Krieger: Playing together for peace

By Dave Krieger, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published June 11, 2007 at midnight

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The summer of peace began with a basketball game. At least, that's what they're hoping.

A Day of Remembrance for victims of violence Saturday in Park Hill started with what Denver police captain Mike Calo called "an eclectic group" from District 2 and the gang unit facing off on the Hiawatha Davis rec center hardwood against a northeast Denver community team that included at least two former gang members.

One of them was Terrance Roberts, who now runs The Prodigal Son Initiative, an anti-gang nonprofit. Roberts organized Saturday's affair.

"This time I get to chase Capt. Calo instead of him chasing me," he explained. "He's chased me a few times back in the day, so I'm going to go on and chase him down and make sure he can't get to where he's trying to go."

Calo, who runs the police gang unit, is from Boston's North End, so naturally I asked him if there was a line on the game.

"You know I'm Italian, so you knew I'd know what you meant," he said. "I don't know who else Terrance has for ringers in there, but it sounds to me like they've got the height advantage."

Actually, the community team's big man was the Rev. Leon Kelly, who runs Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives. Rev used to have some serious game, but the man is 54. When I told him Calo estimated the police team's median age in the mid-30s, Rev replied, "That means I'm old enough to be their daddy."

In their different ways, all of these people are trying to make the shooting death of former Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams in the early hours of New Year's Day a wake-up call in the battle against gang violence.

"It takes a high-profile incident to get things going again," Calo said, describing the ebb and flow of community interest in the problem.

"January certainly was a high-profile incident, so that's been the catalyst, or the start, for this. And I think learning from the past, I don't think we're going to repeat the failure of letting this splinter off and die. I think that's what our hope is.

"And I've committed to Terrance and to Rev. Kelly and others that meet monthly with the (Metro Denver Gang) Coalition that we've got to keep this going. If we save one life, it's all worthwhile. If we turn one kid away from gangs, it's all worthwhile."

Roberts organized the basketball game in an effort to defrost police-community relations.

"I want to be able to start bridging the gap between the kids in the community, the elders and everybody, not seeing the police as just an occupying force, but they're just regular people," Roberts said. "They play basketball, they talk a little trash, they laugh, they joke. And let the police see a lot of those community people the same way."

Of course, even as these folks seek common ground, the street gangs continue to do their thing. Anti-gang activist Cisco Gallardo calls gang activity on the west side of town an epidemic.

On the east side, Kelly reported six shootings in a six-day period that ended in the middle of last week.

"They've been what they call limb shots," he said. "In the arms and legs. I'm trying to tell folks, it ain't like these kids are going out aiming for the limbs. That's just where the bullets have been hitting."

Rev called the sequence of events leading up to last month's revenge-inspired shooting death of 40-year-old Molicia Rochelle Nunn in Aurora "some Sopranos craziness."

In short, while the hope is that Williams' death will inspire a broader campaign against gang violence, the fear is it may have been the harbinger of a more violent year than usual.

"All this drama that's taking place over in the 'hood right now, if any of it was taking place in Cherry Creek, it would be a big issue," Kelly said. "But as it is now, it's almost like it was before Darrent Williams."

I wondered if he expects a bad summer.

"It is already," he said. "You look at the gauge of what's going on now compared to previous times. It certainly has become much more aggressive. Much more aggressive."

So the police and community activists came together Saturday battling the background noise, and they put on a pretty good show.

Choice Johnson and Ambrose Slaughter of District 2 and Andre Strode of the gang unit starred for the cops. Cinque McKinney of the Denver Foundation and Phil Hood of First Horizon Bank compensated by raining threes for the community team.

In the final minute, with the score tied at 42, the cops went up two with a fast-break layup. But Hood flushed a three with four seconds showing to give the community squad a one-point win. The small crowd went wild. It was as entertaining a final minute as we've seen in the NBA playoffs so far.

The remainder of the Day of Remembrance went off without incident. As the city days and nights heat up, that's pretty much the goal.

kriegerd@RockyMountainNews.com

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