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Community members call on gangs to stop shootings, call for resources

San Diego Union-Tribune - 7/22/2021

In response to a spike in gun violence in San Diego, a group of community members on Thursday called on gang members to stop shootings.

"We're telling gang members to knock it off, because we're sick of it," said Michael Singletary.

Singletary was one of several former gang members who joined the Community Assistance Support Team, better known as CAST, at the San Diego County Administration Center to launch Seasons of Peace, a months-long campaign during which they plan to host events to call out the violence.

Plans that are in the works include a lowrider "cruise," memorials for victims of gunfire and tree-planting events.

The campaign, which will run through Labor Day, comes as San Diego faces an uptick in gang-related shootings and drive-by shootings, as well as homicides, according to San Diego police. In late June, San Diego police said there had been 39 suspected gang shootings in the first half of this year, compared to 17 over the same period last year — a 129 percent increase.

"It's summertime, and we should be planning family get-togethers; yet we're planning funerals," Joshua Alcala, who called himself a former gang member, said Thursday. "Something is very inherently wrong here."

Alcala said society needs to talk and raise awareness about trauma and mental health.

"At the end of the day, when someone's picking up a gun, thinking that's the solution, that's an emotion," Alcala said. "That's something that's happening as an impulse."

Bishop Cornelius Bowser, a member of CAST, was among several speakers who directly addressed gang members on Thursday. Bowser and other speakers he stood alongside often try to speak with gang members to prevent shootings.

"Put the guns down," Bowser said. "Let's have a conversation about non-violence, how we can support you in making real-life changes. The only alternative is death and mass incarceration."

Bowser and other speakers highlighted a need for employment opportunities and education resources to keep youth and others away from gang life.

"People get involved in gangs and gang violence because they don't have alternatives," said Robert Wood, with the Seattle-based Prison Scholars Fund and the Oakland-based Dream Corps JUSTICE. Wood is a former gang member who was once incarcerated.

Curtis Howard, lead organizer for All of Us or None, a San Diego-based nonprofit that advocates for formerly-incarcerated people, shared a similar sentiment.

"I can't jump in front of anybody and tell them, 'Hey, man, get off the corner, pull your pants up, get a damn job' unless I have an alternative to offer that person," Howard said. He, too, is a former gang member.

Several community members called gun violence an "epidemic" and a "disease." Jay Bowser, Bowser's son, said Black and brown communities have been caught up in gunfire for decades, without resources to break the cycles of violence.

"The are solutions out there. The solutions have been here for decades. Those solutions just need to be funded, and we need a quick, fast response, just like we've seen with COVID-19, because this is the epidemic that we're living in," said the younger Bowser, founder of Paving Great Futures, a nonprofit that offers a variety of resources to underserved communities.

Standing in front of the west entrance to the County Administration Center, the group released doves in honor of victims of gun violence and as a symbol of peace.

The campaign marks the second Seasons of Peace. The first was launched in late November, with a lowrider "Cruise for Peace" held in late January. Some 150 classic cars rolled through the streets of southeastern San Diego, City Heights and National City during the event.

This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.

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