Go Time for Gangsters

St. Paul Human Rights Director Tyrone Terrill, usually nattily attired, does not look like a flame-throwing, flak jacket-wearing radical. But some think he sounded like one in his recent open letter chastising the local African-American community for failing to distance itself from gang members and their “terrorist” acts. The letter, published in the Minneapolis Spokesman May 12, has generated such an uproar that Terrill might want to pick up a kevlar flak jacket just in case. As with Bill Cosby on a national level, Terrill has found himself at the center of a growing cultural firestorm. Should the African-American community excommunicate gangbangers and those who, by either their silence or tacit support, “enable” their criminal mayhem?

In 1996, Minneapolis had so many gang-related murders that the city gained the unflattering moniker “Murderapolis.” Within two or three years, however, increased police surveillance, targeted prosecutions, and longer sentences removed many gang members from local streets. Unfortunately, many are back and ready to regain lost turf. By August last summer, the number of North Minneapolis killings was double that from 2003.

This increasingly violent tableau inspired Terrill to write his letter. “I just felt moved to do something,” he told me recently. “Many in our community know exactly who the gangbangers are, and yet we often fail to call them out.” Terrill believes that those who turn a blind eye to gangsterism are no different than Southern whites who tolerated lynching and cross burnings. “NOW is the time for us to stop saying that our kids do not have summer jobs and recreational activities, so turning to gang activity is the alternative,” Terrill wrote in his letter. He also called for local gang members “to completely remove themselves from any affiliation with gangs or known gang organizations” by June 1, “or suffer the consequences of their actions.”

Within days, St. Paul NAACP Branch President Nathaniel Khaliq publicly assailed Terrill for misusing his position as St. Paul’s Human Rights chief (the letter was written on city letterhead) to target gang members and their families. Khaliq bitterly noted that Terrill’s statement coincided with stepped-up police enforcement efforts that also targeted African-American males. Minneapolis NAACP Branch President Duane Reed, while acknowledging the need for personal safety and law enforcement, took issue with Terrill’s statement equating gang members with terrorists. “[That] takes our community to a place that is not constructive,” Reed said. “We need to focus on the reasons why some of our young people are involved in criminal activities.”

One African-American leader, who asked to not be identified, theorized that Terrill’s comments might be part of a larger scheme to scare foundations into supporting nonprofit organizations that provide a livelihood for community activists. “Whites get scared when there is a rash of crime,” he said, making it easier for certain people to raise money. He suggested that Terrill, a Republican, might be trying to ingratiate himself with the likes of St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly, who endorsed George W. Bush, and U.S. Senator Norm Coleman.

Terrill believes this is an unsubstantiated personal attack. “I have fought for the civil and human rights of gang members in St. Paul and Minneapolis.” He adds, however, that his sympathy for those who remain in the gang world has grown thin.
I was more empathetic to people like Khaliq and Reed when I lived in a relatively posh neighborhood in south Minneapolis. I signed petitions condemning police misconduct against people of color and wrote emphatically about the link between poverty and criminal behavior.

However, I have since moved to north Minneapolis. Most of my neighbors are solid, hard-working people. Yet I know that some of them have children in gangs. Some of their children have gangbanger friends. If getting rid of gangs means that some families must practice “tough love,” so be it. If it means that some families unwilling to enforce difficult rules get ostracized from the community, so be it. Our community must stop committing character assassinations on those with the guts to speak the brutal truth. Some claim that Terrill’s letter lets “the Man,” in all his various permutations, off the hook. Man or no Man, we have got to do our part. African-Americans must be willing to face the truth that we cannot save those who are unwilling to save themselves.