The Trenton Times published the following article on July 22, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Trenton fathers, men try to change culture of violence one youth at a time

TRENTON — In the Roger Gardens housing project, the young men in white T-shirts stood framed in doorways of the blocky brick buildings, looking out at a group of older men.

Light rain fell on the corner of Hoffman Avenue and Oakland Street, one of several intersections in the city frequently marked by blood: Gang shootings, drug deals gone wrong, homicides.

It’s the territory of Fathers and Men United for a Better Trenton, and their message during a recent visit was peace.

“We go into the belly of the beast,” Fathers and Men founder Wayne Council said. “A lot of guys won’t do it.”

They hold prayer vigils near shooting scenes. They console victims’ families. They try to mediate disputes.

“And the young guys say to us, ‘We appreciate you coming down here, because everyone else has forgotten about us,’” Jason Rogers said.

In the battle for control of the city streets, there’s no backup for Fathers and Men. Police vehicles rolled through Roger Gardens infrequently during their visit to the project two weeks ago. Despite years of marches, sermons, and calls by politicians for community vigilance, members of Fathers and Men are the only ones who hit the street with any regularity.

“We’re definitely on our own,” John Grier said.

Fathers and Men was founded in 2006, in the wake of all-out gang warfare the previous year that led to a record 31 homicides in the city. The idea was to have older city men come together to counsel the younger ones in an informal street mentoring program.

Working similarly to Cure Violence organizations in other cities around the country, the group tries to prevent violence before it can begin through the power of persuasion and the respect they engender as established members of the community.

“Most stuff we hear about, we can stop,” Rogers said. “We can put ’em in the car, we can drive them to a program.”

“We’re no vigilante group,” Grier said. “We’re not listening to police scanners. If there’s a shooting, we’re not going.”

In the days since Council founded the group, the nature of crime has changed in the city. Gone are large-scale gang initiations, but now residents struggle to avoid block-by-block trench warfare, with beefs fueled by Facebook and Twitter and easy access to illegal guns. Worse, the boys dealing drugs and engaging in violence seem to only get younger.

“Things change every year,” Council said. “You got guys that, 13, they’re on the porch, 14, they’re on a corner.”

The Fathers and Men organization is smaller, too. Boasting 150 men at its heyday, just seven came to Cadwalader Park for an interview on a recent Friday afternoon. Council, Minister Lee Ingram, and former council candidate Errick Wiggins — the youngest in the group, who calls the others his “uncles” — headed for Roger Gardens to see what they could find.

Things change every year. You got guys that, 13, they’re on the porch, 14, they’re on a corner

Along “Hobo Row” on Hoffman Avenue next to a corner store was a group of middle-aged men, a few of them playing dice. The young men watched the scene from in front of the three-story project buildings across Oakland Street before retreating into the doorways when the rain came.

“The one thing about the Men, they go always out in the neighborhood,” said area resident Melvin Tyson as he passed by Council and the others in the group.

Their experience in life gives them an important perspective, he said.

“We’ve been there, done that, don’t want to go back to it,” Tyson said.

Younger men in the area didn’t want to talk, but the older ones did. Much of the conversation focused on a large, closed park off Oakland Street. Locals used to play pickup basketball games there, but the courts and playground are long gone, overgrown by weeds.

“You deter the violence by giving them other opportunities,” said Milton Covington, Council’s cousin. “You give them an outlet, so their mind won’t be dysfunctional, it’ll be on another page.”

“It’s becoming worse because there was already nothing for these kids to do, because they’re taking more stuff away,” Grier said.

Drew, a resident in his 50s who didn’t want to give his last name, said he thought parental discipline and responsibility were key.

“Our parents ruled by the hammer,” he said. “They wouldn’t play.”

He has two grown children and two stepsons ages 13 and 10, but he does not worry about them being caught up in the streets.

“We’ve got a tight rein on ’em, me and my girl,” he said.

In exchanges like this, the Fathers and Men can gather information, take the pulse of the community, and make connections.

“Each member does what they do best in our organization,” Ingram said. “Every brother has his own thing.”

Ingram has stories that will make your hair stand on end. About people desperate for drugs, New York City dealers who threw people out windows, and being robbed in the street. In the 1980s Ingram was a drug dealer, in and out of prison, in and out of rehab. It’s a lifetime ago now for him.

Asked if he has ever killed anyone, Ingram said no. Asked if he has ever shot anyone, Ingram said, “I take the Fifth,” and laughed.

While driving on Hoffman Avenue on his way to the projects he stopped his teenage nephew, who was walking down the street. Ingram said he wanted him to go home and stay inside with his girlfriend and family, and warned him that the State Police have been deployed in the city.

“Just get off the streets, because the troopers are in town, and I don’t want to see you locked up over some nonsense,” Ingram told him.

Ingram’s nephew should consider himself lucky, Ingram told him. The teen was the last to talk to Thomas Barnes as he walked to the store, minutes before the 21-year-old was killed on Stuyvesant Avenue July 6, Ingram said. Less than a week later, he skipped a party in Hamilton where gunfire broke out and 17-year-old West Ward resident Shakir Williams was killed, his uncle said.

Just keeping someone off the street can save their life, or someone else’s, the men said.
“What we’re doing is making an impact throughout the city,” Council said. “If you talk to 100 people and help one, you’re doing your job.”

Fathers and Men’s seventh annual community day will be held Aug. 31 in Cadwalader Park. They hold it close to the first day of school so they can give out backpacks and composition books to kids.

“We believe education is a gateway to success, and we believe in it,” Council said.

“The message we want to get out is: we’re still going strong,” Rogers said. “With our wisdom and their strength, we can take the city back.”

It’s an uphill battle, with few residents joining the fight because of “the spirit of fear,” he said.

That was very clear at the corner of Stuyvesant and Hoffman avenues. Outside a liquor store pockmarked with bullet holes, where someone has spray-painted a gang name on an awning, a man was asked how he feels about violence.

Too scared to give his name, he shrugged and said he has no feeling about it all.

“That’s the ’hood,” he said. “You see it so much … Happy, sad, you just hope it ain’t you.”

Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5705.