The Lowell Sun

October 8, 2002

PETER WARD, Sun Staff

LOWELL They talked as if they were organizing a party. Who should we invite? Should it be held at a club?

We have to invite him to get others to come.

But the 12 young men seated around a table last night at the United Teen Equality Center on Kirk Street weren't planning a party.

They are former gang members who are preparing to launch a campaign to convince Lowell's active gang members to lay down their arms.

Because of violence that has erupted since April, police in recent weeks have beefed up enforcement, and elected officials have called on all quarters to take back the streets of the Lower Highlands and Acre where the shootings occurred.

Now, in addition to those efforts, this group of concerned Southeast Asian 20-somethings who call themselves the Peace Team they include former enemies has volunteered to tap their hard-earned expertise and try to mediate a truce between the three major gangs.

"The Peace Team's objective is to get the gangs to come to some kind of agreement, hopefully peace," said Gregg Croteau, executive director of UTEC, a local nonprofit agency that uses private donations and public grant money to provide after-school activities to disadvantaged youth. "It's a long process ... but I've seen it done."

The Peace Team members believe they can gain the trust of gang members something that might elude other crime fighters in the city and find out what it will take for them to mend fences with their rivals.

"The community needs to see young people as people and that (the situation) is not hopeless, because it's not hopeless," said Chan Snguon, 27, a former gang member who spoke eloquently and hopefully about the team's chances.

The Peace Team plans to leave town this weekend for an Outward Bound-style retreat in Maine where they will tweak the truce plan and "work on relationships," Croteau said.

Over the next several weeks, they'll work to coax influential gang members to attend another retreat in a neutral location away from gang-claimed territories.

Simply having rivals meet in person could have a positive effect, said Kimsot Ren, 23, an amiable former gang member now working for a UTEC offshoot, Family Unity of Lowell.

That way, the next time two rivals cross paths, one may remember the other, and instead of clashing, "He'll let him go, and that prevents a crime," Ren said.

Other points members of the Peace Team made last night:

The stepped-up police surveillance of gangs has been effective, and police will be helpful to the Peace Team's plan. However, efforts by police to take pictures of or break up large gatherings of Southeast Asian men haven't deterred gang leaders and serve to alienate law-abiding youth.

Youngsters are drawn to the family structure of gangs and feel a bond with kids they grew up with.

Visiting gang members from California come to Lowell and ignite hatreds.

The recent violent incidents serve as a form of retaliation. Instead of targeting opposing gang members believed to be responsible for an infraction or insult, gangs now feel justified hurting or injuring anyone connected to the rival gang.

"It's not personal," said one Peace Team participant last night. "And there's lots of misunderstandings, no communication between gangs."

It's what the retired gang members at the table last night have set out to change.

Peter Ward's e-mail address is pward@lowellsun.com .