In 1992, something unprecedented happened in Los Angeles: rival gang members negotiated a historic peace treaty, significantly reducing violence across the city. Aqeela Sherrills, one of the key negotiators of that treaty, continues to bring his vision of community-led peace programs to cities across the US. He shares how the new initiative Scaling Safety is empowering trusted local leaders to redefine public safety and create lasting change from the inside out. (This ambitious idea is part of The Audacious Project, TED’s initiative to inspire and fund global change.)For a chance to give your own TED Talk, fill out the Idea Search Application: ted.com/ideasearch.Interested in learning more about upcoming TED events? Follow these links:TEDNext: ted.com/futureyouTEDSports: ted.com/sportsTEDAI Vienna: ted.com/ai-viennaTEDAI San Francisco: ted.com/ai-sf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. In 1992, urban peace activist Akilah Shirels helped to broker a historic peace treaty between two rival gangs in Los Angeles, California. It's a truce that led to a significant decrease in gang-related violence in neighborhoods across the city.
In his talk, Akilah shares how this experience changed his perspective on the power of dialogue and collaboration and began to redefine what public safety can look like. And stick around after the talk for a Q&A between Akilah and TED's Head of Media and Curation, Helen Walters.
In 1992, that the Los Angeles homicide rate reached an all-time high, members of the Crips and Bloods, two of the largest gangs in the U.S., sat down together and brokered a peace treaty. This historic event ended a three-decade-long urban war that claimed more than 10,000 lives in L.A. County alone, not including those permanently maimed or incarcerated for life.
I was one of those gang members who negotiated that treaty. Thank you. Growing up in the Jordan Down Housing Projects in the Watt section of Los Angeles, I witnessed things no child should ever be subject to. By the time I was 16, I had attended 20 funerals of friends.
And like so many youths surrounded by violence and poverty, I was desensitized and angry, and joining the neighborhood gang was my solution for safety and protection. Now, it's important to understand that Black American gangs aren't inherently violent. Less than three to five percent of so-called gang members are actually committing violent crime. More often, they're like surrogate families.
We're protecting one another, but sometimes the only way we knew how to survive. In the first two years of the peace treaty, homicides in Watts declined by 44 percent, changing the quality of life in my neighborhood. I was just 23 years old, and my firstborn son, Terrell, had just turned seven.
Driven by the belief that our children would not inherit our conflicts, we took the call to peace to 16 more cities, contributing to a national decline in youth violence. You see, peace was possible because nobody could stop that war but us, those of us at the center of the conflict.
It took months of intense high-state conversations, starting with a handful of brothers from the four housing projects. During the negotiation, I asked, who was winning the war that we were waging against each other? Every time we'd die or go to prison, no one was there to provide direction and guidance for our kids. You see, violence is about proximity.
I had known most of my so-called enemies my entire life, from school and from the neighborhood. A small group of us went into so-called enemy territory. The news of the peace treaty spread like wildfires. Hundreds of youth, from formerly warring gangs, attended celebrations and the projects that marked the new beginning.
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