Group's cry: Stop the violence

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People who live here want relief from the violence.

By JEANNE STARMACK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — A few blocks up from the parking lots crowded with football fans on their way to the Youngstown State game Saturday afternoon, a smaller group gathered.

The fans were looking forward to a hard-hitting contest. Violent, but controlled. Someone could get hurt. But it's just a game.

The group that gathered in the street next to Wick Park also knows violence. It's hard-hitting for them too, but it's out of control. People are getting hurt and dying. It's no game. And they want it to stop.

With music and free food and school supplies, the Stopping the Violence Committee hoped to attract teenagers to a back-to-school community block party. It began at noon and was to continue until 9 p.m., though by 3:30 p.m., there weren't too many teenagers around.

Sean Hall, president of Youngstown Night Riders, stood on the curb and watched as the Ohio Valley Crusaders pee wee football team and cheerleaders, dressed in cheerful purple, danced in the street to DJ Stan the Man's music.

"These little ones here, they're young yet," he said — "it's easier to teach them."

What he hoped for

He hoped that throughout the day and evening, more teenagers would come. "We want to get these young guys to maybe get them guns down or something," he said.

The Night Riders, a motorcycle club, was one of many groups that got together to form Stopping the Violence, he said.

The Crusaders were there to raise funds for a banquet, said Danielle Lazaro, head of its fund-raising committee. But the team's support for stopping violence is evident, she said, in the slogan that team parents wear on their shirts: "Our Valued Children."

Watching the little dancers from about 30 feet away were city resident Nakia Reighert; her daughter Akyla, 15; and Akyla's friends Amberlynn Miller, 15, and Nakema Autry, 16. They said supporting the end of violence in the city, where 23 murders have taken place so far this year, is what brought them out.

Reighert and her daughter moved to Youngstown from New Castle, Pa., about seven months ago.

She wants the gunshots she can hear while she's in her home to stop.

"We're not used to hearing gunshots like we do. You don't hear that in Pennsylvania," she said. "I'm all for stopping it."

"The first time I heard the gunshots, I was like — what's that?!" She laughed as she tried to mimic her shock and disbelief.

"I'm always the first one in the house," said her daughter, Akyla. "As soon as I hear it, I'm in and I lock the doors."

"People here, they're used to it," said Reighert.

"I ain't used to it," Nakema said. "I'm scared."

"If you hear a gunshot, you should get home quickly," said Amberlynn, who with her two friends attends East High School. More advice: "Don't trust anyone. Go places together."

Consequences

Reighert said she wishes the shooters could understand: There are consequences to violence.

Knowing that all two well are two cousins who were standing quietly on the sidewalk, staring at the DJ and the dancing.

Alondre Jones, 16, and Yaumbrail Jones, 14, lost their fathers to shootings.

Alondre was at the block party to support his mother, LaShawn Carter, a Night Rider who lost her two brothers, he said. But he believes such events can help turn the city around. "If the whole community gets together," he said.

Yaumbrail wasn't so sure block parties are the way to go. "It may help a little bit."

He paused, then looked at Alondre. "What he said," he asserted.

Alondre lost his father, Clarence Jones, during a shooting in 1993 at an East-Wilson high school football game.

Yaumbrail lost his father, Larry Jones, in a shooting last August at a crowded youth football game at the former South High School football stadium.

A few blocks down, YSU's stadium was packing in eager fans, and the game was about to start.

A few blocks up, people living with real violence gathered because they want it to stop.

Sunday, September 16, 2007