Lonestar
02-21-2010, 05:36 PM
Krieger: Gang problem still prevalent
By Dave Krieger
The Denver Post
POSTED: 02/21/2010 01:00:00 AM MST
UPDATED: 02/21/2010 01:00:56 AM MST
A little more than three years ago, the murder of Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams produced a sudden surge of interest in the metro area's gang problem.
The Rev. Leon Kelly, who runs Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives, warned that this was part of a well-established pattern — a high-profile killing, followed by a rush of attention, followed by . . . nothing.
Which is pretty much what happened. Just last week, 16-year-old Nathan Bozonier was beaten to death with a baseball bat after getting caught up in a gang fight following a party in Thornton. Kelly has been to plenty of funerals since Williams died.
"It's almost like out of sight, out of mind," he said. "One's going to the grave, the other's going to the pen for life. Really, no big thing anymore."
Williams will be back in the news over the next couple of weeks as Willie Clark goes on trial in Denver District Court for his murder. But the problem of gang violence has long since returned to the back burner, except among the police and prosecutors who work the cases and the underfunded nonprofits that try to prevent them.
"We know that we are a society that is prone to deal with knee-jerk reactions," Kelly said. "It was a big story, a big emphasis, and then life goes on."
The city took notice briefly again last summer and fall during a campaign of violence in LoDo by black gang members against white and Latino victims. The reaction carried echoes of an observation by former U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell shortly after the Williams shooting.
"A lot of violence that's out there, it's kind of brown-on- brown and black-on-black," Campbell said then. "But when it's black-on-white and the torch gets close to some of the upstanding citizens of Denver, then you'll see the political muscle that will make City Hall take notice."
Police arrested nearly three dozen suspects to end the four-month LoDo assault spree. Still, most gang violence remains of the variety Campbell described.
"There have been a number of deaths since Darrent Williams, and none of them, in the public eye, have been of note as Darrent Williams was," Kelly said. "But I often tell folks the same tragedies exist in those families as Darrent's family felt. Unfortunately, it takes someone of note to die before we're able to even think about the little people who have lost their lives."
For local pro athletes, Williams' death drove home the potential danger in even incidental social contacts.
"It changed people's awareness, for sure," the Nuggets' Chauncey Billups said. "We're in a position where a lot of people want to come up to us and say, 'Hey, how you doing, what's going on with the team?' And if they're disrespectful to us, we have to know how to deal with that.
"As opposed to saying, 'Hey, what's up, what's going on,' keep moving, some people get in a position where they don't want to give people common courtesy. And there can be repercussions from that. That's not just Denver, that's everywhere."
But when I asked Billups, who grew up in Park Hill, whether the Williams shooting or its aftermath had any lasting effect on the local gang scene, he replied, "No, unfortunately."
Thanks in part to a grant from the Broncos, Kelly's gang prevention and intervention program in northeast Denver hosts between 180 and 200 kids after school each day, nearly double the number it served before Williams' death.
Following the shooting, the Broncos' Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall became two of the program's biggest boosters. Cutler's foundation supported it financially, and Marshall showed up to interact with the kids once a week on his day off.
But a year ago, Cutler was traded. Marshall, thinking he would soon follow, stopped coming around. Elvis Dumervil is about the only Broncos player still involved. That, too, is part of a well-established pattern. Still, Kelly hopes the Clark trial will make an impression on those at-risk kids.
"I've been using a lot of this as a training tool to let them see one of the things that they could find themselves facing if they choose to go this way," Kelly said. "Willie Clark is symptomatic of many of our kids whose grandmas have to try to raise the families, and the grandmas don't have the resources or strength to deal with it. Willie, like a lot of kids here, is trying to fill that void. So even though those voids are there, I've been using the fact that here's this kid, he tried to fill the void, and look at, because of his choices, where he is right now."
Dave Krieger: 303-954-5297, dkrieger@denverpost.com or twitter.com/DaveKrieger
Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/premium/broncos/ci_14442076#ixzz0gD8lksMu
By Dave Krieger
The Denver Post
POSTED: 02/21/2010 01:00:00 AM MST
UPDATED: 02/21/2010 01:00:56 AM MST
A little more than three years ago, the murder of Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams produced a sudden surge of interest in the metro area's gang problem.
The Rev. Leon Kelly, who runs Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives, warned that this was part of a well-established pattern — a high-profile killing, followed by a rush of attention, followed by . . . nothing.
Which is pretty much what happened. Just last week, 16-year-old Nathan Bozonier was beaten to death with a baseball bat after getting caught up in a gang fight following a party in Thornton. Kelly has been to plenty of funerals since Williams died.
"It's almost like out of sight, out of mind," he said. "One's going to the grave, the other's going to the pen for life. Really, no big thing anymore."
Williams will be back in the news over the next couple of weeks as Willie Clark goes on trial in Denver District Court for his murder. But the problem of gang violence has long since returned to the back burner, except among the police and prosecutors who work the cases and the underfunded nonprofits that try to prevent them.
"We know that we are a society that is prone to deal with knee-jerk reactions," Kelly said. "It was a big story, a big emphasis, and then life goes on."
The city took notice briefly again last summer and fall during a campaign of violence in LoDo by black gang members against white and Latino victims. The reaction carried echoes of an observation by former U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell shortly after the Williams shooting.
"A lot of violence that's out there, it's kind of brown-on- brown and black-on-black," Campbell said then. "But when it's black-on-white and the torch gets close to some of the upstanding citizens of Denver, then you'll see the political muscle that will make City Hall take notice."
Police arrested nearly three dozen suspects to end the four-month LoDo assault spree. Still, most gang violence remains of the variety Campbell described.
"There have been a number of deaths since Darrent Williams, and none of them, in the public eye, have been of note as Darrent Williams was," Kelly said. "But I often tell folks the same tragedies exist in those families as Darrent's family felt. Unfortunately, it takes someone of note to die before we're able to even think about the little people who have lost their lives."
For local pro athletes, Williams' death drove home the potential danger in even incidental social contacts.
"It changed people's awareness, for sure," the Nuggets' Chauncey Billups said. "We're in a position where a lot of people want to come up to us and say, 'Hey, how you doing, what's going on with the team?' And if they're disrespectful to us, we have to know how to deal with that.
"As opposed to saying, 'Hey, what's up, what's going on,' keep moving, some people get in a position where they don't want to give people common courtesy. And there can be repercussions from that. That's not just Denver, that's everywhere."
But when I asked Billups, who grew up in Park Hill, whether the Williams shooting or its aftermath had any lasting effect on the local gang scene, he replied, "No, unfortunately."
Thanks in part to a grant from the Broncos, Kelly's gang prevention and intervention program in northeast Denver hosts between 180 and 200 kids after school each day, nearly double the number it served before Williams' death.
Following the shooting, the Broncos' Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall became two of the program's biggest boosters. Cutler's foundation supported it financially, and Marshall showed up to interact with the kids once a week on his day off.
But a year ago, Cutler was traded. Marshall, thinking he would soon follow, stopped coming around. Elvis Dumervil is about the only Broncos player still involved. That, too, is part of a well-established pattern. Still, Kelly hopes the Clark trial will make an impression on those at-risk kids.
"I've been using a lot of this as a training tool to let them see one of the things that they could find themselves facing if they choose to go this way," Kelly said. "Willie Clark is symptomatic of many of our kids whose grandmas have to try to raise the families, and the grandmas don't have the resources or strength to deal with it. Willie, like a lot of kids here, is trying to fill that void. So even though those voids are there, I've been using the fact that here's this kid, he tried to fill the void, and look at, because of his choices, where he is right now."
Dave Krieger: 303-954-5297, dkrieger@denverpost.com or twitter.com/DaveKrieger
Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/premium/broncos/ci_14442076#ixzz0gD8lksMu