On day of Whitney Houston's funeral, Newark gang leaders call for day of truce
Published: Saturday, February 18, 2012, 7:05 AM
By James Queally/The Star-Ledger
NEWARK — Whitney Houston's funeral has inspired several of Newark's gang leaders to call for a day of calm today to honor the Brick City-born pop queen.
The push started after Hykine Johnson — a former high-ranking member of the Sex, Money, Murder Bloods who is better known around Newark by his street handle “HAK” — published a Facebook post Wednesday night, calling for citywide peace on the day of Houston's services at the New Hope Baptist Church.
"If anyone out there is gang banging lets show Whitney Houston respect by commiting no crimes on saturday ......No shootings No robbing No car jacking basically no crazy (stuff) let us show some respect she helped alot of people in Nj lets show lov," wrote Johnson, who now works as an author and filmmaker, publishing works intended to show young people the perils of gang life in the city.
Johnson’s message quickly circulated throughout the street community, largely among city and gang leaders connected to the Bloods. While Newark is home to a wide array of street gangs, the Bloods make up the majority of the city's gang populace.
Early Friday morning, an influential member of the large Mob PIRU Bloods set promised her crew's members would fall in line with the call for peace.
"We can guarantee there won’t be any violence from our end, and we just wanted to let him know we’re supporting this," said Jada, a "Big Sis" with MOB PIRU and founder of the non-profit group Nine Women Strong. "I intend on speaking to a couple of the other brothers from the other sets this evening. I believe that it’s gonna be a real quiet day in Newark.”
Jada asked that her name be withheld.
A member of the 135PIRUML Bloods, who asked to only be identified as Jiwe, said he would reach out to contacts in various gang sets to push the call for calm. While he acknowledged it's an unrealistic hope, Jiwe said it shouldn't take the death of a pop star to stymie the bloodshed in Newark.
"I wish we could do it every damn day, but I’m gonna send the word out to some cats on the street, they should really kick up hoping that nothing’s gonna happen," said Jiwe, whose mother attended New Hope Baptist Church with the Houstons. "I’ll send the word out. It’s crazy that something like this would get us to even do something like this, because obviously what you want is for generally nothing to happen.”
Johnson said he's received calls from several other gang leaders who said they agreed with the sentiment of his Wednesday night Facebook post.
“Whitney Houston did a lot for the community, so I feel as though everybody owes her this at least," he said. "I don’t condone the violence any other days, but that day right there ... If I’m ready to step up, all the other leaders should be ready to step up.”
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/02/on_day_of_whitney_houstons_fun.html
