Only a couple months ago, the Banak and Mayflower rival gangs were at each other's necks - and some innocent citizens were caught in the crossfire of bullets. The shooting of a 15-year-old - who still remains paralyzed - was the last straw that led to the Minister of Home Affairs declaring a state of emergency. But this wasn't any ordinary SOE - ministers, the department of youth services, and others combined their energies for a first-of-its-kind mediation - after many other failed mediation attempts. For the last two weeks, these rival gang members were expressing their emotions through art, music, and dance - they even did the hokey pokey!
After a three hour long discussion to vent their frustration, the leaders of the two gangs - Ellis Meighan and Jervis Valencia - shook hands and hugged it out. The 50-plus men were released today after some of them received certificates of completion and the chairman of the Leadership Interdiction Unit, William Dawson, spoke to us about this pivotal moment.
William Dawson, Chairman, Leadership Interdiction Unit
"As we witnessed each person who was in that program received a certificate in the basic training and we will have a continuity when they leave and integrate into society. That was one of the most important things that we have achieve over the month. We brokered a truce between the factions on the Banak and the Mayflower gangs and both individuals decided that they will try their best to repair the relationship that was fractured year ago. As you these guys most of them are families, they are good friends and have been generation from that area because of different feuds and different relationship factors that went wrong, and they vowed to work on that and it's something symbolic for us and they are saying themselves that its historic, because they did not see that coming before they came to prison. So while they were here we manage to get them together and give them that space to trash out their differences like men without the belligerent behavior. So one of the things is that we instill respect, discipline and the ability to voice your emotions without getting violent and rude and that seem to have played a major role where they were given that opportunity to air their differences without getting into that back and forth."
We will have more from their mediation session in Monday's newscast.
