VIOLENCE FROM 2 SIDES BLACKS NEED SAFETY FROM OWN GANGS AS WELL AS POLICE.

Byline: Kerman Maddox Local View

OSTENSIBLY the purpose of African-American History Month is twofold. First, to focus the nation's attention on the numerous and significant contributions African-Americans have made in the development of the United States of America. And, second, to look inward with pride about how far we have come as a race of people in a nation that has not always been hospitable to us.

But it ought to be a time when the community takes stock of the violence that plagues our neighborhoods. Whether it's the police or the gang kind, the twin heads of violence in African-American communities must be addressed.

However, we're more comfortable debating police brutality than debating personal responsibility in our neighborhoods; yet both are serious problems.

Why the willingness to quickly and thoroughly investigate the Los Angeles Police Department regarding excessive force, but the reluctance to speak out about escalating crime in our neighborhoods by residents of the neighborhood? I say let's do both! Let's aggressively pursue justice against police officers who violate our rights, but let's also aggressively pursue justice against criminals who commit violent crimes in our neighborhoods.

You can't have one conversation without the other if you're serious about reducing violence.

The recent tragic killing of 13-year-old Devin Brown - who was shot at more than 10 times by the LAPD - and the horrific murder last year of 14-year old Byron Lee, who was shot more than 14 times in South Los Angeles, not by the police, but by someone in the neighborhood, offer a unique opportunity to debate violence in our neighborhoods. So bravo to efforts to actively pursue reforms of the LAPD to prevent incidents like the killing of Devin Brown from happening again, but let's also vigorously pursue solutions to violence in our neighborhoods committed by our neighbors.

As the students in my class at Southwest College say, let's debate responsible policing, but let's also debate personal responsibility!

As horrible as the killing of Devin Brown was, people are as puzzled as they are angry. They are wondering aloud: Why did the police overreact and fire more than 10 shots at the teenager behind the wheel of the car, and why was a 13-year-old out at that time of night? Where was the restraint from the LAPD, and where was the adult supervision of Devin Brown?

Stopping the spread of racial prejudice and escalating violence against African-Americans in the early 1900s motivated Carter G. Woodson and other black scholars to educate white America about the important contributions blacks had made in the development of this country. According to some estimates, the violence against black Americans was so bad that between 1890 and 1925 one black was lynched every two to three days. Violence by whites against blacks was a real societal problem.

Fast-forward to 2005, and it's sad to say that in many urban communities throughout the nation - Southern California being no exception - violence by blacks against other blacks has become a real dilemma. In fact, black-on-black violence has become so pervasive there may be black-on-black homicides occurring every two to three days.

In the past, African-American History Month was a time to educate, celebrate and seek solutions to an array of discriminatory practices against African-Americans, as in housing, employment, education, red-lining and other forms of financial discrimination, as in access to the information superhighway. While these are all critical issues, I can't think of anything more harmful - or that's talked about more often, by more people in so many different environments - than police brutality and black-on-black violence.

So let's celebrate our important contributions, but let's also come to grips with the twin heads of violence that have caused much pain, heartache and suffering to many African-Americans. A black life is as valuable as the next person's, and if we get upset about the loss of black life at the hands of LAPD, we must be just as aggrieved when African-Americans kill other innocent African-Americans.

The African-American Summit on Violence Prevention is a group of African-American men and women volunteers who have been working on violence-prevention efforts for the past year. One of our priorities is the recruitment of African-American men to serve as mentors for our youth. Called ``See a man, be a man,'' our signature program, led by Torre Reese and Michael Franklin, is based at Audubon Middle School. We are constantly looking for more men to participate away from the glare of cameras and in the trenches of the schools, where our youth must be saved from neighborhood temptations.

This African-American History Month should be dedicated to focusing on solutions to the problems of violence in our communities, because until the violence is abated, nothing else on the black agenda really matters. Groups like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Urban League and the Congressional Black Caucus should make reduction of violence in black neighborhoods their No. 1 priority and approach this problem with the same zeal and energy they exhibited when they investigated the horrific hate crime against James Byrd in Jasper, Texas, in 1999.

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Photo:

LAPD Deputy Chief Michael Berkow points to a photo from the scene of the fatal police shooting of 13-year-old Devin Brown.

Nick Ut/Associated Press