MARCHERS: 'PEOPLE ARE JUST FED UP'

GARY -- Lisa Ballard loves her 20-year-old son, Jeffrey Graham Jr.,
more than anything, and that's why she keeps trying to kick him out
of the house.

After losing three of six older brothers to violence, Ballard, of
Gary, vowed to keep the boy beyond the street's grasp, she said
Saturday morning upon arriving at Indiana University Northwest's
parking lot after a march against violence.

Ballard sent Jeffrey to Indiana University's Bloomington campus; when
he didn't like it, she let him stay here for a semester before
shipping him off to IUPUI.

Even her best efforts couldn't protect him.

This winter, Jeffrey and a friend went to pick up Chinese food when
they were approached in another car by people who live near Ballard.

Jeffrey took the brunt of the shooting with five bullets, including
one to the kidney. Two weeks later, he turned 20.

The morning after a woman was shot dead during an alleged failed drug
deal -- bringing the city's total to 16 for the year so far -- rally
organizer Dwight Taylor could find no better reason to march along
Broadway. But at least as the violence careens out of control, the
effort doesn't seem for naught.

"Our march did get some people listening," he said as he looked at
the more than 100 people who walked alongside him. "People are just fed up."

Gary's chapter of the motorcycle group Buffalo Soldiers escorted the
marchers on their path from 42nd Street to 33rd. Its president,
Lawrence Popps, said Saturday's effort and those like it will take
some time to catch on, but they will.

"It takes being that person to stop it," he said. "The violence is
all about these young kids taking territories for drugs, and it's
affecting the whole city," Popps said.

Ballard, who works in education, was asked by the organizers to tell
her story to the crowd but she was nervous even though she's been
telling her kids at school over and over.

Kevin Brown, 20, is one who's been listening; his cousin, Jeremy
Wheatley, also 20, was shot and killed in January on Lake Street.

"Half the time when you're trying to enjoy yourself, you have to
constantly look over your shoulder," Brown said. "And now my other
cousin (Graham) was just shot."