Gang War: Bangin' In Little Rock

Leifel Jackson Promo

2008-07-08T13:30:00.001-05:00

Read My Account of Pending Heart Surgery

2008-06-22T10:56:00.002-05:00

If you are interested, visit my personal blog where I will be posting updates on my pending heart surgery.

Special From the NLR Dogtown Wire

2008-06-17T06:51:00.001-05:00

(Steve Nawojczyk helped set up and ran the city's Mayor's Office on Youth Services from its inception in 2000. He recently left this directorship to take a job as the Program Administrator for Community Services at the Arkansas Department of Human Services. We asked Nawojczyk to share his long connection and experiences with the annual Arkansas Boys State. The following is his account.)

During the first week of June for the last 16 years I have loaded up in my car and traveled the 30 miles to Conway for my yearly rejuvenation.

Back when the gang violence was at epidemic proportions, I was serving as the Pulaski County coroner and had developed a national reputation as being one who was knowledgeable in the dynamics of gangs.

For some reason, the people who put on the American Legion Boys State each year thought my message would be a good one for the thousand or so high school juniors from around the state to hear.

My first year, I was a nervous wreck. I knew that high school boys are always some of the hardest to reach. I labored over the content of my talk and finally settled on just being myself.

I would simply tell them of my “conversion” from being a person who felt the answer to the gang problem was more jails, tougher laws and meaner cops to a person who understood that in order to effectively deal with the problem communities must balance suppression and enforcement with prevention, intervention and treatment programs.

I told them stories of young mothers who I had to sit with and counsel them over the loss of a child. I told of how families struggled to get through the life-changing events caused by a child who made a poor decision.

I encouraged the Boys Staters to engage in some sort of public service as a career. If they weren’t destined for that, I told them to stay involved in their community. I challenged them to become “agents of change” for their generation.
After my first speech to them those long years ago, I got a five minute standing ovation that brought me to tears. It seemed to go on forever. The fires of my hope for the next generation were stoked. And, it gets stoked each year.

The 2008 Boys State attendees fill the hall in Conway. (Steve Nawojczyk)
I always learn more from the young men at Boys State than I teach them. I don’t teach really, I just reflect on my nearly 25 years of studying death. After all, what you do when you study death is done to benefit the living.

I look forward to many more years of my trek to UCA and the feeling of hope in my heart that is always greater on the trip home than it was the trip up.

Next week, a trip to the delta country would bring me before a completely different set of young men.

The following Tuesday, I was headed the other direction from North Little Rock. This time I was making my 9th trip to the Tucker Maximum Unit of the Arkansas Department of Corrections to speak to the 9th class of the U.N.I-TY program. UNITY was started by an inmate serving life without parole, a prison psychologist and a Correctional Officer Captain. The acronym stands for You and I Teaching Youth. It is a program that is mostly attended by lifers and former gang members. They meet for about 15 weeks and work on many problems inmates deal with on a daily basis.

It is a lot different looking into the eyes of these broken but hopeful souls than it is into the eyes of the Boys Staters. One can’t help but wonder if their circumstances had been different when the inmates were younger if their lives would have taken a different turn.

When I converse with the men at the prison, I am also someone instilled with a little hope because they are so willing to share their lives, which in turn helps me to do my job.
Both audiences make me realize we are all in this together. Somehow, whether you are a ward of the state or a future leader of our state or country, there is a common bond. The need to connect. The need for nurturing caring adults in the lives of children. To turn a worn out phrase, it truly does, it seems, take an entire village to raise a child.

Now I’ll wait until it is time to either go to Boys State or prison again. In the meantime, I’ll continue to share the messages shared with me.

(Editor’s note: The American Legion Department of Arkansas inducted Steve Nawojczyk to the Arkansas Boys State Hall of Fame on June 6 for his contribution to the Boys State and the youth of Arkansas.)

REPORT TO BE RELEASED URGES JUVENILE JUSTICE REFORM IN ARKANSAS-From the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

2008-06-12T07:00:00.001-05:00

Report: Lock up fewer youths

By Andy Boyle

Thursday, June 12, 2008

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas’ juvenile justice system needs to rely more on community-based programs rather than confinement, according to a report that will come out later this month.

More than 90 percent of youths committed in Arkansas are nonviolent offenders, and keeping them locked up increases their risk of future delinquency, the report found.

The report, not yet complete, was commissioned in January by the Justice Equality Human Dignity and Tolerance Foundation of New York in collaboration with the Arkansas Division of Youth Services. It essentially supports previous studies by the Disability Rights Center in Little Rock, a nonprofit federally funded group that advocates for the disabled.

“I think what [the report] says is we’re at a very important time for juvenile justice in Arkansas,” said Dana McClain, senior staff attorney for the Disability Rights Center, which released its findings more than a year ago. “And if we fail to take the opportunity we have here, our children are going to suffer because of it.”

A juvenile justice task force will use the report to identify problems in the system, said Julie Munsell, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Human Services, the agency that manages the Youth Services Division. An assessment unit is visiting the state’s eight detention facilities and looking to divert some of the young offenders to less restrictive environments, she said, noting one of the report’s recommendations.

Saying incarceration should be used as a last resort, the report recommends developing a five-year plan for changing the system.

Moving youths to community-based facilities can’t start soon enough, but it won’t be easy, said Paul Kelly, a senior analyst with Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, a nonprofit group.

“We do not have the capacity currently in the state to handle all of these kids,” he said of community-based programs that would provide, among other services, substance abuse treatment and family therapy.

Refocusing the juvenile justice system also would save taxpayers money that could be reinvested in developing a “comprehensive array of community interventions proven to help youth stay out of trouble,” according to the report.

Each youth kept at a detention center costs the state $150 per day. The state pays $120 to $480 per day to keep a young offender at a specialty facility, such as the Arkansas State Hospital.

In fiscal year 2007, 621 youngpeople were committed to the Youth Services Division, and 403 of them were confined in specialty facilities, costing the state more than $23 million. The division’s budget for this fiscal year is $61.9 million.

Some of the offenders have committed such crimes as murder and rape.

“We recognize and acknowledge that some youth and some crimes will require some period of confinement,” said Bart Lubow, director of programs for high-risk youth at the Baltimorebased Annie E. Casey Foundation, which releases its 2008 Kids Count Databook today.

The problem of locking up young people who commit nonviolent crimes is partly cultural, Kelly said. People like a revenge system of justice, he said.

Pat Arthur, one of the authors of the report to come out later this month, said the task force is bringing together agencies that deal with similar matters, so one of the biggest difficulties will be finding a consensus. But she said the leaders of the state are making the right decision by trying to change a problematic system.

“I’m very hopeful for Arkansas youth and their families because there’s some real good leadership in the state right now,” she said.

Information for this article was provided by Carolyne Park of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Front Section, Pages 9 on 06/12/2008

Gang Related?

2008-06-07T07:06:00.001-05:00

Judge rules to allow gang-related claims

By Michelle Bradford

Saturday, June 7, 2008

BENTONVILLE - A judge ruled Friday that jurors will be allowed to hear evidence at a capital-murder trial next month that alleges the 2006 slaying of a motorist in Lowell was a gang initiation.

Benton County Judge Tom Keith also ruled that defendants Manuel Enrique Camacho and Serafin Sandoval-Vega will stand trial together July 8, despite objections from defense attorneys.

“I wrestled with this decision, but I’m denying the motion to sever the cases,” Keith said. “Keep in mind we can separate the cases in the middle of the trial, or even at the end if necessary. But I’m confident that neither defendant will be unfairly prejudiced by the other.”

Sandoval-Vega, 20, Camacho, 27, and Roxana Hernandez, 22, are charged in the May 6, 2006, shooting death of Daniel Ray Francis of Little Flock. The 32-year-old father of four was shot while riding in a friend’s car onU.S. 71B, prosecutors said.

Sandoval-Vega, who prosecutors say pulled the trigger, is charged with capital murder, while Camacho, the driver, and Hernandez, the front-seat passenger, are charged with being accomplices to capital murder.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Sandoval-Vega and Camacho. Hernandez, if convicted, faces up to life in prison. Her trial date is pending.

Next month’s trial for Camacho and Sandoval-Vega is expected to take up to six weeks. Jury selection could take a week, given the possibility the jury could have to decide on the death penalty for two people.

After Friday’s hearing, attorneys for Camacho and Sandoval-Vega talked to the defendants’ families who remained in the courtroom.

“We’re in crunch time now,” said Joel Huggins, a Springdale attorney for Sandoval-Vega. “We’ll be calling all of you into the office for interviews in the next week or two, and we’re optimistic there’ll be a fair trial.”

Fayetteville attorney Kent McLemore spoke through an interpreter to Camacho’s family, who declined to talk to a reporter.

“They’re scared to death,” McLemore said of the family. “[Camacho] is a husband, a father and a son, and his family loves and cares about him.

“They’re very worried what might happen,” he said.

Prosecutors said Francis was shot while riding with Tracy Stith, a co-worker at J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc.

Stith told police that he and Francis had been in a roadway dispute with the three defendants and that both cars took turns cutting in front of the other and slamming on the brakes. After about 15 minutes, Sandoval-Vega stuck a gun out of the back-seat window of Camacho’s Honda Civic and fired, prosecutors said.

Sandoval-Vega, Camacho and Hernandez were arrested that night at a Bentonville convenience store parking lot where they had a pistol and a box of ammunition in the car, police said.

Al Valdez, a retired California gang investigator and an expert witness for prosecutors, testified at an April hearing that the killing was a gang initiation.

Valdez said Camacho seized an opportunity in a dispute with strangers to let Sandoval-Vega commit a crime to get into a gang.

Valdez, a regular guest on the History Channel TV series Gangland, said he made his determination in the case based on gang tattoos on Camacho’s body, on Camacho’s deep involvement with gang crime while he lived in California, and on statements that he and others made after their arrests in Benton County.

But an expert witness for the defense, Brian Contreras, who runs the nonprofit youth program Second Chance in Salinas, Calif., testified that the shooting lacks the characteristics of a true gang shooting. He said most gang crime is “gang-on-gang” and that most gang members won’t target an innocent person for an initiation.

Tim Buckley, an attorney for Camacho, said Friday that it’s been hard coordinating witness schedules and finding Spanishspeaking experts who are qualified to work on death-penalty murder cases.

“We’d had to work with the Mexican consulate to get some witnesses here,” Buckley told Keith at the hearing. “It’s been a complicated process, but we’re getting there.”

Keith denied a request by Buckley for a 60-day continuance to fine-tune the case and accommodate an expert psychiatrist in North Carolina.

“There will always be those moments of [adjusting] trial strategy up to the last minute,” Keith said. “We’ll adjust as we go along.”

Arkansas, Pages 14 on 06/07/2008

NW Arkansas Police to Share Gang Information- The Arkansas Democrat*Gazette

2008-03-23T07:16:00.002-05:00

Police want to share information on gangs

NW Arkansas officers see need for database

By Michelle Bradford

Sunday, March 23, 2008

LITTLE ROCK — When Rogers or Springdale police try to solve a gang crime, they have database access to information on hundreds of local gang members or their associates.

Smaller police departments in Northwest Arkansas, however, don’t have similar databases that show photos, tattoos and addresses linked to gangs such as Sureno, MS-13, Nortenos and Brown Pride.

The closest thing to a regional gang clearinghouse is the Arkansas Crime Information Center. While the information center shows felony convictions across the country, it listsonly 21 gang members in Arkansas. In Rogers, police have more than 200 in their gang database.

“If my city gets hit with graffiti by someone called ‘Snoop Dog,’ I can’t call up ACIC and say, ‘Is there a Snoop Dog in your system?’” Centerton Police Chief Lance Johnson said.

“With ACIC, you need a name, a date of birth or a driver’s license number, something to start with,” he said. “A lot of times we don’t have that kind of information at the front end.”

In Centerton, a fast-growing bedroom community west of Bentonville, the Latin Kings gang painted graffiti in January;no one has been arrested for it. Johnson wants a plan to create a Northwest Arkansas gang-intelligence network.

Such a database would let law enforcement officers add intelligence information as they get it. They could then check whether a suspect - who may be known only by a nickname, a tattoo or who he runs with - is on the radar of another department.

“If another department arrests a gang member and it turns out he lives in Centerton, I might not ever know until one of us picks up the phone and calls the other,” Johnson said.

CALIFORNIA USES DATABASE

Twelve agencies in Northwest Arkansas meeting under the federal Project Safe Neighborhoods’ Anti-Gang Initiative talked about starting a gang-intelligence database last year, but logistics and cost concerns put the plan on hold.

Bob Balfe, U.S. attorney in Fort Smith, said for a regional database to work, every agency would need to use the same criteria for entering information and someone would have to maintain the system.

“On top of that, there’s a huge funding issue with equipment and manpower,” Balfe said. “As stretched as many of the departments are just trying to get officers on the streets, it’s just not a top priority right now.”

Although there’s no central database, the agencies from Washington, Benton and Sebastian counties meet every seven weeks or so and share gang intelligence and leads on cases.

“Gang members don’t respect county lines, and that’s especially relevant in Northwest Arkansas where it’s not one large metropolitan area, but in fact a region with more than one county,” Balfe said.

“Everyone involved here knows how important it is that we all continue to communicate and collaborate on this issue,” he said.

In considering a regional database, the agencies looked at CalGang, the California Department of Justice’s gang database.

Wes McBride, executive director of the California Gang Investigators Association, helped design CalGang, an automated information-sharing system.

“It’s an electronic gang file built on a network that allows sharing between departments,” McBride said. “It may sound sophisticated but a gang file is a gang file. If you know your suspect drives a red Chevy, you enter that in, and you get a list of gang members who drive red Chevys.”

McBride, who is retired from the Los Angeles County sheriff’s office, said police can work to control and reduce gangs by banding together to train.

“Gang members in today’s world are very mobile, moving from one town to the next,” Mc-Bride said. “To stay on top of it, police need to form a task force and start training their officers to recognize gangs.

“Put on statewide training and roll it across the state.”

The Justice Department dedicated $10 million to Project Safe Neighborhoods in 2006, with an additional $30 million to fund the Anti-Gang Initiative.

The U.S. attorney’s office in the Western District of Arkansas has been given $694,000 for Project Safe Neighborhoods.

P roject Safe Neighborhoods pays for police agencies in Northwest Arkansas to get gang resistance and education training.

Agencies in Washington, Sebastian and Benton counties, where officials at the U.S. attorney’s office in Fort Smith say gang activity is most prevalent, have had the training during the past year.

Some are also providing gang intervention and prevention in English and in Spanish in schools.

‘GANG OVERTONES’

From March to July last year, some Springdale police officers worked on a part-time crime suppression team that identified, photographed and documented gang members in the city.

The officers also ran saturation patrols that focused primarily on curbing graffiti and property crime.

Sgt. Shane Pegram, who supervised the team, said officers identified about 150 people with ties to several major gangs.

To identify gang members, the team used a combination of criteria, including self-admitted membership, association with known gang members, frequenting known gang areas, “throwing” hand signs and having gang tattoos, Pegram said.

“The overall goal of the team was to identify crime trends in the city, and unfortunately, a lot of what we found had gang overtones,” said Pegram.

“About every gang there is in the country right now, we’ve had contact with in Springdale,” he said. “And other cities in Northwest Arkansas are seeing the same thing, too.”

A full-time crime suppression team starts next month, he said.

While Springdale isn’t using its data as an investigative tool, the Rogers Police Department uses gang data it has been compiling since 2005.

Cpl. Craig Renfrow, a gang investigator for Rogers, helped build a database of more than 200 entries of active and inactive gang members and their associates living in the city.

About 40 percent of those in the database fall under the category of Sureno or Mexican Mafia gangs, Renfrow said. The second-largest category - about 14 percent - consists of prison gangs and hate groups.

“We’ve got a solid knowledge now of what’s going on in the city, but the next step is to do something collectively as a region,” Renfrow said.

He said the Rogers, Springdale and Fayetteville police departments have met independently of the federal group to share gang data.

The Benton County sheriff’s office is another agency that uses its own system to track gang members.

Jail commander Capt. Hunter Petray said about 90 gang members have been identified using the system, but that doesn’t necessarily mean those gangs are operating in the county. Many gang members are already doing prison time or were extradited from some other part of the country, Petray said.

Petray said the county forwards its gang information to the FBI but isn’t actively sharing the data with other agencies in Northwest Arkansas.

“There’s nothing set as far as regional sharing, but we’re always willing to share our gang file with any other law-enforcement agency that wants to see it or benefit from it,” Petray said.

Kelly Cradduck, a candidate for Benton County sheriff, is one of the people spearheading the effort to implement a regional gang database in Northwest Arkansas.

While campaigning, Cradduck, who teaches gang awareness to police and at area schools, is on leave from the Rogers Police Department, where he is a sergeant supervising the gang unit.

“We need a database where all the agencies can enter into it and take information from it,” Cradduck said. “That’s one of the biggest roadblocks right now.

“Even if everyone is collecting the data, it’s not compatible,” he said. “Not everyone is sharing information. When all you do is shove gang members two miles out of your city, you’re not fixing anything.”A united front These 12 Northwest Arkansas agencies form the initiative:

Bentonville Police Department

Benton County probation office

Benton County prosecuting attorney’s office

Benton County sheriff’s office

Fayetteville Police Department

Fort Smith Police Department

Rogers Police Department

Sebastian County prosecuting attorney’s office

Sebastian County sheriff’s office

Springdale Police Department

Washington County prosecuting attorney’s office

Washington County sheriff’s office

Arkansas, Pages 17, 23 on 03/23/2008

Another Wasted Life-When Will It End?

2008-03-11T12:46:00.002-05:00

High School football star killed by gangbanger.

2008-03-09T06:04:00.000-05:00

Nevets’ new challenge

By Mike Masterson

Sunday, March 9, 2008

LITTLE ROCK — It was Aug. 2, 1974, when the first editorial praising the tenacity and resolve of a young reserve deputy named Steve Nawojczyk (Na-voy-check) appeared in the Hot Springs Sentinel-Record.

As the newspaper’s editor, I had authored the piece, titled “They Would Gag the Truth.” Steve had refused to cave to political pressure after charging the chairman of the local Democratic Central Committee, W.C. “Bill” Mears, with driving while intoxicated and refusing to take an alcohol breath test.

At that point, B.W. Thomas, a municipal court stand-in judge, already had quietly dismissed the charges.

According to Steve, Mears had asked him that night on the highway if he knew who Mears was. Steve said he’d responded that Mears’ career was irrelevant to his condition behind the wheel. Afterward, Steve, whose day job was directing the city’s ambulance service, was badgered to drop the case, but he refused.

From the 1974 editorial: “Yesterday in Municipal Court a public official had a DWI charge against him dismissed by substitute judge BW. Thomas. . . . [R]eserve Deputy Sheriff Steve Nawojczyk never had to opportunity to explain his case. . . . We, like Mr. Nawojczyk and others in Garland County who still believe in honesty, integrity and those ethical principles in life that each person has to live with, will not refrain from printing the truth. . . . We have to ask the people of Hot Springs . . . Do we want a town where a man [who] is doing an honest job is harassed and threatened?”

More tenacious editorializing finally moved this case back onto the docket. The charges eventually were “undismissed” and he was convicted after Steve finally took the stand.

I later came to call Steve the Alphabet Man for what I believe are obvious reasons. Later, he was elected Garland County coroner and we pledged to watch each other’s back during my seven years there.

As friends, I soon became Ekim and he became Nevets. We got some twisted kick from spelling our names backward. He later would become Pulaski County coroner and a private investigator, and then executive director of the state Crime Lab under Bill Clinton. Not once did I see him sacrifice his principles to political pressure.

Steve earned national attention when he was featured as an expert on youth gangs in Little Rock for an HBO special. The subject of gangs would become his life’s calling, as further evidenced by the national recognition he shared while serving with the North Little Rock Office of Youth Services.

I relive this history today only because Nevets is beginning a new phase of his career. He’s becoming an administrator in the Arkansas Division of Youth Services for a pilot program called the Serious/ Violent Offender Reintegration Initiative. He is perfectly suited for this program in Pulaski County as it begins tracking serious juvenile offenders when they enter the system.

Steve says his goal is to shape a successful exit plan for each offender, adding: “We will work with the kid, their families and the communities where they will return to, hopefully, come up with a successful plan so they won’t re-offend.” He says it will be his responsibility to help DYS Director Ron Angel make sure that the program is effective and beneficial to the state. Most important, Steve will be charged with salvaging the young lives he will be mentoring.

“Hopefully, the program will be taken statewide,” he said.

He also will be developing a community outreach program to help communities effectively deal with juvenile crime and violence.

“This new administration and Deputy Director Steven Jones are intent on changing things at DYS,” he told me. “Mentoring will be a critical element to success. We can’t help anyone who doesn’t want to help themselves.

“I’ll never forget asking a gang leader why it was so hard for him to leave the gang. He responded that he had become addicted to the life, the adrenaline rush and the power.

“No doubt it will be a big job,” Steve added. “Part of the challenge will be that some communities will be wary of a youth returning.” Steve believes that if he prepares properly, many kids with problems will realize they need the help. These troubled young men and women couldn’t have a more devoted role model, mentor and champion than Nevets the Alphabet Man, who as a young man himself stood resolute for what was true and right in the face of powerful and negative influences.

———◊-———

Staff columnist Mike Masterson is the former editor of three Arkansas daily newspapers.

Editorial, Pages 97 on 03/09/2008

Copyright © 2008, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.

Bobby Banks' Crew Seems Not To Have Been Affected by his Incarceration

2008-03-07T08:13:00.002-06:00

From the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Slain man was witness in killing

Prosecutors listed him in case against drug kingpin’s cousin

By Andy Davis

Friday, March 7, 2008

LITTLE ROCK — The man who was found shot to death last week in Interstate Park in Little Rock was a witness in one of two pending murder cases against Kevin Banks, cousin of incarcerated drug kingpin Bobby Banks, court records show.

In a Feb. 7 filing in Pulaski County Circuit Court, prosecutors listed Thomas Steven Okafor, 21, as a witness against Kevin Banks in the Dec. 20 killing of Brent Pettus.

Okafor was found in the park near Arch Street and Interstate 30 about 7 a.m., Feb. 29, police said.

He lived with his great-uncle in a small blue house at 309 W. 33rd St., just around the corner from the 3200 block of Center Street, where Pettus, 25, was found dead of gunshot wounds in a car with its engine running.

Lt. Terry Hastings, a spokesman for the Little Rock Police Department, declined to say whether police believe Okafor’s killing is related to the Pettus case or what information Okafor had provided.

“We are looking into his murder at this time, and we have no suspects at the moment,” Hastings said.

Pulaski County Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Johnson declined to comment on the Pettus or Okafor cases.

According to an arrest affidavit, a man identified only as “Witness 2” told police that the shooting followed a botched drug deal.

The witness said that just before the shooting, he was in his car with Kevin Banks, 18, a block from where the shooting happened.

Banks left to buy marijuana from Pettus, the witness said. The witness said he then heard at least three gunshots in the area where Banks had gone.

The witness told police that he had started to drive off when he heard Banks call his name. Banks, armed with a shiny revolver and looking upset, then got into the car, the witness said.

The witness said Banks later told him that Pettus had tried to “short” his marijuana, the affidavit says.

Banks told the witness, “I got into it with the nigger, and I had to shoot him,” the affidavit says.

Okafor’s great-aunt, Carolyn Williams, said Thursday that Okafor, who sometimes went by his middle name, worked at the Wal-Mart on 700 S. Bowman Road.

“He had just gotten a job,” Williams said. “He was trying to find an apartment and buy a car.”

The night before Okafor was found dead, someone saw him standing in front of the house on 33rd Street with a man who was wearing red pants, a red shirt and a red bandana, Williams said.

Okafor had been renting a car, Williams said. On the day the body was found, at about 1 p.m., the family was notified that police had found the car, Williams said.

Hastings said he didn’t have any information on the car.

Kevin Banks has been in the Pulaski County jail, where he is being held without bond, since his Jan. 2 arrest in Pettus’ killing.

He faces a first-degree murder charge in Pettus’ death. He is also charged with capital murder in the Dec. 29 shooting of 6-year-old Kamya Weathersby at the girl’s house at 2715 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and with first-degree battery in the Dec. 5 shooting of three men in the 2600 block of the same street.

Bobby Banks, leader of the 23rd Street Crips in Little Rock for several years, was sentenced in July 2006 to 55 years in prison after being convicted of leading a large cocaine-trafficking operation. He is being held in the United States Penitentiary Big Sandy in Inez, Ky.

About Leifel Jackson's Program ROCAN

2008-03-01T16:49:00.001-06:00

Click here for a KTHV story about former Little Rock gang leader Leifel Jackson and what he is doing now at R.O.C.A.N.

NLR Youth Services Named Best Practices

2008-02-27T14:25:00.000-06:00

Congratulations To NLR Dept. of Youth Services 2/27/2008

North Little Rock Mayor Pat Hays has announced that the Office of Youth Services under the leadership of Youth Services Director Braye Cloud and former director Steve Nawojczyk has just received the distinction of being named as one of the Best Practices on At-Risk Youth and High School Dropout Prevention by the U.S. Conference of Mayors Research/Education Foundation.

The Office of Youth Services is featured in the January 2008 publication of Best Practices as one of the 74 best programs in only 28 states relating to U.S. city’s approaches to multiple youth related programs, including successful efforts to proactively prevent gang development and combat gang violence in our city.

The work of the Youth Services Office provides support to the Office of the Mayor, City Council, and other city department on a continuum of issues relating to the city’s youth. Two years ago, Mayor Hays appointed the Youth Services Advisory Council (YSAC), a group formed under the auspices of the Youth Services Office to foster collaboration and participation among city departments, school district, youth service agencies and social service partners to better address the needs of our city’s youth.

From the Los Angeles Times

2008-02-18T12:00:00.000-06:00

Minister takes on L.A. gangs

Jeff Carr is chosen by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to bring fresh eyes to tackling violence in the city.

By Daniela Perdomo
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

February 18, 2008

If Los Angeles leaders take the advice of Controller Laura Chick, a minister from Idaho who has studied philosophy would soon be responsible for reforming a dysfunctional bureaucracy that spends millions of dollars on unproven anti-gang programs.

Jeff Carr was chosen by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa last year to bring a fresh eye to gang problems in a city seen nationally as a launching pad for bands of violent youth.

But the new director of gang reduction and youth development programs does not control more than a dozen city departments that award contracts for anti-gang services.

Chick, who last week assailed the city for taking such a decentralized approach, said that placing all programs under one entity in the mayor's office would make it easier to judge their effectiveness.

Carr, who supported Chick's conclusions, developed youth programs for the Bresee Foundation, a nonprofit organization in Los Angeles, for 17 years. He holds a degree in religion and philosophy from Northwest Nazarene University.

Last week, Carr, 44, talked about what he has seen and done on the job thus far. His comments were edited and condensed:

What have been the surprises of this job?

I didn't really realize just how big the city of Los Angeles is and how very unique it is. Every community is different.

People live probably in two extremes. . . . The vast majority are anesthetized to the violence. They have no clue it happens. I mean, a week ago Friday you all had a brief little [news] story about the recent spate of violence in South L.A., in Watts.

But on the day we had a press conference with the mayor and the chief [of police], we talked about the fact that there had been 10 shootings, four homicides and 17 people wounded in the span of about 72 hours that week.

I went home that night and looked at the headlines online at latimes.com. The two big headlines that stuck out to me were Britney Spears' mental health situation and . . . then right underneath that was that the City Council had voted to make sure every 4-month-old cat and dog was neutered.

Way, way down was a story about some recent violence and arrests in South L.A.

Well, so the vast majority of citizens in Los Angeles don't have any idea that that even occurred.

Meanwhile, there was an entire community that was traumatized by that situation and in some ways, paralyzed . . . .

The truth of the matter is, I don't care if you live in West L.A., the San Fernando Valley, the South Side, in East L.A., everybody has to have skin in the game, or we're just not going to make progress.

Do you think gang members look at you differently because you're a minister?

I don't know. Maybe some of them do. I mean it's interesting. In my past, the thing that was most abrupt to people is that I'm a white guy.

Someone said to me the other day, it's interesting being Caucasian, it sort of galvanizes people's focus and attention on you.

But then when they see that I'm very comfortable and at ease in those situations [with gang members in a diverse community], it sort of takes people off guard so it probably gives me a little bit of an advantage, that people, you know, see me different.

And then after they find out I'm a minister to boot, then that really throws them off guard.

What are you doing to bring the religious community into this conversation?

Well, I talk to any of them that I can. I actually preached at Bryant Temple [A.M.E.] Church. I've been invited to preach a couple of services, to try to talk [about], in my mind, what the faith community ought to do. . . .

The problem is, if you look at some of the toughest neighborhoods that have some of the biggest challenges, unfortunately there is a church on every corner.

But those churches are largely shuttered except for brief times on Sunday and maybe once or twice during the week. And frankly, the church ought to be right in the thick of things, right in the middle of trying to transform these neighborhoods.

If they're not engaged in the relevant issues of these communities . . . I don't think they're living out their mission.

The church was never meant to be contained within the four walls of the building. Faith was meant to be lived out in the streets, in the lives of real people facing real challenges.

Have religious leaders been receptive?

I think some are. I mean, everyone's against youth violence and gangs. It's not like anyone's actually saying, 'I think that's a good thing.' But I think the question is some people don't know how to get involved, don't get the resources to get involved. Some are, frankly, afraid to get involved. They're not sure what that would mean for the church, could that potentially put them at risk?

What are you doing about Watts' uptick in gang homicides?

Our office was involved right from the start. I actually [got] the BlackBerry notification when I woke up at 6:45 in the morning [about the shooting that night at Florence and Main]. [I] immediately started calling folks to find out what was being done and spoke to someone who was involved with some hardcore-gang intervention workers. . . . I then found out Sunday morning at church that not only had we had a subsequent shooting, but we also had some other ones. So I immediately went to South L.A.

Unfortunately, for eight or nine hours, I was following shootings. There were all kinds of rumors going around, and I tried to serve as a link between police, who had facts on what had happened, and get the information to people who were talking to gang members and people on the street. The rumor was that five people were killed, but the truth is one was killed, which is bad enough.

I was in communication with the gang intervention workers, with the deputy chief in the [LAPD] South Bureau. During that week we had some meetings in Watts, at various housing developments. I was at the Watts Gang Task Force on Monday morning. We started talking about what we can do in the community to get people to get together and push back against this violence. It was sort of the first time since I've been in this position that we've had this spate of violence.

How much time do you spend in the community and how much at City Hall?

I bet you I spend as much or more outside City Hall than I do inside. I really believe that the solutions to many of the challenges we face are actually rooted in communities.

If you sit on the stoops of apartment buildings and hear the moms and dads tell of their aspirations for their children. Or listening to kids who maybe go to some of the lousiest schools and live in the toughest neighborhoods, in slum apartment living conditions.

They still have the same aspirations that I and my parents had for me. They just don't have the resources to achieve those dreams. My job is mostly connecting resources with needs.

daniela.perdomo@latimes.com

Gang Prevention Intervention in a Maximum Security Prison

2008-02-05T06:12:00.000-06:00

Every month I visit a program in the Arkansas Department of Corrections Maximum Security Unit. The program is called UNITY (You and I Teaching Youth) and was founded by inmate Alvin Williams, Correctional Officer Major Jack Davis and prison psychologist Richard Moore. The program works to reduce violence in the prison and the streets.

Inmates apply to the program and must complete several months worth of classes. E-Mail me if you have further questions.

The below video is a short clip of the current class's opening ceremony.

Grape Street Crips and East Coast Crips Battling in L.A.

2008-02-03T05:51:00.000-06:00

2 held in Watts killing linked to feuding gangs

Four have been killed since Sunday. LAPD has tripled its patrols in Watts.

By Richard Winton

Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

February 2, 2008

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting a man at a Watts housing complex as part of a gang feud that has left four men dead since Sunday, the mayor said Friday.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton said that in the wake of the bloodshed, the city has tripled patrols in the Watts area, sent out dozens of gang intervention workers and held several community meetings to end the fighting between the Grape Street Crips and East Coast Crips.

"We will not tolerate that kind of violence in our city, but especially not in Watts, where we have made so much progress in the last two years due to hard work of the Watts gang task force," the mayor said, noting that the area's homicide numbers had been cut by half last year.

The violence, which also left 13 wounded, began early Sunday when Brandon Bullard, 25, whom police identified as a key member of the Grape Street Crips, was killed at a South Los Angeles party also attended by East Coast Crips, Deputy Chief Charlie Beck said. Bullard's family said he was not a gang leader.

Later that afternoon, Maurio Proctor was shot as he stood outside the Jordan Downs housing project with a friend. Police believe the shooting of Proctor, the son of a gang intervention worker, was retaliatory.

LAPD security cameras captured the gunmen's Chevrolet Impala, leading to the arrests of Daniel Colvin, 19, and Cedrick Johnson, 18, authorities said. Det. Sal LaBarbera said the two are connected with the East Coast Crips.

Ten incidents have been linked to the feud, including two other fatalities. Van Knott, 19, a bystander, was gunned down Monday morning, and Chontel Johnson, 35, was fatally wounded hours later inside a clothing store, police said.

Villaraigosa said attendance at some Watts schools was down to 50% because of what he called the "chilling effect" of the killings. However, school officials said that although parents expressed concerns, authorities saw no marked decline in attendance.

Bratton said the LAPD has patrol cars stationed 24 hours a day at various housing projects and has secured routes to local schools, in part with the help of county, city and federal law enforcement agencies. "We will focus the efforts of not just the Los Angeles Police Department, but the total law enforcement community here in Los Angeles County," the chief said.

Beck said the force would police the funerals of those killed in the spasm of violence.

"The funerals as a result of these homicides will require additional resources," he said, and "when those resources that we have in Watts are removed, we will be faced with the threat of additional violence."

Gang Violence Breaks Out at Local High School

2008-02-03T04:30:00.000-06:00

Note from Steve: Sources advised me that the following fight was gang-related. More to follow as it comes in.

10 students arrested in two brawls at Mills
Melees hurt 4; school meeting set for Monday

By Stacy Hudson

Saturday, February 2, 2008

LITTLE ROCK — Ten students were arrested at Wilbur D. Mills University Studies High School after fights Friday that sent a student to the hospital and injured three people, including a Pulaski County sheriff’s deputy.

A fight started as soon as the bulk of students entered the school’s front doors about 8:30 a.m. and quickly spread to the back of the school, sheriff’s spokesman John Rehrauer said.

As many as 40 people may have been involved, he said.

Four felony charges, including having a knife on school property and battery of an officer, and 17 misdemeanor charges were filed against the students, most of whom were under age 18.

About an hour and a half after the first brawl, a second fight broke out in the school’s parking lot. One student was taken to a local hospital with head injuries resulting from that fight.

His condition was not available Friday, but his injuries aren’t life-threatening, Rehrauer said.

Cordell Tidwell, 18, and another student were charged with misdemeanors in that fight, according to police.

Carletta Wilson, a spokesman for the Pulaski County Special School District, said officials plan to hold a meeting Monday at 6 p.m. in the school auditorium to answer questions from parents.

The district also plans to add three assistant principals and more security at the school next week to keep students safe, said School Board member Mildred Tatum, whose zone includes the high school.

Tatum said she plans to attend the meeting.

“We’ve been needing some help for a long time,” she said, adding that students are often bigger than some of the teachers.

Fights happen in all schools, Tatum said.

“When we went to school and people started fighting, everybody started jumping in,” shesaid, adding that even she had been in fights in school. “Kids haven’t changed.”

About 1,000 students in grades 9-12 attend the high school, Wilson said.

School officials had heard rumors about a possible fight this week, Wilson said, adding that it’s “not uncommon” for there to be talk about fights.

After the fight, some parents picked their children up from the school. Classes continued like any other school day, Wilson said.

The students who were fighting will be punished according to school policy, which takes into account a student’s disciplinary record, Wilson said. She couldn’t specify what actions will be taken against the students but said suspension or expulsion is possible.

Names of the students involved were not released because they are not yet 18.

Police don’t know what started the fight, to which state police officers and sheriff’s deputies responded.

Sheriff’s deputies remained at the school throughout the day.

IMPORTANT TRAINING OPPORTUNITY

2008-01-31T08:00:00.000-06:00

IMPORTANT TRAINING ANNOUNCEMENT-- PLEASE FORWARD TO ANYONE YOU THINK MIGHT BE INTERESTED

Announcement can be downloaded at www.GangWar.com

WHAT:

The path to correcting the problem of youth violence and gangs, in part, lies with the following: "You cannot right the wrong in their world... without first understanding their world" -Tony Massar

This amazing training opportunity presented by The Finnegan Group** and produced by Steve Nawojczyk - www.GangWar.com - will be two days you will never forget. The Finnegan Group has put together some of the most amazing researchers and practitioners in the world of youth violence intervention and prevention. Participants will be able to return to their communities and immediately begin practicing what they have learned.

Former Pulaski County (AR) Coroner Steve Nawojczyk - Info Here- whose work with gangs was featured in the award-winning HBO documentary Gang War: Bangin' in Little Rock will be opening the conference with his highly acclaimed "Current Trends and Realities of Youth Violence and Gangs, Posses, Cliques and Crews". Nawojczyk has lectured and researched this issue in over 40 states and has spoken to hundreds of thousands of students nationwide about the downside of gangs. His fast-moving presentations almost always win the "Best of Show" award at the various venues where he speaks.

Also presenting at this conference will be Dr. Michael Walker-Jones, an honor graduate of the University of Rochester, NY who holds a doctorate of Education in Curriculum, Human Leaning and Education Policy.*

Course attendees will also hear from Mr. Tony Massar who is a city councilman in Binghamton, New York. Massar has taken the lead on dealing with gangs and other juvenile issues in his city and recently was asked to testify before the New York State Commission on Gangs about how to recognize and deal with gangs and other youth issues. Massar has been a leader in his community by introducing legislation to deal with youth violence.

One of the most successful Police Athletic Leagues in the nation will have representatives speaking on how a community can set up a wonderful intervention and prevention program through the local law enforcement agency.

Course leaders will also be covering the art of grant location and writing suggestions and techniques.

In short, you will return to your community armed with nearly all the knowledge you need to tackle the complex issue of youth crime and its effects.

*Dr. Walker-Jones has taught at the pre-school, elementary, high school, under-graduate, and graduate school levels. As teacher and education policy advocate for the last thirty years, he has taught in the public schools of Rochester, New York where he was a federal title I program mathematics teacher trainer. He has worked with Dr. David Elkind in early childhood development studies, was an assistant professor at Boston University and the University of Louisville in Curriculum Development.

Recently he was the keynote speaker at Maltepe University, Istanbul Turkey, International Symposium “Violence in the Schools.” While serving as the assistant vice president for Health Affairs at the University of Louisville, he assisted with the recruitment, counseling, and retention of minority and disadvantaged students.

As a trained Arbitrator and conflict resolution specialist he settled over 120 individual, gang, and labor, and civil disputes. Dr. Walker-Jones has been an advocate for teachers and students through the Kentucky Education Association, the Arkansas Education Association, where he became a FOB, and currently the Massachusetts Teachers Association.

Dr. Walker-Jones is a staunch advocate of the public schools, the power of education as tool for life and personal achievement and the ability of all people to resolve conflict through non-violent processes.

Dr. Walker-Jones will inspire you and will be taking participants step by step through the process of setting up a successful peer-mediation program and other important educational concepts.

WHO:
Educators and school personnel, law enforcement officers and administrators, intervention and prevention specialists, social workers and school counselors and transportation workers. (The front line workers in other words.)

WHEN:
February 12 and 13, 2008

WHERE:
Wyndham Hotel, 2 Riverfront Dr., North Little Rock, AR. The Wyndham is right in the heart of one of the fastest growing and most exciting downtown revivals in the nation.
Wyndham's website here.

501-371-9000 for reservations. Be sure to mention the Finnegan Group conference for a special rate.

HOW:
Send check for $275.00 (prior to January 10th) or 295.00 after January 10th to:

Finnegan Group
10 Shackelford Place
Suite 201
Little Rock, AR 72211

Phone 501-975-6364

Course participants will receive extensive handouts and a letter and certificate of completion. We will work with any licensing group for continuing education credits. Course fee includes a closing banquet. THIS IS AN EARLY BIRD ANNOUNCEMENT FOR OUR SPECIAL FRIENDS in order to insure you get first shot at a seat. Information will soon be posted on our website (s).

** The Finnegan Group is dedicated to providing the most current and comprehensive training packages for educators, law enforcement and community leaders and administrators. For more information contact Stephen Finnegan at 501-975-6364 or email Steve Nawojczyk at Nawojczyk@comcast.net

18-year-old shoots up house, kills 6-year-old girl

2008-01-25T08:12:00.000-06:00

Knows likely target, says slain girl’s mom, but why?

By Andy Davis

Thursday, January 24, 2008

LITTLE ROCK — A day after police arrested a man in the killing of 6-year old Kamya Weathersby, the girl’s mother said she suspects the gunmen were targeting her boyfriend.

The boyfriend, Antoine Jones, had been friends with Kevin Banks, who is charged with capital murder in the death of Kamya.

But both Kamya’s mother, Lashandria Washington, and Jones said in interviews Wednesday that they don’t know what prompted the shooting.

“It shocked me,” Antoine Jones said. “I don’t understand why” the shooting happened.

The couple spoke to a reporter about the shooting after Banks, 18, made his first appearance before a judge Wednesday morning on charges of capital murder and committing a terroristic act.

Police say Banks and at least one other person fired more than 40 rounds into Washington’s house at 2715 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive early Dec. 29, many of the shots going into the bedroom where Kamya and her 3-year-old sister, Jasirae Vick, were sleeping.

At the hearing in Little Rock District Court, police detective Tommy Hudson said the shooting stemmed from a disputebetween “Mr. Banks and some people in the neighborhood, who have been shooting back and forth at each other over the last couple months.”

After the hearing, police spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings declined to elaborate on any suspected motive for the shooting-up of the house. At the request of police, Judge Lee Munson ordered the court records to be sealed. He also ordered Banks held without bail.

Jones, 28, said he and Banks both grew up in the neighborhood around where the shooting occurred, but hadn’t seen each other much recently.

Banks, the cousin of incarcerated drug kingpin Bobby Banks, had been in the custody of the Department of Human Services’ Youth Services Division at least as recently as last June, according to court records.

Kevin Banks had been sentenced to state custody on charges stemming from his arrest in August 2006 in the break-in of a house at 2823 S. Center St. Banks and Wayne Earl Jones, 18, were carrying pistols and threatened a neighborhood resident who attempted to confront them during the break-in, according to court records.

Washington said Wayne Earl Jones and Antoine Jones are not related.

Antoine Jones was released in 2005 from federal prison after serving 10 years for robbing a bank in Hope.

He said he hadn’t been in any trouble since he was released from prison and hadn’t been in any disputes with Banks or anyone else.

He and Washington, 26, have been together for about a year and a half. Three months ago she gave birth to his daughter, Aries.

Washington said she knew about Jones’ past but he seemed committed to doing better. She said he works from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Odom’s Tennessee Pride plant in Little Rock, then attends night classes at Arkansas Baptist College, where he is studying business.

“It didn’t seem to me that he done anything to anybody,” Washington said. “We don’t bother people.”

Washington said she, Jones and her five children moved into the house on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive a day or so before Christmas. They had been living in a three-bedroom apartment in North Little Rock, and they wanted a bigger place with a yard.

The morning of the shooting, she, Jones and Aries were sleeping in a back bedroom. The two oldest children, Jalun, 10, and Nykia, 8, where staying with their grandmother.

When the gunfire started, “It sounded like something out of a movie,” Washington said. “I thought I was kind of dreaming.”

She said she got on the floor with Aries. At first, she thought the shooting was at another house. Then it sounded as if the gunmen were inside, she said.

“I just remember my kids screaming and hollering,” Washington said. “The last thing I heard Kamya say, she screamed out, ‘Mama.’ Then I didn’t hear her no more.”

When the gunfire stopped, she went to the front bedroom where Kamya and Jasirae had been sleeping. Jasirae ran to her.

“I called to Kamya and looked in the room and she was laying in the bed,” Washington said. “I thought she probably was still sleeping.”

Then she went over and turned her daughter over.

“I just seen a lot of blood,” she said.

Her family has experienced violence before. In November 2003, Bobby McGee, the father of Washington’s daughter Nykia, was shot and killed while being robbed at the Parkwood Apartments at 3510 S. Bryant St. in Little Rock. Two men were arrested in the robbery.

Washington said she doesn’t think McGee’s death has anything to do with Kamya’s.

“The guys that did that, they’re already locked up,” she said. “They were from out of town. They didn’t even know” McGee.

Since the shooting, the family has moved in with a relative in North Little Rock. Washington hasn’t been back inside the house where her daughter was shot.

She said Jasirae has been having nightmares and is scared by loud noises. At preschool Tuesday, she was so upset by a glass that fell and broke that Washington had to bring her home.

Washington said the shooting bothers her most when she’s alone, without friends or relatives to comfort her. She also thinks about it in the morning, when she wakes up her children.

Kamya “was the slowest one to get ready,” Washington said. “She would always be the last one to come out.

“Now, I’m missing that last one.” Information for this article was contributed by John Lynch of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Arkansas, Pages 11, 15 on 01/24/2008

Blood Feud in Little Rock- Arrest Made in Six-Year old's Murder-Convicted CRIP Gang Kingpin's Cousin Charged in Brutal Slaying

2008-01-23T08:27:00.000-06:00

LR man charged in 6-year-old’s fatal shooting

By Jacob Quinn Sanders

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

LITTLE ROCK — Bullet holes still scar the Little Rock house where 50 gunshots crashed into a children’s bedroom last month and killed 6-year-old Kamya Weathersby.

But with a capital murder charge filed in the case Tuesday against an 18-year-old already accused of committing another homicide in what police have called a blood feud between families, there is hope that in time other, deeper scars will fade, police and a prominent Little Rock pastor said.

Kevin Banks was charged with capital murder and committing a terroristic act in connection with the girl’s death. He was being held without bail Tuesday night at the Pulaski County jail.

Banks was almost immediately considered a suspect after dozens of gunshots slammed into the front of the house at 2715 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive early Dec. 29, police said. In remarks made at the time, Little Rock police said Kamya and her 4-year-old sister, Jasirae Vick, were deliberate targets of multiple gunmen, simply for being members of the wrong extended family.

Wearing Pulaski County jailissue blue pants and a matching V-neck top and orange open-toe jail slippers, Banks was led into a Little Rock police patrol car Tuesday evening after an interview with detectives. A television reporter shoved a microphone in his face and asked if he killed Kamya.

“No, sir, I did not, sir,” Bankssaid.

During a youth revival Tuesday night at the Temple of Restoration Church of God in Christ, deep in south Little Rock, the Rev. Benny Johnson sat near seven lit candles - one for each year of Kamya’s life and a seventh in prayer for the capture of the people responsible for the shooting.

“If this is the person who did this crime, this can be the beginning of a healing,” he said.

Banks was arrested Jan. 2 and charged with first-degree murder in the Dec. 20 shooting death of Brent Pettus, 25, of Little Rock.Banks had been in custody since his earlier arrest.

Police said they continued their investigation and their hunt for information implicating more people.

Sgt. James Lesher, who supervises the Little Rock Police Department’s homicide unit, said he could not release specific information about how Banks became a suspect or how detective Tommy Hudson built the case against the teenager. He said he would take the unusual step of asking the Pulaski County District Court to seal Hudson’s arrest-warrant affidavit, a normally public document that outlines the case against the suspect.

“Frankly, this is real delicate,”Lesher said. “This is a case that’s got to be treated gently if we’re going to get the outcome we want. There’s still more people out there who were involved in this, so we have to be real careful in telling what we know.”

At the house where Kamya died, on a narrow residential section of King Drive, stuffed animals still lay in the front yard Tuesday night. Bullet holes pockmarked the wooden siding and a window. Trees framing the walkway and the front door bore fliers with her picture, the offer of reward money and a phone number for police.

It was dark. And quiet. No one was home.

Lesher said police likely could have charged Banks sooner butwanted to collect more information to build their case.

The founder of Little Rock’s Stop the Violence Inc., Johnson handed out fliers on New Year’s Day at Roosevelt Road and King Drive - a few blocks from the shooting - and has opened a Bank of America account in Kamya’s name to offer at least $3,000 in reward money for information on the case. He said he had no problem with police waiting to charge Banks.

“Better safe than sorry,” Johnson said.

Banks is the younger cousin of Little Rock gang leader Bobby Banks, who is serving the second year of a 55-year federal sentence for drug trafficking.