Political Gumbo: It’s Going to Take More Than One Meeting

Respect to the more than 300 people who showed up online and in person at last week’s community meeting aimed at dealing with the rise in local gun violence.

Sadly, since that meeting one man died from wounds suffered during a shooting incident on Summit Avenue last week.

If things keep progressing at this rate, there will undoubtedly be more tragedies.

At Monday’s City Council meeting, District 3 Councilmember John Kennedy said the meeting would not be a one off and there would be more gatherings to continue discussing the problem.

That’s a great start, but right now it’s only a start.

This is not meant as a criticism of Councilmember Kennedy, who did a great job of responding to the shootings and pulling a meeting together on short notice.

But we have to do more than just meet to talk about the problem.

Yes, intervention, prevention and enforcement efforts must continue. We have to reach youth at a young age and continue outreach into their teen years.

Intervention work, and much more, was done in the past by Ralph Poole, Tim Rhambo and Tarik Ross.

Sadly, Poole and Rhambo have died and Ross should be a major part of intervention efforts this time around as well.

But there are other efforts that need to be made, including exposing school-age children to more arts and cultural events like a Northwest Pasadena Chalk Festival, similar to the one held in Old Pasadena, or a film festival where young Black and Brown people can see movies featuring people who look like them. If they show “Shaft Goes To Africa,” I’ll be first in line.
Events besides the Black History Parade must be held in Northwest Pasadena.

Time and time again during my time at the Pasadena Weekly residents living in the Northwest said they didn’t feel comfortable going into Old Pasadena because they do not feel like they belong.
When I was speaking at John Muir High School in 2004 and casually mentioned Dodger Stadium, many of the kids in the class looked at me as if I was talking about a foreign country. Finally it struck me, and I asked an important question.
“How many of you have never been out of Pasadena and Altadena?”

Most of the hands in the class went up.

Sad and unacceptable.

In the past, the Michael Bryant Free Haircut Day gave local activists and mentors a chance to speak to youth days before school started as activists like Brother JC and others passed out book bags, school supplies and cut hair for free.

Brother JC once stood outside a local liquor store for six or seven hours at night with a sign that said “We Must Stop Killing Us.” He invited all of the City Council to join him. Only then District 1 Councilmember Jacque Robinson showed up to hold a sign beside him.

The event was named in honor of a local barber killed by Los Angeles police officers at the end of pursuit. Police fired tasers at Bryant while he waded in a swimming pool to elude them.
Bryant was then hogtied, placed face down and died in the back of a police cruiser.

The city purchased many of the supplies and supported the event. At some point, officials in the city, led by City Manager Micahel Beck decided the city should run it.

That event is no more.

Those are the kinds of events we need that allow the elders and others who set the table to come in contact with local youth.
Yes the Black History Parade is important, but there has to be more in the Northwest.

That’s one of the reasons the Pasadena Weekly and then-Councilmembers Victor Gordo and Chris Holden, both local products, pushed for the reopening of the Cinema 21 Theater on Washington Boulevard.

Northwest once had its own movie theater, and in its heyday it showed nothing but Black cinema.

Ask former Police Lt. Phlunte Riddle about it. Her father-in-law once owned it.

After the Halloween Murders in 1993 forced city officials to admit Pasadena’s gang problem, police and firefighters and members of the First AME Church of Pasadena worked to bring a Boy Scout troop to Northwest Pasadena.

After the groups scoured the community looking for recruits, things got off to a rocky start as some of the early recruits arrived still wearing gang bandanas.

According to one article, things changed and before it was over 40 scouts took part in the Eagle Scout ceremony in 1999.
Sadly, now, information on that troop is hard to find.

It’s hard to say if that method would be effective today, but still, something has to be done.