A firm grip on streets

Effort aims to stifle violence Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer Article Launched: 06/13/2008 11:09:19 PM PDT
and wants to bolster the team by signing on 15 volunteers from area churches.

Kent Paxton, who works in Mayor Pat Morris' office, said officials propose to fund The Firm through Measure Z dollars. The preliminary budget proposal for the fiscal year starting July 1 allocates $35,000 to the program.

The budget has yet to be approved by the City Council.

Paxton said the city will collect reports from mediators to keep track of whether the program succeeds in reducing violence.

In Stockton, former police Officer Ralph Womack oversees a similar program called Operation Peacekeeper. Stockton employs former gang members to reach out to youths, develop contacts and talk people out of violence.

"They'll know who to talk to," Womack said. "They'll say, 'Don't do anything stupid."'

Stone and the Rev. Reginald Beamon, who is Young Visionaries' chairman, said they plan to recruit reformed gang members or people who have otherwise developed the necessary street "cred" (Beamon called it a "license to operate") to work as mediators.

Stone and Beamon are both former gang members.

Mediators will be trained by a Vernon-based organization called Maximum Force Enterprises.

Maximum Force's chief executive, Aquil Basheer, said a skilled mediator would not only be able to resolve problems but emerge as a neighborhood role model, something that would be especially needed for sons who don't know their fathers.

"You get a young boy who's 14, 15, 16 years old and he doesn't have a father image, he doesn't know what manhood is, he's going to pick up a gun," Basheer said.

Stone said he plans to have Firm mediators trained this month and start working by July.

andrew.edwards@ inlandnewspapers.com

(909) 386-3921