"We got to move quick": Spike Moss seeks to stop Twin Cities youth gang violence by bridging community, church, police
MINNEAPOLIS – He's done it before, and he believes he can do it again.
Twin Cities activist Spike Moss helped the community and police work together to stop gang violence in the 1990s. Now, he's leaning on lessons learned from the past.
Moss says right now in the Twin Cities, we're losing a generation to violent crime.
"We got to talk to these kids to discourage them from getting in the street, getting in the gangs, getting in drugs before school is out," Moss said. "I shared that with the governor. We got to move quick."
Moss knows a thing or two about gangs. He was behind the peace summit back in the 90s that got gangs in both Minneapolis and St. Paul to put their guns down. He believes it's time to do it again.
He wants to put together a united front to stop all the gun violence, drug dealing and carjacking that has plagued the metro area for too long.
"You got to look at the numbers," Moss said.
The numbers from Minneapolis Police Crime Dashboard say crime is down almost 30%. But many living in those violent hot spots across the cities aren't feeling that, and they say those committing crimes are getting younger.
Moss says drug use and mental health issues are leading some young people down the wrong path.
"And when you see them, they can be right in front of you and can't even connect with you standing there. They can't even hear you because they're so full of dope," Moss said.
He says we also have to address the breakdown in the family unit.
"Too many of them are raising themselves, or you 9 or 10 and you looking after your 7 or 6 year old brother and sister because your momma said she'll be right back. Right back never comes," Moss said. "And so you got all these things to fix, but that doesnt mean you can't fix them."
He knows this will not be easy, but says providing support for parents – like drug, alcohol and job counseling, as well as intervention services – is crucial.
"Think of all this stuff that you've lost because the family is gone, religion is gone, faith is gone, morals is gone," Moss said. "And so you've got to create a new army, and this is a spiritual war, so your spiritual generals are your pastors and your priest. They got to step up."
The faith community will also have a role, just like in the 90s. The challenge Moss and Tyrone Terrell face is real. Terrell, St. Paul's Gang Violence Intervention coordinator, says things are different this time around.
"Me and him could have a fight and nobody gonna know about it. But today, he put it on TikTik, on Facebook, Instagram. Now 5,000 people know about the fight," Terrell said.
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Gang or clique members now use social media to advertise who they are going to shoot and where, or brag about getting the best of their "OPS," or rival gang member.
"This is the first generation totally just flooded with murder and guns, mayhem everyday, showing you how to kill, how to get away with it," Moss said.
He wants to sit with other concerned men and women.
"I would bring these people in to sit them down to build towards the peace and build towards a summit, and create your own job bank, and beginning to move on them so that we are not just talking about it and showing up at homicides, but they're doing what we did – go where they at," Moss said. "Then we got to build 21 days of peace where it's solid, and a patrol, and keep it in the hotspots."
He believes this new approach has to include police.
"Sit them brothers down with law enforcement, because you got to build a bridge to make the difference. And we got to get it out of our peoples' mouth what the police aren't doing about your problem," Moss said. "Police are doing what they can do."
Click here for our original report on how Moss helped stop gang violence in the 90s.