootings and killings are not simply a fact of life.

“It’s happening every day. It’s happening in their backyards. . . . Family members are being killed,” he said. “I don’t want them to think that this is just normal activity. It’s not normal for this to happen.”