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Wednesday, February 19, 2003

By Ervin Dyer, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

More than 30 people gathered in East Liberty last night hoping to find solutions to extinguish community violence.

Violence has "festered" in the black community for too long, said the Rev. Thomas Smith of Monumental Baptist Church, Hill District.

"Most of the problems stem from a lack of sense of community and broken families, which have affected families and institutions," said Smith. "We have to rebuild."

The evening's organizers were hoping to do just that.

Held at the Kingsley Association, the meeting was sponsored by the NAACP, just coming off a campaign for a violence-free weekend, and Sankofa, a community discussion and empowerment group.

On hand were Tim Stevens, head of the Pittsburgh branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, state Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Hill District, ministers and other neighborhood activists tired of the killings.

The discussion was centered on Strategy '95, a series of goals aimed at bringing youth, educational, business, government, faith-based and other groups together as partners to address the violence.

The goals were formulated at the height of Pittsburgh's gang violence in the mid-1990s. They were partly the work of Adrienne Young, who buried her son, Javon Thompson, on Christmas Eve 1995. Thompson was a Carnegie Mellon University art student who was killed when a young man burst into a home he was visiting and shot three people.

Young, now an ordained minister, said she was tired of the talk and rehashing the same problems. She said the community has to deal with drug dealers and children who have no direction and no accountability.

"That is the root of it," she said. "We have to stop calling it racist every time there's a murder."

Wheatley, who as a teen pleaded guilty to larceny in Detroit, called on adults to be better role models.

"I was more influenced by people who looked like me. They were the ones who would have put me on a course to face 10 to 20 [years in prison] or selling drugs," he said. "Until we start to do right, some of us can never make a difference with our youth."

But there are other factors, said Hill Jordan, a musician and community advocate.

Violence is often a symptom of a lack of jobs and a lack of social connections.

"Nobody will sell things on a corner when they believe there are other things they can do," Jordan said.

"We should be community-based and involved first."