The Interrupters Page #3

Only thing that came

to my mind was retaliate.

They got to know

they did the wrong person.

Yeah.

"I hear you, Jack,

you know, you 100% right.

"And I'm with you man,

"if you gonna take care

of your business,

"take care of your business.

"But check this out.

"If I know you want

to shoot the motherf***er,

"the police know already,

your friends know,

and somebody gonna tell

on your ass. "

Make sure you talk to the

individual that did this to me.

You let 'em know that you

gonna keep this here peace.

You doing this.

Once you make

sense out of the madness,

then you start talking about

the scientific theory.

You start talking about

the change of the behavior.

Then you can give them

a history lesson.

You know,

"Your daddy was violent,

"your granddaddy was f***ed up,

he was violent.

"Now all your brothers

are f***ed up

"because you misled them.

"It's time to save yourself,

brother.

"Save yourself.

"I'm not preaching to you,

just save yourself.

Does this make sense, brother?"

"Oh man, you know what,

you got a point. "

All right, just give

me time to work it.

I really

understand why it's not easy

for people to back down

for one reason.

Because you've been taught

all your life...

in the community where I grew up

in, you know, like,

you know you got to stand up

no matter what happens.

Death before dishonor.

When I was 14 years old,

this guy beat me down

in the streets.

And my stepfather took his life

right in front of me.

And I felt good about it,

really.

And I was always

a shaky criminal.

I used to sell fake hash to the

sailors down on Michigan Avenue.

I used to steal smoke detectors.

They called us the smoke

detector bandits.

I was playing on women a lot...

you know, women would help me.

I had a lot of girlfriends

that would give me money

because I had a big old afro

back then.

First started working

with CeaseFire in 1999.

I told Gary I had a bachelor's

degree at that time.

And Gary asked me, he's like,

"Where is your

bachelor's degree at?"

I say, "Look, man, hey,

I was just trying to get in. "

But I went back to school.

I got my bachelor's degree,

with my master's degree.

I began to understand that

we've been taught violence.

It's... violence is

learned behavior.

Hear me clearly, young brothers.

I don't mention gang names when

I do my mediations, all right?

At this transitional

home for teenage parolees,

the residents were in conflict

with one another,

and they were

pulling in gang members

from throughout the area.

It was about to blow up

in a major way.

The problem that we have

right now is about some money

that lead to a fight, right?

How much money was it?

Like five dollars.

It was about five

dollars, everybody?

Dude said instead of giving him

five dollars, give him 15.

No, it don't work like that.

You ain't fin a get no more

than what you owed.

Me said, I'm not paying yous...

Right.

Then five minutes later on,

they came up here.

It took me as a woman

to stand in the middle

of the street with 15 guys,

that I knew...

knew nothing of...

And take...

come out of my pocket

and pay $15 to keep peace.

No respect for where

you live at.

You think this could

turn into gun play?

I think so,

because it's gonna escalate.

It's gonna keep

going and going.

If we got to live here, man,

I don't want to bring these

streets over here, man.

I ain't trying to go

back to that life.

I'm one man,

I can't fight all them.

What you think I'm a do?

Like this brother just said,

any time 15 guys

mob up on you,

the first thing that

comes across your mind,

"I need to be strapped

to deal with that. "

If you got to live here

and coexist with each other,

someone has to be big enough

to take the higher road.

It's gonna go through

one ear and out the other.

Look you know what,

the most important thing is

to pay attention

to what they're saying.

Because at this site

where you live at,

if you cause any

kind of trouble,

five-oh will be called.

I'm hearing what they telling me

in there, right.

And to me,

it's like starting off

with a five dollar bag of weed.

It's beyond that.

But wait a minute.

No, no... no no no.

You got to play it

like a big man.

I got to play it

like a big girl.

When I get angry,

I can bring some noise

if I want to.

I go lay it down.

I have to.

Don't make me feel like a punk.

It make feel like,

you know what?

It's fighting my own ego.

I swear to God I wish I had

someone to holler at me

like I'm right here

hollering at you.

I would have not had

the felony on my record.

You understand what I'm saying?

What we gonna do?

We gonna fight about another

five dollar bag of weed?

It ain't worth it.

They feed off

her energy, too.

So what you

gonna do, son?

Tell me.

And I'm a hold you to it.

Make myself better.

You too.

Little Ameena.

Yo, if they want to let it go,

we can let it go.

All right, I want

to see some love.

I just love Englewood.

But it's hard knocks, man.

You know, it's a old saying,

Englewood is all good.

It's where I learned

all my life's lessons.

Ah, I locked my keys in the car.

Ooh, I don't even know

how to do that.

I got a screwdriver

and a wire, a hang...

A screwdriver?

Y'all gonna tear my car up.

What kind of

locks you got?

Whatever.

CeaseFire back

in the hood.

Who scratch your face?

You was out here thumping?

I fight every day.

You fight every day?

You too handsome to be

doing all of that.

Most of our mediations

come through the community here.

They'll tell us that it's

some tension in the air

and need us to come in

and help out.

Quit playing before

I bust your nose.

I'm a pass these out

to everybody and they mama.

Just pass them out

to everybody and they mama,

but I just didn't want

to have to see your drawers

in the process

of passing them out.

Did I have to?

No.

Well, why am I

still seeing them?

But I thought you had got shot

in your shoulders,

but it was in your leg?

It was these guys shooting

at each other in these cars.

So I jumped, 'cause I was trying

to save my cousin.

I had a big old hole in my leg,

like this big.

What your grades like?

A's, B's, and C's.

A's, B's, and C's?

And one D.

What you wanna do...

what's the D in?

It better not be in P.E.

Or I'm a hit you in your throat.

I like those, too.

No, I didn't,

I bought these.

You think you hot, don't you?

When I was

growing up in Englewood,

we still looked out

for one another.

To me, it's like,

there's still some hope left.

You think you hot.

No, no killing.

CeaseFire!

I've been trying to

get up with Toya's two kids, man,

because both of them

in rival cliques.

It was easy to get up with Bud.

Your mama asked me

to try to reach out,

try to sit down and work with

the... you and your brother,

try to talk with you

and all that, too, though.

So, bloodline, thicker

than water, and, like...

But I get into it with him

a lot, though.

Is there any way

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes