SHARPTON, JACKSON PLEDGE TO STOP GANG VIOLENCE

Activist Leaders Blast Chicago For Over-Staffing Loop With Police After
Sept. 11.

CHICAGO -- The Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson pledged to stop gang
violence Tuesday at a meeting of church and community leaders at Liberty
Baptist Church.

"I came here this morning because there is a national rise in gang
violence," Sharpton said. "We're going to use our teeth and our tongues to
stop the violence."

Jackson called for a stop to the "growing culture of violence."

"Let's deal with easy access to guns and easy access to drugs. Let's deal
with first-class jails and second-class schools," he said.

Gang violence is of special concern in Chicago after three youths were
killed last week in what police suspect were gang-related shootings.

While Sharpton and Jackson said they are not anti-police, they are
"anti-police brutality." The message was clear that police are at least
partially responsible for putting an end to the violence.

"Police are empowered," Jackson said. "They know where the gun shops are.
We know where the crack houses are. Police have the responsibility to
detect drug houses and the source of gun flow."

The Rev. Paul Jakes Jr. also spoke to reporters, saying that although
Chicago Police officers had attended the meeting, they might have left
because, "it got intimidating with the comments that the community was
making," he said.

Patrick Camden, deputy director of news affairs for the Chicago Police
Department, confirmed that there was a police representative at the meeting
but declined to comment on whether the representative left the meeting
prematurely.

Jakes also scolded Mayor Richard Daley for not responding quickly enough to
last week's gang-related shootings, adding that the late Mayor Harold
Washington would have acted immediately to involve the community in
stopping gang violence.

Jakes said parenting classes, drug intervention programs and meetings with
elected officials, judges and other empowered community leaders were all
discussed during the meeting.

But it was Jakes' comment about the Chicago Police Department that set the
tone of the meeting.

"In this last terrorist attack, there was deployment of officers downtown
and not to the South and West Sides. If officers weren't out in the hood,
we need to know why," Jakes said.

Camden responded to the charge that police were redeployed downtown.

"That is absolutely, positively, 100 percent not true," Camden said.
"Service in the community has not in any way been disrupted."

Still, one South Side resident, Marc Balance, 44, said the violence among
youth in his neighborhood has gotten so bad that he is afraid to take out
the garbage after dark.

"I see the National Guard at the airport and I am ready to see them on my
block," he said. "We are being held hostage by these gang members."

Balance said it was great that Sharpton and Jackson were on hand to get the
community's attention but added, "(Sharpton and Jackson) can say a whole
lot, but bottom line is that when they leave, we still have guns and drugs
on our streets."