FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACTS:
Jitu Sadiki, BACDO, Inc. Amir Khalid Samad, Peace in the Hood, Inc.
760-409-1745 (216) 538-4043
BACDO@aol.com peaceinthehood@yahoo.com
T. Rashad Byrdsong, Minister Kuratibish Rashid
(412) 371-3689 (786) 402-5286
Community Empowerment, Inc. PGRNA/Black Legion
trbyrdsong@ceapittsburgh.org rashids@bellsouth.net
Ibrahim Abdul-Qahhar Nisa Shabazz
(404) -207-7026 (678) 480-6555
yangankrumah@yahoo.com jabarisekou@sbcglobal.net
Minister Adamu Crenshaw-El Wallace “Gator” Bradley
(216)-559-1536 (312) 371-6914
Moorish Science Temple of America
January 23, 2011
Los Angeles, California–Leaders from traditional and nontraditional faith and community based organizations, as well as street organizations from the National Urban Peace movement will come together in Los Angeles, California April 29-May 1, 2011 for a Peace, Justice and Empowerment Summit hosted by the West Coast Coalition and The International Council for Urban Peace, Justice and Empowerment.
Many of those leaders who plan to attend this summit attended the first and second Peace and Justice Summit in Kansas City in 1993 and 2008, as well as regional summits. The 1993 summit resulted in as much as a 25% drop in gang related violence and crime in participating cities across the United States (see FBI crime statistics). However, the promised peace dividends did not materialize from the philanthropic, governmental or corporate communities. Youth gang crime and violence, minority overrepresentation in the criminal/prison industrial complex, criminalization of communities of color and the easy availability of guns and drug have created a state of urban warfare.
Law enforcement officials have stated that they alone are not the answer. Youth violence cost the citizens of this country in excess of $158 billion dollars a year through direct and indirect costs and lost productivity and diminished quality of life. (Children’s Safety Network Economics & Data Analysis Resource Center 2000). The cost of lost human lives lost to society is immeasurable.
The summit is being convened by the International Council for Urban Peace, Justice and Empowerment. The Council is the largest National Network of grassroots, faith and community based organization dedicated to Urban Peace, Justice and Empowerment. ICUPJE serves as an umbrella organization with over 35 affiliates throughout the United States and globally. For over 17 years, the Council has sponsored several National Urban Peace (Street Organization) and Justice Summits. The Council has initiated prevention, intervention and transformation work all over the U.S. and globally to affect change in the lives of youth impacted by racism, poverty, inequality and injustice.
The goals and objectives of the summit are: 1) Develop working relationships (Warrior’s Respect) among rival street organizations, primarily black and brown, but inclusive of other groups, to decrease the level of violence impacting target communities;2) collaborate with residents of target communities to address issues negatively affecting their community and empowering those residents to become advocates for positive change within their neighborhoods; 3) address pervasive problems of law enforcement misconduct and abuse which is a major contributing factor to community disharmony and destabilization; and 4) discuss implementation of sustainable models to revitalize our neighborhoods, constructively address issues with youth from the perspective of reformative justice such as supporting Congressman Bobby Scott’s – Youth Promise Act.
Peace Summit Activities / Workshops will include: Car / Motorcycle Show; Conscious Hip Hop Symposium / Spoken Word Presentation; Impact of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress/Slave Disorder) as a war zone health issue affecting our communities and social coping tools;/ Entrepreneurial Opportunities; Police Misconduct / Abuse; Criminal Prison Industrial Complex and related issues; Sisters’ Collaborative Sunday Church Services – Unity and Community Restoration ; and Warrior’s Respect (invitation only session).
The member organizations of the International Council have made a commitment based on a consensus of leadership from over 35 cities that our house is on fire and it is critical for an indigenous, cultural specific grass roots leadership such as the one that came together in the late 80’s and 90’s to engage, mobilize and organize and take it to the streets. Today, as in the first Kansas City Summit, there is no urban policy in America that addresses these issues. In the midst of our efforts to redeem, and bring peace to the streets, we face the challenge of those who oppose peace, stability and empowerment of our people.
Through the collective and unified voices of affiliated organizations, grassroots leadership and community residents we intend to create a national referendum to influence urban policies which will effect changes in laws that treat our communities with respect, provide resources and tools to empower families and youth to rejuvenate their neighborhoods and live as dignified humans free from terror and poverty.
We invite all who are honestly interested in coming to the table to reach solutions to the challenges facing our youth and our communities to attend this major summit. For more information, please contact any of the people listed.
I am one of the Co-founders of the Detroit 300. A grassroots organization from Detroit designed to create peace via mass radical community patrols and intervention. We were started in 2006 and incorporated in 2010. Our website is http://www.thedetroit300.org. I have created a blogsite to allow grassroots organizations from around the country to exchange ideas and identify best practices to address the criminal activity that wrecking havoc on our elders and childrens.