Treaty Signed to Maintain Peace Among L.A. County Gangs

Organizations that work with hard-core gang members across Los Angeles County signed a pact Saturday to coordinate their efforts to stop violence.

Though no current gang members signed the agreement, the groups said they represent specific neighborhood gangs that have vowed to honor it.

The event on 91st Street in South-Central Los Angeles was attended by activists and former gang members, plus football great Jim Brown and Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca.

“The renewal of this peace treaty brings great promise and hope for many people,” Baca told a crowd of about 100. He called those who signed the treaty “visionaries.”

While the event, organized by Aqueela Sherills of the Community Self Determination Institute, came on the ninth anniversary of another cease-fire agreement in Watts, Saturday’s proclamation was much different.

It encompasses the entire county and does not include pacts between specific rival gangs, but it sets up a system of neighborhood councils where gang members will be able to communicate with their foes, presumably without violence.

“We are dying out here,” said Dewayne Holmes, one of the organizers from the Imperial Courts Housing Project. “And if we don’t do this we will be lost.”