Sites&Sounds

I met directly with Mr Ron Moten, Chief Operation Officer of the Peaceoholics, for a one-on-one talk so that he could brief me on his perspective on gang related activity in Shaw and a recently announced supposed truce between rival 5th&0, 7th&0 and other local neighborhood criminals.

“Well that's the culture today. You got crews in elementary schools. ... That's what makes me nervous — when [the gang culture] gets down to the little ones.”
— Ron Moten

I had a few questions, to which Mr Moten gave very reasonable and satisfying answers, but for the most part our conversation allowed him the opporunity to bring me up to speed on why these groups wreak havoc in our community. As a reformed previously incarcerated individual himself, Mr Moten had insights which most government officials do not have. He also gave me a good perspective on the circumstances that lead these young men and women to organized criminal activity and the solutions he had for showing some of them the available alternatives to crime.

“[Drug dealers on the street today] are making about the same as if they were going to work at MacDonald’s. So, if you come to them with an [employment] alternative, it's so much easier to get them [now] than it would have been twenty years ago.”
— Ron Moten

I told Mr Moten that I would continue to speak to him and get in touch with members of the Alliance of Concerned Men , who he also works with, about local gangs in ANC2C to better understand gang related issues and actively work to find ways to stop this type of criminal activity.