The Interrupters Page #2

We're sick and tired

of our babies being killed.

This man here

lost a son.

We can't be

quiet no more.

My son has

been killed right here

and we're standing here

with cameras right here

where my son been slain at?

Come on now.

I don't think that's right.

We could have did

this somewhere else.

I have to sit here and try

to say something to you guys.

Who does that?

Would you say that

there's still a code of silence

going on in the neighborhood,

that people aren't

coming forward?

I can't walk around,

go up to people's houses

and say, "Who killed my son?"

I'm not a police officer,

and I'm not a doctor.

You know, I don't know how many

times my son, they tell me 22,

I don't know how many times

my son's been shot.

See, somebody in the background

saying 22.

You a doctor, baby?

That's my son, baby,

you didn't make him.

You his auntie.

We're going to move this on past.

What you mean, you,

watch you don't get what?

You better shut up, don't know

what you're talking about.

Let me just say this,

we just had another homicide.

Just now, while we're marching.

Another homicide.

It's a war zone.

It's a war zone

and an epidemic.

People, we must come together.

He was sticking people up.

The guys caught him

in a walkway.

Shameful.

You know, we got some guys

over on the next block.

Some inroads over there.

It ain't gonna be

no retaliation from it.

It's just so

crazy, man, because it's like,

every time you come outside,

somebody getting killed.

I don't know what this world

coming to.

We got to be out here, man.

Before things happen.

All my life,

I knew right from wrong.

I knew if I do this,

I'll get in trouble.

But, you know, at the time,

I just didn't care, though.

I always wanted to be

like my dad.

You know, he was my role model,

because he used to always

dress slick.

Wear big hats and suits

and, you know, all that.

And, I just, you know,

wanted to be like him.

I was 11 years old

when my father got killed.

He got beat

with some baseball bats.

And that just messed me up.

I used to be out there in the

streets all through the night.

I used to be in jails,

fighting, kicking off riots, and

doing all crazy stuff.

Just gangbanging.

Oh, what up boy?

Man, come holler at me, man!

What's up?

Ricardo Cobe Williams,

he's a younger interrupter,

which is a good thing.

Once he came on board

at CeaseFire,

he began to really

turn the heat on.

Cobe knows how to get in,

he talks the language.

And he knows what to say,

when to say it.

You two guys, man,

you all been around

here on a lot of bullshit,

both of you all.

Robbing people, breaking

in windows, all kinds of stuff.

Man, whenever I gotta do

what I gotta do,

I gotta do what I gotta do,

you know.

Don't get it

all twisted.

Once upon a time this man

was out here too,

doing the same thing

we done and did...

Cobe has big-time credibility

with the gang members out there.

...we gonna wait for

the heat to come to us.

Breaking out...

look at them.

What's going on?

A friend of mine called

me, very concerned about her two kids.

The streets is

taking a toll.

They stay in the same house.

And they be at each other

because both of them are

in two different cliques.

Just threatening

to kill one another.

Shooting at each other,

it's just crazy.

I can't keep

coming off the road.

You know, because

I work for Amtrak,

and not knowing if somebody's

gonna kick the door in

because of this

gang's violence.

I just packed up

and left, yes.

So...

I left the apartment in my name

so they don't be homeless.

So this my little

honeycomb hideout.

They don't know

where I live, either.

Your kids don't?

Nope.

Your youngest son's

still locked up, right?

Yup.

He don't get out 'til 2016

for attempted murder.

And he was 17

when they got him.

One thing, you still

have all three of your kids.

It's some people...

Yep, I thank God for that.

People say I'm crazy

because I always say,

"If I lose one of my sons,

I don't want no funeral. "

I don't want nobody to come,

you know, give me condolences.

Because I want

to remember them...

the last decent time

I seen them.

And they say that's mean of me,

but that's how I feel.

So just stay strong

and keep your head up.

I'm a try to reach out

to them myself.

Well, I wish you luck

in finding them.

Yeah, just I'll see

what I can do.

Because I know if they

have a strong person

that's lived that life,

I think they could be saved.

Because I... I just

can't do it anymore.

Violence is like

the great infectious diseases

of all history.

We used to look at people

with plague, leprosy,

TB as bad and evil people,

and something needs

to be done about them.

And they were put in dungeons.

What perpetuates violence

can be as invisible today

as the microorganisms

of the past were.

I had been overseas for about

ten years at World Health

working on infectious diseases.

Coming back to the U.S.,

the violence is unavoidable.

But I saw it as behavior,

not as bad people.

You can judge it, but it's

not what we do in science.

I never had nothing against

Poot and them... nothing.

When I came up, like I said,

they shot at my car.

For the young

people in these neighborhoods,

they see violence

as their disease.

What they expect

to die of is this.

Don't tell me you gonna

squash something

then go back

and do something else,

and then you done made me

look like an ass.

And if that's

what you want to do,

then you put on big boy shoes,

then you play big boy games.

Violence is a two-step process.

The first thought is,

"I have a grievance.

"He looked at my girl,

he called me a name,

"he disrespected me,

he owes me money.

"He's a Sunni.

"He's a Palestinian.

He's an Israeli. "

The second thought is that

grievance justifies violence.

At the end of the

day, man, nobody gonna win, man.

Our work is about thought, too.

I mean, and your family hurt

behind this sh*t.

That's why I'm saying

ain't no point in...

you was wrong,

you was wrong.

F*** all that,

you know what I'm saying?

Motherfuckers just

trying to move on, man.

So the interrupter's role,

like the TB disease control

worker's role,

is to do this initial

interruption of transmission.

Five steps to

effective gang mediation.

A lot of times you gonna

get into them situations

that you gonna have

to weigh it out

and you gonna have to know

when to step it off.

Their experience

around difficult situations

did not begin

with their work with us.

So it's all a matter of

selecting the right people

and training them

and supervising them

and supporting them.

Told the officers

that you ain't

got nothing to say,

you gonna deal

with it yourself.

You got to drown

yourself with the people

and immerse yourself

in the bullshit.

You have to talk as if,

"Man, I understand, man.

"I been there.

I know how it is

to hurt a motherf***er. "

I'm not no punk

or nothing.

Yeah.

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