Thousands To March for Peace in Northeast L.A.

Thousands of Angelenos will march from Glassell Park to Cypress Park on Saturday in an annual event organizers hope can help bring an end to gang violence in Northeast Los Angeles.

The fourth annual Peace in the Northeast March will begin at 10 a.m. and proceed for three miles from the Glassell Park Senior Center and Community Center at 3750 N. Verdugo Rd. to at 3311 N. Figueroa St., where a community resource fair will be held.

The annual event is organized by Victory Outreach in Eagle Rock, with support from LAPD's Northeast Division, neighborhood councils across Northeast Angeles and councilmembers Jose Huizar, Ed Reyes and Eric Garcetti.

This year's resource fair will also be attended by Los Angeles Clippers rookie, Al-Farouq Aminu, who will be hosting a jump shooting competition.

Ben Castro, a minister at Victory Outreach, said the inspiration for the march came from LAPD Captain William Murphy in 2008.

"In March of 2008, we marched from York and Figueroa to Victory Outreach in Eagle Rock; there were a lot of community members who wanted to get involved," he said. "When we started, this was a clergy thing, but the community really wanted to get involved. It's ended up being 50/50."

According to Costa, about 2,500 community members attend the march and research fair each year.

Costa said the goal of the event is to bring together disparate factions of the community who all have the same goal of bringing an end to gang violence in Northeast Los Angeles, but may have different approaches to solving the problem.

"We're asking gang members to participate, we're asking families that have been affected by gang violence, you have families who have children who have been shot by gang members," he said. "This is something where they're coming together and saying, 'we want peace.' Police Officers are saying 'we want peace.'"

Joe Carmona, a Youth Advocate for the Northeast Church of Los Angeles, said he participates in the March because it gives him a chance to change his perceptions about groups he doesn't work closely with throughout the year.

"We get to know each other better," Carmona said. "There are people from schools there, there are people from city there. When you are actually sitting across the table and working on a process together, you have different perception of them."

Gang violence has significantly decreased since the first march in 2008, a trend Costa admits is more likely a result of LAPD's crackdown on gang members around Drew St. in Cypress Park. However, Costa said he believes that the Peace in the Northeast has aided the process.

Joe Carmona agreed, saying that though some have question how effective the march is in fighting gang violence, he's a strong believer in it's ability to bring people together.

"It's the only group in the whole northeast that is non-profit that focuses on stopping gang violence. I get  a lot of contacts, I meet a lot of people who are interested in these type of things.," he said. "I've seen a little advance in terms of stopping gang violence. It's a slow process, it takes time. If it was easy it would've been done."