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JOHNSON: Rev. Kelly hopes gang violence finally over

By Bill Johnson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 23, 2008 at 9 p.m.

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Come this morning, he will learn if it was all worth it - the weeklong pleading and reasoning in dozens of clandestine meetings that, whatever the result, always ended with his signature bear hug.

The funeral for Michael Asberry, co-founder of the Crips street gang in Denver, is scheduled for 10 a.m. today, a service that hundreds are expected to attend. It will be the first test of whether Rev. Leon Kelly's work this past week has been effective.

He has just returned from yet another session with senior members of the Rollin' 30s Crips street gang - Michael Asberry was a founder 22 years ago - to put the final details on what he calls a "cease-fire" between rival gang factions when we meet in his downtown office.

He is about an hour removed from a press conference he has called to announce the cease-fire agreement aimed at setting aside hostilities triggered by the murder last Saturday of the 38-year-old Asberry in front of an Aurora apartment building.

"The agreement is that if you want to go to Michael's homecoming, do it with respect for the man and the city," a clearly exhausted Leon Kelly, executive director of Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives, said, plopping down in the large leather chair behind his desk.

"Michael was a general," he said. "His death has opened a lot of old wounds, started some fighting between gang sets because of rumors, nonsense and just drama. So we've agreed that if you want to go Saturday, and can do it peacefully and with respect, the door is open."

The cease-fire has since been extended to put a stop to a rash of violence in the city since Michael Asberry's murder, including at least three shootings, a score of assaults and several fire-bombings. Denver police suspect the Sunday morning torching of the landmark Holly Square Shopping Center in Park Hill may be connected to emotions triggered by the Asberry murder.

It is what worries Leon Kelly now.

"If we don't put a stop to this now," he said, "what will follow will make the Summer of Violence in '93 look like a bar fight."

At 54 and graying, Leon Kelly still carries a body builder's physique. He's been steering young people away from the gang life in Denver since 1984.

From a shelf next to his desk he pulls photo albums containing pictures of all the young boys he has worked with over the years, many of them from 10 and 20 years ago, and most featuring a teenaged Michael Asberry, whom he acknowledges loving dearly.

On some of the pages are copies of letters he wrote to various judges seeking leniency for the young man who would spend much of his adulthood locked away in Colorado prisons.

"He's dead," he said wistfully, as he pointed to a number of different boys pictured in his books. "In jail for life," he says pointing at another. "Dead. Dead. Jail for life.

"Such a waste," Leon Kelly finally spits.

Heading out for his press conference in Fuller Park at 29th Avenue and Williams Street, not far from where Michael Asberry formed his street gang, Leon Kelly wants to make sure that it is understood that what he has negotiated is a cease-fire, not a truce.

"This is not a temporary thing," he says, jumping into his Chevy Suburban that sports the license plate "0 Gang."

"With a truce, you sit down and ask the question: 'What does it take for us to stop?' None of that happened here. We have a cease-fire. It means it is over. Finished."

He is met at the park by some two dozen people, including local pastors, probation officers, leaders of various civic and community groups and a contingent of Denver police gang bureau officers.

"There is a lot of good going on right now, and we're trying to focus on that today," says Terrance Roberts, 31, a former gang member who turned his life around in prison, and is now executive director of the Prodigal Son Initiative that works mostly with elementary school-aged children to keep them off the streets and away from gangs.

"The goal is to blanket the streets with this positive message as much as we can, especially before Mike's funeral, to quell any type of violence."

Denver police Capt. Mike Calo, commander of the department's gang bureau, acknowledged that a number of meetings have been occurring over the past week in an attempt "to bring peace back to the city."

Given Michael Asberry's stature among gang members, there is always a fear of escalating violence, he said. Yet with the steps taken in the aftermath of the suspected gang-related murder of Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams more than a year ago to strengthen dialog between the community, gangs and the police, he believes in-roads have been made to produce calm.

"We do fully expect that things will go peaceably, both out of respect for the deceased and respect for the city."

His press conference over, Leon Kelly leans against his Suburban and sighed.

"It was a message that has to be delivered," he said slowly, "of how we are trying to make a change now, that there doesn't have to be any more bloodshed.

"I've seen them, spoken with them," Leon Kelly said of gang leaders. "They want it to stop, too. But they are struggling within themselves over how to make that happen. My hope is it they have squashed it now, that it is over."

johnsonw@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2763.

Comments

  • May 24, 2008

    1:07 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    BREAL writes:

    Let’s look at all of this for what it really is. Chances are most likely someone who looked and dressed just like the victim now took his life. The victim’s hands are filthy from the lives he has destroyed and taken. His violent life and now death is making him a HERO with all this publicity and a marter for the lost souls. He lived for the Hood and now in the eyes of some of the young and lost “he died for the hood.”

    No matter how you look at it, this man’s violent life has become a legacy, “The FOUNDER of Denver’s Rollin 30 Crips.” This is very sick and twisted. The media is spending days covering the death of a man who few say was changing his life around and most who would say they were very afraid of him. Some day in the next 1,000 years there will be coverage of a kid from the inner-city (the HOOD) who maintains a 4.0 GPA, stays active in athletics, is involved in church and manages to stay away from the lifestyle promoted through today’s means of entertainment. Not only will this kid live a responsible and productive life but will return to his or her community and help direct those needing a positive outlet.

    For every Michael Asberry you find in the hood, I will show you a scholar, a kid with dreams and hope. The sad thing about all of this is these "GOOD" kids get ignored by programs that are so focused on reacting to negative energy. Where is media coverage for the young women who choose not to have multiple babies by multiple preditors of the hood and choose to go to college because of her academic accomplishments?

    Our society is so fasinated with advertising someone who is partially responsible for the start of the Crips in Denver and living the “THUG LIFE”. Businesses continue to seek profits and not invest in youth programs that are pro active in keeping kids away from this mess. So called leaders working with gang members profit and make their share of money with the growth of this type of devient behavior.

    It is very profitable to allow this cycle of violence to continue in at risk neighborhoods, it is a loss of revenue to donate money to groups and organizations that reach out to kids preventing them from joining GANGS. There is no true interest in preventing gang violence or any other kind of crime that affects all of us. If there were, the focus would be on creating a skilled, educated workforce with our young and not huge investments in private prisons and the staff it takes to build, manage, house and enforce the laws of the land.

    Lets just B-REAL….no one cares about stopping the violence, illiteracy rate, illigetimate child birth rate and yes, I will say it BLACK ON BLACK crime. For those young men and women who are not entertained with who the “founder of the crips” is and find your entertainment in school and positive people like Obama or Oprah keep on marching on!!

  • May 24, 2008

    8:34 a.m.

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    TheReal writes:

    So ignorant to what is really going on I feel sorry for you all this summer

  • May 24, 2008

    1:01 p.m.

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    sheepherder writes:

    Cease fire? Are they military or what? I think we should take the handcuffs off our cops and let them go to town on these miscreant thugs!

    And Reverend Kelly should quit asking judges to be lenient on these pukes..they NEED to be locked up for life.

  • May 24, 2008

    8:01 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    arby writes:

    I pretty much agree with what has been written above and don't have much to add. The reason that Asberry and his heirs are in gangs is because they don't have parents that give a damn. When you read in the paper that the grandparents are raising the children of their children who are serving time you have to wonder. Gee, you screwed up with your kid, We'll give you a 2nd chance and see if you can mess up your grandkid too. WTF.

    I say let them shoot it out! The more of them down the better for the rest of us that want a decent life. They are scum and in most cases will not become responsible citizens.

  • May 25, 2008

    11:22 a.m.

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    NayStegall writes:

    I'm glad the only person who has to judge Michael is God. The rest of you people get a grip, and stop judging a man by what he was and not by who he was. Michael was alot of things to alot of people including father figure to young men who didn't have a father in their life. Michael was one of the kindest people you would ever want to meet, and I just hope all of you people with this he got what he deserved attitude have your own soul right when your judgment day comes.

  • May 25, 2008

    11:44 a.m.

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    sheepherder writes:

    NayStegall....I hope all his victims agree with you. At least DPD can clear out some homicide cases.

  • May 27, 2008

    10:50 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Hummzz writes:

    As a response to the man/woman that doesn't think that Michael should be getting all the press he is getting should realize that this may help in the long run.

    Instead of sitting back criticising, I invite you into the trenches with me and other's that work the streets and prison re-entry population to help stop this sort of thing. So many sit back and say what should be done, but you go about your way in your fancy cars and your paper houses and avoid the streets that I work and live in daily. My job is 24/7. I can't clock out and I don't recieve a paycheck.

    My nephew is one of the founder's of the Crips also. I don't say this to be proud, but I am proud of what he has become. He has served many years in prison and has come out to be a wonderful son, father, brother, uncle and friend. He is productive and talented. God forbid, but if he was to pass today I would hope that the media would honor him too.

    I do believe in "Live by the sword you die by the sword!" But at the same time Michael wasn't perfect, but he was making strides. Do you really think that the crips would have skipped Denver if Michael would have never come? Get real! It's like crack or meth...it does not discriminate!

    I do agree that enough is not said about the good things that our children and other's do in today's society, but get real man...that doesn't sell papers. It's all about the circulation...right?

    Pray for our city and OUR sons and daughters. They are the one's who will fall victim to the violence.

    T

  • May 28, 2008

    10:09 a.m.

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    NayStegall writes:

    Sheepherder, what you fail to realize is Michael was also a victim of a drug infested community, and had he and other "gang members" not joined together they were basically alone in the streets. Michael was a protecter and loyal to a fault, and if you don't know the hood didn't come from the hood don't judge the hood. In Middle school Michael once had a fight with the biggest guy in the school who was grabbing young girls on the butt in the hallway, and hence the reputation as a fighter. And as for police much respect to all the police who are legit, but let's keep it real if every time you walked out of your house the police were waiting for you whether you did something or not to make a name for themselves , you would get tired and want to fight back too.

  • May 28, 2008

    10:58 a.m.

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    Hummzz writes:

    To NaySegall

    I appreciate your words of support for Michael's situation and several young men and women in the "hood." I know that Michael wasn't perfect in the law, but gang members and criminals are not the only one's that have to deal with the police in the "hood." People that don't live here don't know what it is like to be a law abiding person and still pulled over because your vehicle was registered to 26th Ave and your on 30th Ave. Yes...this happened to me the Sunday after Michael's death. He ticketed me for no insurance but never asked me for my insurance. This doesn't happen in other neighborhoods. So the Sheepherder...WE invite you to come live amongst us. I don't know your race, but even in the "hood" you will be pulled over for being white in a black/hispanic neighborhood. How many times have you been pulled over for driving while white/black or because your car is registered to a different street than the one you were traveling on? Hmmm....I don't think I can count that high for me.

  • June 4, 2008

    6 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    letmetellyou writes:

    It's so sad that people judge other people like they have the right to do so. It really s**** that people are being taken out by eachother. Nobody deserves to die that regardless of the past. Do something for the community before you jump and judge somebody. Rev Leon Kelly has done alot and he does not reject any1 regardless of their past. You guys should really STOP judging people and commenting on things that you know nothing at all about. Try going and spending a day in Montbello, Park hill, eastside, or even the westside.