Gang Members Share Common Stories Summit Reveals Universal Need Among Street Kids For Love

Spokane’s young gang members aren’t all Crips and Bloods from Southern California.

They include a 20-year old whose addict father gave him drugs when he was 10. A teenager whose girlfriend was raped by a rival gang loyalist. A young woman hanger-on whose boyfriend is in prison for murder.

In Spokane, they’ve seen drug deals. Drive-by shootings. Brothers and cousins blown away in revenge killings.

They’re throwaway kids with a common theme in their turbulent lives: Nobody loved them, and they turned to gangs as an alternate family to fill the void.

Haltingly and quietly, a dozen survivors of Spokane’s street wars told their stories Saturday to 100 church leaders and community activists at Spokane’s first-ever gang summit at the First Presbyterian Church.

“You need someone who’s going to love you,” said Shawn Rivious, 20, who began to turn his life around after a local family took him in. “I’m going in the right direction now.”

Spokane had best not ignore its growing gangs and the economic and spiritual decay they represent, a nationally-known minister warned.

“It’s a mistake to think the gang problem is in Los Angeles. Gangs wouldn’t take root in Spokane if the conditions weren’t ripe for it,” said Jim Wallis of the inner city Sojourners ministry in Washington D.C.

Corporate America shares the blame for shipping jobs overseas and creating economic chaos in poor communities, Wallis said.

“It’s not just a lack of love, it’s a lack of jobs,” he said.

Several street ministries are starting up in Spokane to reach out to gangs, summit participants learned.

They include Shon Davis’ Jesus is the Answer Apostolic Church. Davis, a former LA gang member, said he was shot twice in gun battles and left gang life after the death of several friends.

Davis founded a street ministry in Compton, Calif., but recently decided to move to Spokane. The reason: “Spokane has nothing going on - and a lot of gang activity.”

Alvin Moreno, a Hispanic pastor from Fresno, is moving to Spokane in January to start a branch of his Victory Outreach, a gang ministry with branches in Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, and Yakima.

“We’ve already felt out the city for areas of potential gang problems,” Moreno said.

Ministers from Spokane’s mainstream churches chided each other for not doing more, but agreed the summit is a good first step.

“These street ministers are doing our work for us,” said the Rev. Michael Harringon, a Lutheran minister.

One minister offered a gymnasium at Central United Methodist Church downtown.

Others want to give financial assistance to Spokane families who are serving as surrogate parents to youth trying to leave gangs.

Jeff and JoAnn Doud have taken in several gang members - and said they would accept more if they could afford it.

“Spokane is in desperate need of a powerful gangster ministry,” said Jeff Doud, a First Assembly of God pastor.

One of the Doud’s “saves” is 18-year old Lee Thompson. He is trying to sever his gang ties, and has held a legitimate job for the last year.

“I’m now making money the honest way. The gang life leads to a hole six feet deep, or to the penitentiary,” he said.

The Spokane meeting follows major gang summits in Kansas City, San Antonio, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Some have led to truces between rival gangs, but not all truces have held, Wallis said.

Police have been “a problem” to gang summit organizers, Wallis said.

“They are very suspicious. I can sympathize, because they’ve lost lives facing the gangs. But their attitude that if you’re once a gang banger, you’re always a gang banger is simply not true,” Wallis said.

The Spokane Police Department didn’t send a representative to the summmit. Tim O’Brien of the Spokane County Prosecutor’s office attended.

“It’s excellent that the churches are jumping aboard. I wasn’t aware of some of these new (street) ministries,” O’Brien said.

“Spokane’s traditional misconception has been, we don’t have a problem here,” said Dennis Mitchell, a former Spokane gang member.

“There were gangs here in the ‘70s, but it has really gotten bad in the last five to six years.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo